How Exotel helped Yousee extend free health care services in the Public Health System in Telangana

Case Study

How Exotel streamlined Yousee’s communication system

United Care Development Services (also known as UC), a philanthropy exchange platform founded in June 2009 provides a host of patient assistance and clinical support services at government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states through their volunteer service activities.

UC and its dedicated volunteers are working towards removing the inefficiencies in the government health system and securing the health of patients who cannot afford private hospitals.

Yousee uses Exotel for:

Call Center Solutions

Challenges:

– UC required a streamlined communication system to manage & attend to the grievances filed by the patients.
– They wanted to escalate issues to the respective authorities effectively.
– UC also wanted a permanent calling solution for the medical camps they run to educate and create awareness towards preventive and promotive health care.

Solution

From the get-go, UC was very clear about incorporating technology into their operations. A friend recommended Exotel to Gunaranjan, and he was on board because of the easy-to-use dashboard and reliable services. They popularized the helpline numbers in the hospitals in the Telangana region.

How it is done

- When a patient calls with their complaint, the call is recorded. It could be anything from an enquiry to a misbehaviourcomplaint, and is categorized accordingly.
- A volunteer transcribes the call and escalates to the appropriate authorities. The status of the call is marked “open” or “closed” as per the resolution.
- All this is managed from a single dashboard and is difficult to achieve with a regular telephony system. Cloud telephony makes it easier because the integration is simple and all the complaints are managed at the same place.

Initially, the helpline number was a pilot project for government hospitals in the Hyderabad region only. However, the tremendous response from the patients made the team include other government hospitals under the same number in other regions of Telangana as well. They received about 30-40 calls/ day.

Exotel is an excellent find for us. It helped us to enhance our Voluntary Services in extending Free Health Care services in the Public Health System in Telangana. Because of our positive experience, we have now expanded the use of Exotel services to multiple states. Starting it up and scaling has been surprisingly seamless and affordable
Gunaranjan P
Founder, Yousee

Results

Complaint calls have dropped by 50%, as the hospital authorities know that issues will be escalated via the helpline.
The complaints are not only escalated to appropriate departments, but it is made sure the issues are resolved too.
Follow up patient queries from the health camps streamlined through helpline number.
The number of escalation calls received for a particular hospital is tracked with Exotel reports.

There is a slower pace of adoption when it comes to nonprofits using technology to engage with the beneficiaries directly. Technology doesn’t always have to mean complicated mumbo jumbo. The humble phone call is playing a big part in changing the quality of medical care, and subsequently the lives of people in India.