Luma Health, a platform automating the patient journey, has launched a new digital call deflection service to reduce inbound call volume for provider staff.
Calls are redirected to self-service text messaging, which the company argues helps short-staffed providers get patients to the next step in their care quickly. Luma’s platform orchestrates patient journeys, offering everything from clinical to financial management.
Patients may struggle to schedule appointments by phone, missing or ignoring calls from unknown numbers and potentially missing important information from the clinic like follow-up care instructions, Luma argues. The care team is also burdened by having to make appointment reminder calls, fill out intake forms, manually follow up and coordinate patient feedback surveys.
"We want to make every aspect of getting care easy, whether that's on a cell phone, website, or landline, and no matter what the patient is doing or what time it is," Kat Mittleider, senior product manager at Luma Health, said in a press release. "Digital Call Deflection provides patients more options to make getting what they need easier."
Across early adopters, Luma’s digital call deflection has eliminated more than 5,000 inbound calls for call center staff to handle.
At Main Line Health, a regional health system in Pennsylvania, more than 20% of patients calling to schedule mammograms or dual X-ray absorptiometry scans opted to switch to SMS rather than wait on hold. Luma’s digital call deflection has saved more than 15,000 minutes of call center time at Main Line to date.
"Our call volumes are at an all-time high, and Luma's Digital Call Deflection is relieving significant time on the phone for our overburdened agents," Johanna Weller, vice president of system revenue cycle at Main Line Health, said in the announcement. "It's also creating a better patient experience and supporting our digital front door.”
Digital call deflection is a technical addition to the Luma Health Patient Success Platform, which enables patients to view, schedule, cancel or change appointments, request a prescription refill, get directions to a clinic location or ask staff a question without staff intervention.
"As a federally qualified health center, we need to serve as many patients as possible while reducing strain on our staff," Evelin Manzanares, chief operating officer at GPW Health Center, said in the press release. "Luma's Digital Call Deflection has empowered 25% of our patients to self-serve via text message, ultimately helping them get what they need while our staff focus on more complex calls."
The company told Fierce Healthcare it delivers a 47% increase in top-line revenue growth to customers through an increase in average monthly appointments booked. Luma serves 50 million unique patients with its patient success platform and has more than 600 clients, which include Banner Health, University Hospitals, Cook County Health and Montefiore Health System. Luma’s platform integrates with EHR vendors like Epic, Cerner and Meditech.