Northwestern Memorial Hospital Deploys Sentact to Boost Support Services
Healthcare Leader Streamlines Support Operations and Improves Service Delivery.
Chicago, IL, May 18, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Viasant, a leader in web-based service support systems for the healthcare industry, today announced that Northwestern Memorial Hospital has deployed its Sentact service application to document and manage service requests for four of the organization’s service departments, including: Facilities Management, Environmental Services, Biomedical Engineering and Food & Nutrition. Utilizing Sentact, Northwestern Memorial has improved staff productivity, streamlined support operations and increased service performance.
Northwestern Memorial is a nationally recognized, 744 licensed bed hospital. It is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and a major Midwest referral center. More than 1,200 physicians representing virtually every specialty are affiliated with the hospital. Market research consistently recognizes the hospital and its affiliated physicians and nurses as the most preferred in Chicago.
“We continually strive to improve our processes to assist staff in quickly assessing and resolving service requests and more importantly, ensure service enhancements translate into a positive experience for our patients,” said David Stout, interim director, Facilities Management. “After reviewing a number of options, we recognized that Sentact’s system would allow us to meet our objectives to streamline support operations and improve productivity and service performance.”
Sentact has enabled Northwestern Memorial to manage services delivery with a detailed, real-time view into work activities. Escalation and alert procedures have been automated to meet service level objectives, reducing response and resolution times. Utilizing Sentact’s web-based tools Northwestern Memorial was able to quickly and cost effectively roll the system out to the entire hospital staff. Hospital employees can now submit requests and check on work status on-line. Also, by accessing a single system, hospital staff more easily locates the appropriate resource for service requests and resolution. Overall call volume into the support centers has been reduced by 32% with the use of Sentact’s self-support channels. Northwestern Memorial services teams are able to re-allocate resource towards improved service delivery.
“Northwestern Memorial is very effective at using technology to enhance or enable their business practices” says Shirley Escober of VIASANT. “Utilizing Sentact to automate processes, centralize service management activity and provide the hospital staff self-service tools will further the hospital’s position as a leader in patient care and service.”
Northwestern Memorial has also successfully integrated Sentact with other hospital support applications. By integrating Sentact with the billing platform for the accounting group in one department, and automating time-consuming functions, administrative tasks have been reduced by nearly 10 percent. Northwestern Memorial also integrated Sentact with their Biomedical Engineering preventative maintenance system, extending its features to capture online corrective maintenance requests from the hospital staff. This enabled the department to centralize and document all work orders for better tracking management.
Recently the hospital launched a centralized call center to support multiple service department requests. More than 16,000 requests come through the system in a month and the Sentact personnel in the call center can enter and monitor work requests across different service teams. Consolidating calls offers hospital staff a single phone number for service requests and greater efficiencies with call center support staff.
”The Sentact system allows us to analyze trends and continually refine our methods of servicing the hospital and supporting our patients and staff”, says Brian Stepien, director, Support Services. “The data we collect enables our staff to benchmark and improve service delivery across the organization.”
About Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the country’s premier academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women’s Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 744 beds and more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and 5,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art care, Northwestern Memorial is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements in such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women’s health.
Northwestern Memorial received the prestigious 2005 National Quality Health Care Award and is listed in eight specialties in this year’s US News & World Report’s issue of “America’s Best Hospitals.” The hospital is also cited as one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” by Working Mother magazine for the past 5 years and has been chosen by Chicagoans for a decade as their “most preferred hospital” in National Research Corporation’s annual survey.
About VIASANT
VIASANT is an industrial maintenance and management company providing industrial cleaning and maintenance application services for enterprises nationwide. With offices in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Southern California, the Company brings a suite of services to maintain and improve operational efficiencies, reduce operating costs and increase the production performance of our clients’ facilities. VIASANT’s customers include mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies in the food processing, chemical, energy, healthcare, real estate and heavy manufacturing industries. (www.viasant.com)
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Northwestern Memorial is a nationally recognized, 744 licensed bed hospital. It is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and a major Midwest referral center. More than 1,200 physicians representing virtually every specialty are affiliated with the hospital. Market research consistently recognizes the hospital and its affiliated physicians and nurses as the most preferred in Chicago.
“We continually strive to improve our processes to assist staff in quickly assessing and resolving service requests and more importantly, ensure service enhancements translate into a positive experience for our patients,” said David Stout, interim director, Facilities Management. “After reviewing a number of options, we recognized that Sentact’s system would allow us to meet our objectives to streamline support operations and improve productivity and service performance.”
Sentact has enabled Northwestern Memorial to manage services delivery with a detailed, real-time view into work activities. Escalation and alert procedures have been automated to meet service level objectives, reducing response and resolution times. Utilizing Sentact’s web-based tools Northwestern Memorial was able to quickly and cost effectively roll the system out to the entire hospital staff. Hospital employees can now submit requests and check on work status on-line. Also, by accessing a single system, hospital staff more easily locates the appropriate resource for service requests and resolution. Overall call volume into the support centers has been reduced by 32% with the use of Sentact’s self-support channels. Northwestern Memorial services teams are able to re-allocate resource towards improved service delivery.
“Northwestern Memorial is very effective at using technology to enhance or enable their business practices” says Shirley Escober of VIASANT. “Utilizing Sentact to automate processes, centralize service management activity and provide the hospital staff self-service tools will further the hospital’s position as a leader in patient care and service.”
Northwestern Memorial has also successfully integrated Sentact with other hospital support applications. By integrating Sentact with the billing platform for the accounting group in one department, and automating time-consuming functions, administrative tasks have been reduced by nearly 10 percent. Northwestern Memorial also integrated Sentact with their Biomedical Engineering preventative maintenance system, extending its features to capture online corrective maintenance requests from the hospital staff. This enabled the department to centralize and document all work orders for better tracking management.
Recently the hospital launched a centralized call center to support multiple service department requests. More than 16,000 requests come through the system in a month and the Sentact personnel in the call center can enter and monitor work requests across different service teams. Consolidating calls offers hospital staff a single phone number for service requests and greater efficiencies with call center support staff.
”The Sentact system allows us to analyze trends and continually refine our methods of servicing the hospital and supporting our patients and staff”, says Brian Stepien, director, Support Services. “The data we collect enables our staff to benchmark and improve service delivery across the organization.”
About Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the country’s premier academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women’s Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 744 beds and more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and 5,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art care, Northwestern Memorial is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements in such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women’s health.
Northwestern Memorial received the prestigious 2005 National Quality Health Care Award and is listed in eight specialties in this year’s US News & World Report’s issue of “America’s Best Hospitals.” The hospital is also cited as one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” by Working Mother magazine for the past 5 years and has been chosen by Chicagoans for a decade as their “most preferred hospital” in National Research Corporation’s annual survey.
About VIASANT
VIASANT is an industrial maintenance and management company providing industrial cleaning and maintenance application services for enterprises nationwide. With offices in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Southern California, the Company brings a suite of services to maintain and improve operational efficiencies, reduce operating costs and increase the production performance of our clients’ facilities. VIASANT’s customers include mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies in the food processing, chemical, energy, healthcare, real estate and heavy manufacturing industries. (www.viasant.com)
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