Health ministry to sign call-line contract with BPO by February

WESTERN BUREAU:

HEALTH AND Welness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has announced that, come February 2024, the ministry will sign a contract with a business-process outsourcing (BPO) company to create a telephone network for patients in Jamaica’s healthcare system to have their queries responded to at a faster pace.

Addressing last Thursday’s official launch of the health ministry’s Compassionate Care programme for the Cambridge Health Centre in Cambridge, St James, Tufton said the move will seek to provide citizens with a more streamlined method of getting their concerns rectified, in keeping with improving the health sector’s level of customer service.

Compassionate care

“We have made provisions where, if someone goes to a health centre and there is a customer service representative who cannot respond adequately, and they [patient] are dissatisfied, there is a number they can call for a higher level of inquiry. That number is part of compassionate care, and what we are doing now is enhancing the responsiveness of that number,” said Tufton.

“In a few months, another three months or so, we will sign a contract with a BPO firm that will receive those calls and be able to respond to those calls, or filter or redirect those calls to where it is most relevant to answer your concern or query. So, if you are not getting through at the local level, we provide a means by which you can get through at another level, and that is important, because we want a satisfied client, a satisfied patient,” Tufton explained.

Partnership

While he did not identify the BPO which is expected to enter this partnership with the health ministry, Tufton noted that the aim of the proposed arrangement is to reduce the level of frustration that patients often feel when it comes to getting adequately informed and timely responses to their queries.

“We know you are sick, fatigued, and distressed, and we do not want to add to the distress and fatigue by not responding to the concerns that you have. We know that, when you are distressed, those concerns are amplified,” said Tufton.

“That BPO arrangement is being put in place, and I expect to officially sign that contract once it is passed through the procurement process. It means that, anywhere you are in Jamaica in the health system and you call that number, it will be answered within a minute or two, and somebody will take your name, take your details, take your concern, and you will get the feedback that is necessary,” Tufton added.

The announcement follows a similar declaration Tufton made in July this year during a tour of the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea, Hanover.

At that time, it was indicated that the call centre involved in the arrangement would be set up during this year, following the conclusion of the procurement process.

At the same time, Tufton noted that patients need to be educated about the triage process, where health centres and hospitals select the order in which patients receive treatment based on the severity of their injuries, in order to dispel the notion that whoever comes to the facility first should be treated first.

“What has happened is that people go to the accident and emergency wards (A&E) and, when the triage process works its way through, it says you are not that bad but this other person has a heart attack,” he stated.

“A lot of Jamaicans do not understand that, and they think it’s a ‘first come, first served’ basis. But the A&E does not work on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. What you are entitled to is to be triaged quickly to determine how serious you are,” said Tufton.

“It is possible that you could go to the A&E and wait five hours. In a high-trauma society, where traumatised patients come in frequently, you could be kicked down the curb periodically, based on what is happening around you. I think we have to spend more time to help people to appreciate that, which is why the health centres are important, because some of those very problems could be addressed here instead of down at the A&E,” Tufton added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com