HEALTHCARE

Saint ThomasHealth

CASE STUDY

Online Scheduling

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Finding the right online scheduling provider was a key initiative for Saint Thomas Health.

Three years ago, Saint Thomas Health, an Ascension organization,

recognized a need to become a regionally-integrated system of

care. With nine unique facilities, nearly 1,000 doctors, disparate

scheduling templates, and more expansion on the horizon,

becoming a more integrated organization demanded that health

system provide consistent patient experiences, no matter the

doctor or location. And with patients’ preference for digital tools

and technologies growing, Saint Thomas Health determined that

traditional communications alone could not create exceptional

patient experiences.

“We wanted to deploy an enterprise-wide, white-labeled

solution that allowed us to create our own brand.”

Dawn Rudolph, Chief Experience Officer, Saint Thomas Health

With this in mind, a solution became clear: Saint Thomas Health needed a digital scheduling solution that could seamlessly serve its organization, support its initiative to be an innovative market leader, and meet patients’ consumer-like expectations.

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Challenges

The search began with a simple question: “how do other industries

think about access?” Digital solutions such as OpenTable and Uber

immediately came to mind. In just a few taps, both applications

provided users a simple way to make a reservation or schedule a

ride. With an ongoing emphasis on providing personalized and

compassionate care, Saint Thomas Health wanted to offer the

same convenience across their enterprise for patients needing to

schedule appointments.

With their focus set on providing innovative care, Saint Thomas Health

searched for an online scheduling solution that could enhance patient

access and satisfaction. In addition, the tool needed to highlight and

strengthen the Saint Thomas Health brand, bi-directionally integrate

with their EHR, and be readily-implemented and accepted by their

team. One way of streamlining the adoption process was to shoulder

the cost of the online scheduling platform.

“We wanted to deploy an enterprise-wide, white-labeled solution

that allowed us to create our own brand,” said Rudolph. Stericycle

Communication Solutions’ flexible online scheduling tool quickly came

into focus.

“We thought Stericycle Communication Solutions was a good platform

to ease our disjointed patient experience. Our patient advisory board

confirmed this was the right direction to go,” added Rudolph

“If you truly want to be patient-

focused, you have to give

patients the ability to

schedule an appointment

at the time they are able to

schedule that appointment.

It’s incumbent upon [the

healthcare provider] to create a

work flow that facilitates this.”

Dawn Rudolph, Chief Experience Officer, Saint Thomas Health

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Implementation Phase One: Provide innovative online scheduling access to emergency departments

Implement Stericycle Communication Solutions’ online scheduling to assist with new patient acquisition and improve patient satisfaction.

Incorporate online scheduling into the Saint Thomas Health website.

Create a positive brand experience by providing the modern technology and convenience patients have come to expect.

In August 2013, Saint Thomas Health implemented Stericycle

Communication Solutions in three emergency departments. One

of the first patients to use the service was acquired directly from a

competing emergency room. With long wait times at the competitor’s

site of care, it quickly became clear that the ability to reserve a spot in

line was valuable to this patient.

Reserving their spot was simple. The patient went on their phone from

the competitor’s waiting room, found the website through a mobile

search, reserved online through Stericycle Communication Solutions,

and went to Saint Thomas Health to receive more timely care.

The positive impact of online scheduling on Saint Thomas Health’s

patient experiences drove the organization to expand their use of

Stericycle Communication Solutions into two additional emergency

departments and multiple walk-in clinics. Saint Thomas Health also

chose to provide online scheduling options for mammography and

physical therapy departments.

23,873appointments

scheduled via Stericycle

Communication Solutions

1

37average

patient age

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Phase Two: Expand online scheduling access to physician groups

Utilize Stericycle Communication Solutions for target physician groups to facilitate convenient online access, drive new patient acquisition, and increase patient satisfaction.

Integrate Stericycle Communication Solutions with EHR system, Athenahealth, to avoid disruptions to provider and office workflows.

Enhance online patient experience with real-time scheduling.

42%

were new to site of care

26%

did not have a primary care

physician

51%

scheduled viaa mobile device

Following in Saint Thomas Health’s footsteps, Saint Thomas

Health Medical Partners (STMP) decided to enhance their

patient access efforts. In 2015, STMP launched online physician

scheduling for primary and specialty care. A key component of

the success was Stericycle Communication Solutions’ ability to

bi-directionally integrate both online and in-office scheduling

directly with STMP’s EHR system, Athenahealth. This integration

allowed Stericycle Communication Solutions to display available

appointments while automatically aggregating new data after

a time slot was booked, ensuring accurate physician schedules

and seamless patient scheduling. Similarly, integrating Stericycle

Communication Solutions enabled STMP to support doctors’ key

initiatives without major disruption to existing workflows.

After a successful pilot, STMP expanded Stericycle

Communication Solutions’ online scheduling to over 100

providers. Since January 2015, over 3,000 patients have

scheduled visits through Stericycle Communication Solutions,

49 percent of which were new to the system. By establishing a

unified platform through Stericycle Communication Solutions,

STMP has been able to provide a consistent online scheduling

experience and remain competitive.

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Supporting Saint Thomas Health & STMP Innovation

As an organization that strives to provide 24/7 patient support via “on

demand” services, keeping pace with evolving patient expectations is

critical. As a part of this strategy, Stericycle Communication Solutions

is now used as the online scheduling tool across the enterprise and

alongside virtual patient visits.

Stericycle Communication Solutions also helps drive a better return

on Saint Thomas Health and STMP marketing campaigns. During

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, for instance, the health system can

send an email encouraging women over 39-years-old to schedule

a mammogram if they haven’t done so already. The call to action,

a “Schedule Now” button, can be clicked to immediately secure an

appointment before the email is abandoned or forgotten.

In addition, Saint Thomas Health leverages Stericycle

Communication Solutions’ live agent physician referral services,

and is actively looking into more patient access solutions. With

these services, Saint Thomas Health and STMP have delivered

on their innovative strategies, while creating a more seamless

experience for both staff and healthcare consumers.

Check out Saint Thomas Health’s innovative online scheduling workflow here:SaintThomasDoctors.com

“The beauty of Stericycle

Communication Solutions

is that it’s almost

seamless to the doctor.”

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With Stericycle Communication Solutions, Saint Thomas Health has been able to provide a consistent online scheduling experience andstay competitive.

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Results

In the three years since its implementation, the Stericycle Communication

Solutions’ online scheduling platform has positively impacted the entire

organization. To date, there have been nearly 24,000 appointments made

with the platform. Of these appointments, 42 percent of patients indicated

they were new to the site of care and 26 percent did not have a primary care

physician – directly contributing to STMPs new patient acquisition efforts.

With Stericycle Communication Solutions, Saint Thomas Health and STMP

can now “market to the patient with the right tools at the right time.” This

approach helped one Saint Thomas Health provider, who opened in mid-

January of 2017, see 38 online scheduled appointments in their first month

of operation.

53%

were new to the system

100%

would recommendthe scheduling experience to

another

stericyclecommunicationsolutions.com +1.844.783.9820

Contact us to learn more

“Working with Stericycle Communication Solutions has been

great. Everybody has been authentic and responsive – that

is huge when you are trying to figure out an innovative

space and learn the capabilities and limits of a partnership.”

Dawn Rudolph, Chief Experience Officer, Saint Thomas Health

Patients can schedule whenever and wherever works for them.