A research of the impact of the call routing strategy on the call-centre work efficiency as a medical organisation providing primary hospital health care
Authors:   Federal State Non Profit Institution of the National Medical Research Centre “Central Research Institute of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Konyuhova S.G. , Orlov D.A. ,   State Non ProfitHealthcare Institution of the Tver region “Konakovskaya Central District Hospital”, Chuykova E.O. ,   Federal State autonomus educational organisation of higher education “ First Moscow Medical State University of I. M. Sechenov” belonging to the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation, Solov’yeva A.V. ,   Federal State Non Profit Educational Institution of Higher Education “Tver State Medical University” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
Published: January 2023

The article provides an estimation of the efficiency of a call-centre work when using two different strategies of targeting incoming calls. The authors clearly demonstrate a reduction in the waiting time for communication with the operator and the frequency of call cancellations, an increase in the number of processed requests and an increase in the level of service when using the strategy of interactive navigation of incoming calls, which generally creates favorable conditions for increasing the availability of medical care to the population. The purpose of the study is to study the effect of routing incoming calls on the efficiency of a medical call center in order to improve its operation. Materials and methods. The comparison of the effectiveness of the polyclinic call center was carried out according to the indicators according to GOST R 55540-2013 under the conditions of using the scheme of random and interactive navigation of incoming calls. The target values of quality indicators are established empirically, taking into account the accepted industrial standards. The analysis of statistical information was carried out using special software “Asternic call center stats”. A total of 72 statistical indicators were studied in both cases within the same seasonal period. Results. It was found that the organization of the scheme of interactive guidance of incoming calls helps to increase the productivity of a medical call center by optimizing the processing of calls without increasing the number of operators. The average waiting time for a patient to communicate with an operator has decreased by 2 times, the frequency of call cancellations has decreased by 3 times, the processing time for patient calls has decreased by 15.6%, the level of service has increased by 1.6 times. The practical significance of the proposed scheme for navigating incoming calls is due not only to the effective increase in the functionality of the medical call center, but also to the ease of scaling due to the unified IP telephony architecture in medical call centers. Conclusions. Thus, as a result of the study, a call routing strategy has been identified, which makes it possible to improve the performance indicators of the medical CC, to service more calls faster without attracting additional personnel, and to create conditions for increasing the availability of medical care to the population.