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Client Story: 5280 Home Healthcare

July 6, 2018
How One Home Healthcare Agency Found the Cure to Their Top Business Communications Challenges with MultiLine.

Today’s aging population overwhelmingly wants to age in place; according to AARP, 87 percent of adults age 65+ want to stay in their current home and community as they age. It’s no wonder that the home healthcare industry is growing at an incredible pace, predicted to increase to around 13.0 million personal care and home care aids by 2020 — a 70 percent hike from 2010. For the companies that provide in-home services, the challenges can be just as great as the opportunities, including HIPAA compliance to client continuity and attrition, management of off-site employees (i.e. HR-related issues of hiring, training, firing, retention), and customer service.

The problem with using personal phones for business

Colorado-based 5280 Home Care and Attendant Services needed a more efficient way to manage their customer communications. The growing home healthcare agency faced multiple issues related to their on-the-go staff and nurse practitioners using their personal cell phone numbers to communicate with 5280’s clients. Topping the list were health industry regulations compliance, client servicing, and turnover, which commonly happened when a staff member left the agency… and the customer still continued to call the caregiver’s personal number. In an effort to go fully mobile and digital, agency owner Jason Perez knew he needed an affordable, comprehensive mobile phone solution that would allow his field staff to provide top-quality service while off-site caring for customers, which also afforded him better oversight and control of client communications. He initially considered buying company phones for his staff, but soon realized that would be hard to manage and expensive. Jason knew the answer had to be something that his staff could use from their own devices — any type of mobile phone, any carrier — that put a clear separation between personal and business calls.

Solving the problem with MultiLine

The MultiLine solution, powered by Movius, was an instantaneous game changer. It took Jason just 30 minutes to set all of his staff up with the app, and from the day it rolled out, two major business issues were forever solved. “We’re out of the office a lot, and one of our biggest complaints before MultiLine was that we didn’t answer the phone. Now that we have MultiLine we don’t hear that any more. Calls ring both on our office phone and our cell phones, and we can answer either. So no more missed calls.”

The customer turnover issue also became history, as staff were now assigned 5280-owned business phone numbers to use via the MultiLine app on their personal phones, making it simple for them to effectively and accurately separate professional communications from personal. As Jason points out: “It works so much nicer now that we are able to keep those phone numbers. Those numbers belong to the agency.”

Compliance & training as a “side effect”

As a healthcare provider, Jason had a variety of compliance concerns on this plate, from CARE Act that takes full effect in 2020, to HIPAA and the latest federal, Medicare and Medicaid legislation. Ensuring that electronic communications are fully compliant is an ongoing challenge, as it’s now required by law that home health agencies are more responsive to patients and caregivers.

MultiLine not only records phone calls, but also text messages — which is the preferred mode of contact for most of the 5280 staff. As Jason notes:

“We liked the MultiLine Solution for many reasons but the ability to keep our phone numbers and to record not only voice, but also text communications truly stood out for us. This has helped us to stay HIPAA compliant by being able to monitor employees’ communications for any violations. As the owner of 5280 Home Care, this allows me to correct and educate our employees about HIPAA policies.”

Beyond compliance education and training, the recordings help improve customer service. Jason’s staff know their conversations are recorded, and often they work with management to review tough exchanges with customers to better understand what went wrong — or was actually done right.

MultiLine cures common mobile communications concerns

5280 Home Care’s desire for a more efficient way to manage field staff communications now has a “plug and play” solution beyond what they thought was possible. MultiLine has proved to be, in Jason’s words, a “highly effective tool to allow us to meet our communication requirements and better serve our community.”

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