4 Key Findings from Latest Data on the State of Healthcare Call Center

Hyro, the leading conversational AI platform for healthcare, has released a new study on the state of healthcare call centers. To gather this data, they commissioned a survey of 200 senior industry professionals in June 2023. The respondents encompassed call center managers, directors, VPs, and C-suite executives working in patient care, engagement, access, or support departments at healthcare providers across the US.

According to the survey, “Call centers play a vital role in the US healthcare system, serving as the initial point of contact for patient concerns, questions, and urgent needs. However, despite their vital role in delivering patient access, engagement, and care, these essential hubs consistently suffer from inadequate resources and organizational oversight. Often first to experience the ripple effects of economic downturns and labor shortages, call centers nationwide are grappling with record-high turnover rates, widespread agent burnout, and increasing patient expectations.”

This new report offers the most accurate and comprehensive overview of the current landscape of US healthcare call centers and what can be done to address these issues. Here is a short overview on the key findings. For more details, download the full report.

• Healthcare call centers spend, on average, 43% of their annual operating budget on labor costs but only 0.6% on technologies to prevent agent burnout and turnover. This discrepancy should serve as a glaring red flag for call center leaders. It indicates a collective blind spot in technology-led short and long-term strategies to retain healthcare staff. 
• Almost half of respondents are actively evaluating, deploying, or have already deployed Large Language Model (LLM)- based solutions such as ChatGPT to their call center. This surprising finding reveals that healthcare providers have been unusually quick to recognize the incredible potential of LLM-driven solutions in tackling their most pressing call center operational challenges. 
• Healthcare call center leaders are struggling to prove their call center’s value internally. Our findings reveal a strained and fragmented relationship between healthcare call center leaders and their system executives and peers.  
• Only 51% of call center leaders reported that patients are satisfied with the service provided by their call centers. In this new age of healthcare consumerism, where patients increasingly demand higher service levels from their providers, this figure leaves much to be desired.

These last two findings are where things really get interesting in this report–at the intersection of patient satisfaction and revenue. The report shows that there is a potential positive correlation between patient satisfaction with call center service and higher profit margins. “Among respondents who reported high patient satisfaction with their call center’s service, an impressive 69% achieved net profit margins that exceeded their projections. This reveals a potential positive correlation between patient satisfaction and revenue performance and underscores the critical role of patient experience in driving financial outcomes.” 

As healthcare call center leaders struggle to prove their call center’s value internally, addressing healthcare consumerism with the right tools and technology may be the solution. At the same time, it may also address the ongoing staffing crisis and the cost burden that carries.

To learn more, download the full report.