MediSync Manages Healthy Collaboration with Wave IP

MediSync Midwest LLC

Customer Pain Points

MediSync is a heath care management organization that serves three physicians groups with more than 125 physicians throughout the Cincinnati and Dayton areas. It provides its member practices with services to create greater efficiencies, improve operating results and assist with the transition to population health management.

One of the company’s primary services is an integrated communications infrastructure designed to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities to its growing network of medical facilities and practitioners. The system supports about 750 phones and approximately 10,000 calls per week on behalf of MediSync’s members.

“We’re not your typical business,” noted Charlie Hardtke, chief information officer at MediSync. “The system requires a great deal of complex configuration. We serve dozens of offices, and every location has its own auto attendant and Automatic Call Distributor [ACD] queue. Every doctor and nurse needs to be accounted for in a unique system. This massive configuration is crucial, since no patient can ever be routed to a dead end or an unmonitored voice mail.”

Vertical’s modular, flexible solution positions us to meet the changes that are revolutionizing the way physicians collaborate.

Charlie Hardtke, CIO, MediSync

MediSync’s original communications system was built upon two servers that provided minimal connectivity between practice groups. The legacy technology had reached end-of-life and no longer offered the level of stability the company required. MediSync’s medical groups were also rapidly growing, adding new physicians and locations on a regular basis. Making additions and changes to the old system was a cumbersome and laborious process, as was retrieving messages for doctors who frequently moved between different facilities.

In addition, Hardtke notes, the methods by which physicians practice are dramatically changing. Many are looking at emerging paradigms such as telehealth in order to serve an expanding regional base of patients via a remote Internet connection. MediSync needed a new communications solution that could accommodate not only its immediate requirements for greater connectivity and custom configurations, but a flexible system to which even more features and capabilities could be easily added to meet the needs of its members in the not-so-distant future.

Solution

A long-time Vertical Communications customer, MediSync brought its needs directly to Vertical’s Bill Willison, director of U.S. dealer support. Willison introduced Hardtke to the powerful capabilities of the Wave IP unified communications platform.

“Charlie’s team needed communications services that would scale along with their customers,” said Willison. “They required a more reliable, flexible framework to make physicians more productive. They also wanted an infrastructure they could build upon for the future, one that addressed the developing needs of an increasingly mobile, interconnected health care industry.”

With the installation of its new Wave IP system, MediSync’s communications backbone was increased to six servers to improve bandwidth, speed and availability. To seamlessly connect its medical group members in 30-plus locations, MediSync deployed Vertical’s WaveNet application, which integrates standalone Wave IP systems into a single, interconnected communications network. The Wave IP system also gave MediSync the advanced UC functionalities it required, such as presence management, mobility tools and integration with the company’s patient records system, the Allscripts EHR (Electronic Health Records) suite.

Results

MediSync used the Wave IP’s built-in ViewPoint UC call handling and management client to accommodate the sophisticated hierarchy of ACD trees at each of its group member locations.

“It was a huge undertaking, but it has created a significant upgrade in capabilities and in the expediency of the system,” said Hardtke. “We use ViewPoint extensively, which also enables group members in each practice to communicate quickly via instant message. In addition, we rely on the call monitoring and analysis tools to improve our service delivery. We’re taking advantage of a lot of the system’s foundational features.”

The Wave IP’s unified messaging capabilities now enable physicians and staff members to access messages from any location, resulting in improved patient care. The patient experience is also enhanced with the ability for one office to easily take over the handling of calls from another office when that practice is overloaded or closed. In addition, due to integration with MediSync’s Allscripts CRM software, patients’ electronic records automatically appear on a user’s screen as soon as their phone rings, creating more knowledgeable agents and improving the patient service experience. The new system can also easily scale to accommodate the growth or changes in a practice with the ability to add extensions from any point on the network.

“The system offers us even more potential down the road, such as a patient reminder system, video interaction and enhanced mobility,” said Hardtke. “It’s about a long-term transition. Vertical’s modular, flexible solution positions us to meet the changes that are revolutionizing the way physicians collaborate. We are prepared to support our clients’ communications needs throughout that evolution, delivering greater advantages over time and improving patient service throughout the process.”