High-Tech’s Killer App? Service

Tee Green

Technology companies are always striving to innovate, right? It’s a core tenet of any successful technology company.  In many sectors it has even become a survival instinct and a survival tactic.

But the really smart companies understand that a focus on innovation has to include customer service. That is the way to thrive, and the evidence is all around us that there are successful, and not so successful, ways to approach and innovate how you provide customer service that will truly benefit your bottom line.

While calling for and identifying the trending of “social customer relationship management tools,” a study by Accenture found that companies are struggling to figure it out, finding that while 60 percent of high-tech companies believed that reducing a given product’s costs positively impacted customer service, the customers reported no real improvements. Do you always buy the cheapest?

Where did they go wrong? Here’s a clue.

A different study by IDC Manufacturing conducted a broad survey of 125 high-tech companies published last November. One question went this way: “What were your company’s top 3 business priorities over the past two years?”

The top answer was cost containment, at 45 percent. Next was improving margins, 20 percent. Third was improving customer service, 10 percent. Ten percent. “Other” was just a few doors down at five percent.

We know that online customer service strategies are evolving rapidly, which in my view is a great thing as long as we don’t leave the customer behind. Of these strategies, did you know that if you place a Q.R., a Quick Response code, on your product or service, customers with a smartphone app can use the code to download additional company information, like how to access your customer service?

And if you pursue online customer service, see how you’re doing. The Customer Respect Group in Ipswich, Massachusetts can evaluate your website performance through its Customer Respect Index. Could be an eye-opening experience.

Here’s one online customer service message from one of the world’s biggest high-tech companies: “Enter your information in the field below and click to send an email … we’ll use the information you’ve provided to address your inquiry. We can’t promise a personal reply to each email, but will contact you only if we require more information.”

As a customer I’m not sure what I would make of that. Will they contact me ever? I think I would feel like an other.

In his book Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones (2010, John Wiley & Sons), author Joseph Jaffe puts it this way: “Service is the new currency of selling.”

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. has received its industry’s highest customer service award for five consecutive years, and has been awarded 11 total in multiple categories since 2004.

Opening a Portal on Federal Health IT Policymakers

Site Visit By Federal Health Community Highlights Patient Communication
By Tee Green

It’s easy to portray ONC and CMS as cumbersome government agencies invoking rules on how care providers practice medicine and EHR software providers write code, and that notion is out there. We know a little bit better at Greenway since our leadership has been involved for several years in the collaborations toward EHR meaningful use standards and a range of quality reporting initiatives.

So when Greenway was asked to host more than a dozen members of the Federal Health Community at a customer practice during the HIMSS11 annual conference – which included ONC and CMS officials, and those from the FDA, CDC and the HHS Office of Civil Rights among others – we knew we could provide a real-world example of the collaboration between an EHR provider and a physician practice they could take back to their colleagues.

But I don’t know if we were ready for the level of inquisitiveness and the desire to understand how reality can translate to rules we encountered. In a little less than 90 minutes, Dr. Matthew Mervis of OB&GYN Specialists in Orlando – and one of his patients – took 49 pointed questions. (Yes, we counted.) And of particular interest to the group was the site’s use of Greenway’s online patient portal PrimePATIENT, and its integration with the PrimeSUITE EHR.

This is a practice that in 2010 processed 8,000 appointment requests, 3,000 Ask A Doctor queries and relayed 1,200 lab results through the portal back to its patient population. With these and other EHR efficiencies, OB&GYN Specialists has been able to impact ROI by eliminating the need for eight staff members formerly taking patient phone calls or manually checking in patients, processing accounts or clerking paper charts.

We know that consumerism is as much a part of healthcare’s future as is technology as patients come to expect better care and service. Patient empowerment and communication avenues are central goals of achieving meaningful use, and essential components of accountable care as mobile patient data is securely shared within a community’s hospitals, public health and ambulatory sites.

Relaying lab results to patients through an online portal is the end result of efficiencies. Exchanging that data with external labs to bring it into the EHR for provider assessment before relaying to patients was a particular line of inquiry by these policymakers who sought answers for lab interfacing and monitoring with physician practice EHRs.

Jodi Daniel, director of the ONC’s Office of Policy and Planning, surprised us with this statement: “Labs tell us they can’t do that.” We explained to the audience that Greenway doesn’t necessarily expect labs to be able to. We build it for them, and the practices, through our PrimeEXCHANGE functionality.

Adam Greene, senior health IT and privacy advisor to the HHS Office of Civil Rights, asked about PrimePATIENT’s authentication and patient messaging security. Seth Foldy, the CDC’s director of Public Health Informatics and Technology Program, took data exchange a step further by asking Dr. Mervis if the practice had selected or has the ability to exchange with a public health option. The answer: historical interface with Florida Shots. Dr. Mervis also assured Daniel that through Ask A Doctor templating he has more time to spend with patients who come into the office versus answering online questions all day.

Dr. Mervis’ patient assured the group that she has no fears about data security compared to the efficiencies she’s found, and that the patient portal’s availability was a selling point in her selection of a practice for her medical care…now that’s consumerism. And far from finding the portal impersonal, it allows her to focus on her care during office visits, she said. “I’m more worried about my banking information than my medical information.”

The bottom line was that through this short but intensive visit, I was solidified in my understanding that policymakers need and welcome input into how their actions can and should fine tune the creation of a smarter, more sustainable healthcare system, and that Greenway provides its customers with the ability to do so.

Respectfully,
Tee

A successful REC Strategy? Call it Esprit de Core

Every time I’m asked about Greenway’s Regional Extension Center strategy or what I think about the sustainability of RECs, or how is it that Greenway’s PrimeSuite has been chosen as a preferred solution by every REC that has so far made EHR recommendations public, I remind myself to focus on core objectives, core values and what’s at the very heart of improved healthcare outcomes through a national health information network.

The REC funding acts is a long document, but I’ve long since memorized this passage: “The ultimate measure of a regional center’s effectiveness will be whether it has assisted providers in becoming meaningful users of certified EHR technology.”

We’ve guaranteed and based our certification levels on meaningful use, and we’ve based our solutions on usability, standard exchanges and wide-reaching interoperability or full data liquidity. When the Alaska EHR Alliance, New York City and then New York State RECs made their preferred EHR choices, these were the common denominators, the same factors we believe will surface during selection by the more than 50 remaining RECs finalizing their programs.

We know this because the REC administrators provided good feedback: “We were impressed with Greenway’s easy-to-use interface, their implementation and training, as well as their positive user reviews.” That from Amanda Parsons of the New York City REC. “Setting providers on the path to meaningful use … requires high quality, highly functional systems that offer integrated practice and clinical management functions, interoperability, standard data exchange, and the opportunity to achieve meaningful use. Greenway’s PrimeSuite exceeded our qualification standards for preferred REC status.” That’s from Paul Wilder of the New York State REC.

That’s a vital set of core functionalities, but there’s a deeper core at play. Together, the Alaska and New York RECs seek to aid almost 13,000 physicians. Nationally the REC program wants to connect 100,000 physicians, and the many of those targeted treat patients at rural health centers and public and critical-access hospitals, where patients are among the most in need of care plans and preventive medicine that automation can easily establish.

That’s a core meaning and a core reason why we are in the healthcare industry, and I always make sure that our company’s core values: Service, Innovation, Leadership, and Partnership, are adhered to in everything we do. Those four strengths mirror just what RECs need and are looking for if this national effort is going to succeed.

That’s why we’ve devoted ourselves to the REC programs and we’re gratified at the results so far. Now we will go about making good on the factors that got us chosen. And when the national REC program is underway and the ONC puts its last elements in place – a centralized HIT Research Center of shared learning, HIT workforce development and coordination with state Health Information Exchange programs, we expect to again be at the core of these advancements. What, is there an Esprit de Core pun here? It is a government program, so even Esprit de Corps makes sense. I try not to get too preachy about the benefits to healthcare and the real difference we all can make, but I suppose it’s part of my core values too. What do you think?

Respectfully,

Tee

The Ways of Interaction – Tee Green

Earlier this month I visited a seven-provider ENT practice using Greenway’s electronic health record platform. I don’t know how many of my peers visit customer practices but I travel pretty consistently and ask customers one main question: What is your experience with Greenway? It’s a very simple and very open-ended question. It’s part of our corporate culture and has been at the heart of our mission since day one.

Asking in person and in their environment gives customers a chance to directly tell me the good, the bad and the ugly. And believe me they do. While I don’t like getting the ugly, and yes it can be uncomfortable, it is part of our growing process – a process we respond to that I believe is proven by our consistent wealth of KLAS awards.

Many companies are hesitant to directly seek out customer feedback for fear of the “ugly.” Executives are often shielded from bad news, but at Greenway it makes us stronger and makes our customers stronger so that’s why it makes sense for me to do it.

What was their experience? This practice is performing well and reaching its goals. What are we doing best? Greenway’s service capabilities and support portal. What do we need to improve? I was told we need to do a better job of training the competencies of new services or applications we release after a practice has successfully implemented PrimeSuite and moves into go live. The capabilities of our platform do continue to grow, and we need more efficient ways for customers to learn to leverage them. That holds true for our clinical research capabilities, emerging DNA evaluation and speech understanding, our mobile capabilities and much more.

Thankfully I was able to tell this practice that we are providing some progressive and pretty cool interactive training tools that will greatly improve their experience in this area.

These visits often lead me to examine our mission: are we a technology or a service? Are we and our customers ready for the coming age of “Data Liquidity”?

I will continue to use this platform (if any are interested) to relay my experience and interactions, and therefore those of this industry. This is an interactive blog as well, so I welcome all comments and will do my best to address.

Respectfully,

Tee

Tee Green

President and Chief Executive Officer, Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc.

Wyche T. Green, III, or Tee, as he is known within Greenway and throughout the industry, leads the company’s strategic direction and daily operations. Greenway is his second successful startup, having been integral in taking the financial firm Greenway Corporation to acquisition before the founding of Greenway Medical Technologies.

“Managing the priorities of a company that provides mission critical services, and in such an obviously critical endeavor, has been more rewarding than we anticipated. We are reminded of this every time I talk to customers who have transformed their practices into thriving deliverers of healthcare.”

Green has demurred a wealth of suitors for Greenway’s infrastructure and intellectual capital while becoming one of the EHR industry’s most admired leaders in clinical innovations and business growth, as recognized by Deloitte and Inc. magazine among other standards of excellence.

“I recognize that it’s every member of our staff of more than 450 people who set our standards and realize the possibilities of healthcare technology innovation.”

The only limitation Green has encountered came via a broken ankle that led to his retirement from competitive motorcycle racing. “That’s not the kind of healthcare I planned to pursue.”

Here he blogs on industry futures, trends and innovations, and managing the business of healthcare.

Video:

• Tee Green on EHRtv