PZU Zdrowie: 37% of patients directed to teleconsultation with the help of AI-powered technology
PZU Zdrowie, one of the largest private healthcare providers in Poland, is steadily expanding its medical network and range of services with patient-centric, innovative solutions. We assist its medical and non-medical staff in triaging and guiding patients to the right care with our AI-enabled Call Center Triage. Data collected during the cooperation shows that in 2019 PZU Zdrowie directed 37% of patients with new health problems to telemedicine consultations.
Type:
Private healthcare provider
Location:
Poland
Product:
About PZU Zdrowie
PZU Zdrowie is one of the TOP3 private healthcare providers in Poland. It offers healthcare services via insurance, subscriptions, and fee-for-service both for individual and corporate clients.
- 130 own medical facilities
- above 2000 partner facilities in 600 cities in Poland
- 2.5 million clients using PZU Zdrowie products
PZU ZDROWIE’S CONTACT CENTER
500+
of medical & non-medical contact center consultants
2.4 million
calls in 2019 with a maximum of 15,000 calls in one day
30 seconds
average wait time upon connection
Key challenges for PZU Zdrowie
Meeting expectations
- Meeting the increasing demand for healthcare services in times of health workforce shortages and rising costs of care
- Addressing patients’ expectations of high-quality healthcare services delivered in the most time-efficient way
Improving quality
- Helping patients in getting the right-fit medical care and preventing them from unnecessary visits with multiple specialists
- Supporting contact center medical and non-medical operators in triaging patients and directing them to appropriate care
Creating innovation
- Reinventing healthcare and introducing new patient-centric innovative solutions like telemedicine, direct chat with doctors, telemedicine kiosk
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The solution: Call Center Triage
This solution is a powerful, cloud-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to help medical and non-medical consultants to direct patients to appropriate and cost-efficient care. The solution is configurable in terms of the triage logic and the conversation protocol so it can be applied in various scenarios including call centers and emergency departments.
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The goal of our Call Center Triage is to:
- Assist contact center operators in prompt and accurate triage and assessment of patient’s symptoms
- Prevent unnecessary appointments by recommending the most suitable health services
- Convert face-to-face visits to teleconsultations
- Detect urgent cases quickly
- Standardize the process of triage interviews
The Call Center Triage in everyday use
After tailoring Infermedica’s platform to meet the needs of PZU and its patients, the solution has become an integral part of the process of booking medical appointments via the PZU Zdrowie helpline.
The optimized patient flow can be described in seven simple steps:
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Start a call
The patient calls the helpline of PZU Zdrowie to book a medical appointment.
Classification
The contact center operator classifies the patient with a new health problem for the triage interview by excluding the following exemplary cases:
- Certain areas of medicine: pediatrics, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, stomatology
- Control visits
- Prescription extension
- Consultation of test results
Main symptoms
The patient provides information about their symptoms, risk factors and chronic conditions and the call center operator enters this information into the AI system.
Interview
Based on the information input, Infermedica’s AI-based engine dynamically selects tailored questions to be asked to the patient by the call center operator.
Red flags
In case of extremely severe symptoms (“red flags”) the triage process immediately stops and the operator is required to inform the patient that they may require immediate emergency help.
Interview
The result page of the interview provides care recommendations, including the most suited type and level of care such as: teleconsultation, primary care visit, specialist visit or emergency care.
Book a visit
As a result of the interview the patient is able to take an informed decision when booking a medical appointment.
Results & benefits of the cooperation for PZU Zdrowie
Savings
In 2019, with the help of our Call Center Triage, PZU Zdrowie directed 37% of patients with new health problems to telemedicine, instead of face-to-face visits with primary care doctors and specialists. That means, precise triaging and symptom analysis helps to direct patients to the appropriate care and, as a result, brings real savings to the company.
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37%
of patients with new health problems were directed to telemedicine
33%
of patients who intended to see a doctor in person decided on teleconsultation first
50%
of patients who intended to go to the emergency room changed their mind
28%
of patients who intended to go to the emergency room chose teleconsultation instead
Patient satisfaction
Patient satisfaction increases, since they are assisted every step of the way and guided individually to appropriate care. Getting medically accurate advice can be as easy as picking up the phone. Patients receive appropriate care in a time-efficient manner, instead of researching their symptoms online and stressing about the information from unreliable sources.
Process
Call Center Triage has helped PZU Zdrowie standardize the process of interviewing patients and coordinating advice given to patients. This has not only improved the quality of services provided by the call center, but has also been helpful to the operators. Following a satisfaction survey amongst operators, the Call Center Triage scores, on average, 2.98 out of 3 among the users.
Data
Thanks to anonymous data collected regarding triage levels and potential conditions, the company can better address the healthcare needs of the existing patient segments and develop health products to meet those needs.
1 out of 8
patients is identified with a common cold
20%
of the new health problems are related to orthopedics, among which 1/3 to back pain
Women
report 30% less gastroenterological problems than men
Innovation
Introducing new, patient-centric, innovative solutions is one of the main goals of PZU Zdrowie. This approach has helped the company enhance its competitive edge over other market players and will continue to do so in the future.
PZU Zdrowie’s opinion
From signing the contract to going live with the Call Center Triage it took around 2 months. During the implementation, the combined teams of Infermedica and PZU Zdrowie provided the configuration of the triage logic and conversation scripts. Our main aims were to standardize the call center processes of triaging patients for medical and non-medical operators and to disseminate telemedicine among our patients.
We decided to have a 9-month pilot first in order to see if the tool brings benefits to the call center in a way that we expected and assumed it should. We were happy both with the results of the pilot and with the quality of cooperation with Infermedica. After the pilot, we continued using the Call Center Triage solution, and moreover - we launched Infermedica’s another product - the Symptom Checker - on our patient’s portal. Now it’s been almost 3 years since our companies work together.
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2 months
implementation from signing the contract to going live
9 months
duration of a successful pilot
over 3 years
of collaborative success
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