HCTec and UI Health Discuss The Evolution of the EHR Service Desk and Leveraging an Outside Provider with Healthcare IT Today
UI Health, or the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, sought to transition from their traditional help desk model to a more service-oriented approach centered around clinicians and patients. At the time, UI Health had an outsourced help desk but lacked a collaborative, aligned partnership.
In 2019, after searching for help desk support that felt like a true extension of their team, UI Health partnered with HCTec to execute their vision: a technical service desk and clinical service desk that could provide instant support for all callers.
Resolution When It Matters
In healthcare, resolving customer service calls isn’t just about fixing the caller’s issue; it’s about making sure the caller walks away feeling supported and satisfied.
With UI Health’s old help desk model, the support team would act as an administrative assistant when clinicians called with issues, taking down notes and routing the issue to the appropriate department. Then, someone would call back to help—sometimes up to 15 minutes later. This caused significant gaps in efficiency and incident resolution—by the time someone called back, the clinician had likely moved on to another patient and no longer had time for a conversation.
Together, HCTec and UI Health tailored a technical service desk and clinical service desk model that provides callers with instant EHR support to resolve issues when they matter—not 15 minutes later. With HCTec’s service desk partnership, UI Health can draw on a pool of talent that understands and is dedicated to their mission, with the ability to scale support up or down as needed.
The Future of Service Desk Support
The complexity of healthcare IT continues to evolve as technology, devices, and AI become increasingly integrated into patient care delivery, and platforms and support services must keep pace. No matter who the caller is, what issue they’re facing, or what service desk they’re contacting, each interaction is directly connected to the quality of patient care—something UI Health and HCTec are always looking for ways to enhance.
Watch Healthcare IT Today’s interview with Dan O’Connor, HCTec’s VP of Service Desk Delivery, and Audrius Polikaitis, UI Health’s Chief Information Officer, to learn about the importance of true partnership in service desk delivery and explore how HCTec and UI Health remain aligned in their goal toward continuous care improvement amid a changing healthcare IT landscape.