Problem
An agency contacted Endicott requesting help with communicating with their clients. The agency provides behavioral health, residential services, and primary health care coordination for marginalized and disenfranchised women, men and children, coping with mental illness, addiction, and the aftermath of trauma and abuse.
The agency was using an answering service to take their calls. Caseworkers would then have to contact the service or listen to voicemails to get the caller’s information and make return calls. Staff was using a lot of their work time trying to get the necessary information and get those calls out. This resulted in long wait time from initial contact to services being provided.
Search for a Solution
The agency needed to reduce the time from initial contact to the services being provided. The most significant obstacle was increasing the flow of information to particular clients. Currently, there were no way for the caseworkers to provide information until their next shift and to make a call.
The agency needed a more direct communication method with clients, and it needed to be HIPAA – compliant.
Solution
Endicott was able to implement a real-time assistance program using secure apps. Instead of making phone calls to a third party and waiting on a callback, the clients would send a text message and receive a response. The system would also allow the clients to confirm they had received the message.
Additionally, the secure platform would allow them to change on-call schedules, phone numbers, export messages in one excel file, and give them the reporting they need for audits. The caseworkers would be able to communicate straight with Endicott operators through a time activated alert system. Doing so would allow them to provide temporary notifications for the operators, such as information to give to specific callers if they call back. It would also allow for situations such as the office closes for emergencies.
Results & Benefits
Endicott was able to transition the agency over to our secure messaging application successfully. This transition allowed Endicott to provide 24/7 message answering services and allow for emergency service dispatch for a client experiencing the urgent need to speak to a member of their counseling team.
Endicott provided the caseworkers with a faster and more secure means of communicating with all of their clients. It also allows them to see the messages in real-time and respond when appropriate to provide immediate services in more dire situations.
By doing so, Endicott also significantly reduced the time between the initial call and services being rendered, which was the primary goal for the agency.
Additionally, the secure messaging app time stamps when texts are sent and viewed. Being able to see and record this information is beneficial to the managers and directors who can view the data through their secure platform.
Collecting this data also provides the agency with the necessary information needed to comply with audits. Previously, this information was unattainable using their prior system.