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background The lab at of Childrens Hospital of Columbus, Ohio originated in 1946 to provide laboratory services to its physicians. As our capabilities and experience grew, we saw both an opportunity and a responsibility to share our expertise on a wider scale. Not only does the lab support the hospital but pediatric offices all over the state of Ohio. The ChildLab is uniquely qualified to deliver the two things you want most from your reference laboratoryconfidence and results.

At the start of the project the ChildLab Call Center operated 24/7 with 5 employees on 1st shift, 2-3 employees on 2nd Shift and 2 employees on 3rd shift. The main role of the call center was to take incoming calls, but was responsible for a multitude of activities. In the third quarter of 2014 HiPath ProCenter Enterprise was installed to track performance. With this new tool our goal was to continue our Journey to Best Outcomes by improve our Operational Efficiency while maintaining our Quality, Safety and Service. Our aim was to determine the proper level of staffing for all shifts and days by the end of 2013 to achieve 80% of calls answered with 30 seconds.results The results to date have been very positive. The first action we took was to give better coverage to during 1st shift to staggering shift start times. A shift on 2nd was able to be removed as well as the entire 3rd shift was moved to the Central Processing Lab area since their volume during that time is low. The figures 4 and 5 show what staffing looked like before and after.

Figure 6 shows the performance of the call center over time. Even with removing a shift and moving 3rd shift to a different location with different staff the call center has been able to consistently perform at a high level and meet the aim.ChildLab recognizes the patient as our #1 priority. To meet the patient care, educational, and research support needs in the area of laboratory medicine for Nationwide Childrens Hospital and the pediatric community, we PROMISE to:Provide accurate and prompt patient resultsRespect fellow employees and clientsOffer education and consultation to co-workers and colleaguesMaintain the highest possible level of technical and medical operations according to regulatory and accrediting agenciesInspire pride in our profession and in Nationwide Childrens HospitalSeek opportunities for improved quality of service in a cost effective mannerEmploy moral, ethical and professional standard at all times to maintain a caring environment for all patients, families, staff, clients, and peers

The lab originated in 1946 as a component of Childrens Hospital of Columbus, Ohio, to provide laboratory services to its physicians. But as our capabilities and experience grew, we saw both an opportunity and a responsibility to share our expertise on a wider scale. We are uniquely qualified to deliver the two things you want most from your reference laboratoryconfidence and results.

The ChildLab Call Center currently operates 24/7 with roughly 4 employees on 1st shift, 2-3 employees on 2nd Shift and 2 employees on 3rd shift. We need to find a way to measure performance for the call center and determine proper staffing levels.discussion As can be seen in Figure 5, 1st shift start times were pushed back to meet demand. One shift was removed on 2nd to also fit better with demand. Because volume was so light during the evening incoming calls on 3rd shift were moved to Central Processing and all administrative tasks were moved to 1st shift. Staffing was largely unchanged during the weekend since it already fit nicely with demand except 3rd shift to Central Processing because of low demand. Another items the team had to constantly keep in mind, critical value turnaround time. Before, during and after the project the performance of this metric consistently met its targets. Childlab sends out supplies to external customers (physician offices) upon request. To make this process easier the team worked with 2nd shift to 5S the area and institute and two-bin ordering system. methodsacknowledgementsI would like the thank the staff and the management of the Childlab. They were open to my suggestions and embraced the change and made it successful.Call me Maybe Staffing in a Multifunctional Call Center Jade Wilson, Cheryl Hamon, Jennifer Murray and David VanlandinghamChildLab at Nationwide Childrens Hospital

3rd Shift was reassigned to Central Processing and one shift on 1st and 2nd was removedNew Shifts were assigned

Figure 1

Figure 4Figure 6 To get a better understanding of what our goals should multiple call centers throughout the Nationwide Childrens Hospital were consulted with. The main metric for each call center was service level. Service level represents percentage of calls answered within a period of time. From the discussion with the other call centers and the lab leadership we decided that our goal service level would be 80% of calls answered within 30 seconds.

Next 20 hours were spent on various shifts in the call center observing each of the different functions. It quickly became evident that the call center was doing more than handling incoming calls. Figure 2 represents all of the different information and material flowing in and out.

In between observations reports out of HiPath were analyzed to understand the baseline performance and call volume. Two things became clear. The staffing patterns did not match incoming call volume and overall the call center was well over the 80% service level.

Figure 3

Physician OfficesHospital StaffResult CallsCritical ValuesQuality IssuesTesting SuppliesCall CenterPatientsFigure 2Because of the variety of tasks in the call center, the team took a very conservative approach when calculating staffing to ensure that other tasks were still accounted. To account for this variability, the 75% percentile of call volume and call length were used in the model were found for each hour for each day in the week. These values was then plugged that into an Erlang C calculator to determine the number of staff required on each shift. The purple lines in Figures 4 and 5 represent the calculated required labor.

Through observation, data analysis and labor calculation the team came up with a few key drivers and interventions to meet our aim outlined in figure 3.

Figure 5