Brazil‘s medical test industry is booming, and Alliar Médicos à Frente is the second largest diagnostic company in Brazil, with more than 100 MRI machines, 50 CT scanners, and 250 ultrasound machines, distributed along with 100-plus service centers in 46 cities across Brazil.
Created in 2011 from the merger of four leading companies in the diagnostic imaging segment, Alliar was born with a prominent position already established. In the last five years, Alliar has acquired 19 companies and opened 42 new units, expanding market share and increasing its presence in small- and medium-sized cities.
Improved Patient Flow and Patient Experience
With the company‘s impressive growth, Alliar‘s leadership recognized the need to create efficient patient flow throughout the centers – from stepping through the door to completing tests and being released – and improving patient experiences with shorter lines and wait times.
Each day, Alliar sees 3,000 people walk through their testing and imaging centers. Every patient must first check in and fill out the necessary paperwork in one central location before being directed to the appropriate floor or department. With so much foot traffic, paperwork, and necessary approvals from insurance, administrative work took time too much time. Patients would often wait up to 90 minutes before even making it to the counter. Once the patient made it to the front of the line, the real work started with forms, calls to insurance and ID verifications – adding minutes to the patient’s wait time.
While the process was long and complicated for patients, it was also complicated for Alliar. Alliar needed a centralized location to manage staffing, which fluctuates daily based on how many tests were scheduled and what type of test would be given. Having the right number of staff members available at each location was vital to successfully process each patient in a timely manner.
Staffing Command Center utilizes Qmatic Orchestra
Alliar turned to Qmatic as a global leader recognized for creating exceptional customer experiences and dedicated to innovating and solving the most difficult challenges. The goals included the implementation of an online monitoring system that would streamline patient flow while increasing customer satisfaction in the process. "Qmatic was the solution that best fits with what we were looking for, having a system that in real-time monitors the Customer Service levels and the waiting times, in addition to offering all the customizations that our business needs including integration with our Medical ERP system and Business Intelligence" stated Luiz Masetto, Processes and Operations Coordinator at Alliar Group.
Having completed over 60,000 journeys worldwide, Qmatic utilized its unique experience, knowledge, and market position to help Alliar gain insight into its current patient flow and staffing processes. Qmatic’s first step was to conduct a study of the customer experience by observing one of Alliar’s main clinics. Based on the observations, Qmatic was able to identify key friction points and areas of improvement.
The second step was to interview key staff members to define the range of services offered, work profiles, and patient segmentation to be used with the Orchestra platform. Key performance indicators were reviewed based on Orchestra’s data points, and a plan of action was created to minimize the customer effort across all touchpoints. A plan for future improvements was also designed to help Alliar grow and evolve with their patient demands. “Before Qmatic, we didn’t have online monitoring, and consequently there was no monitoring. With the implementation of Orchestra, it was possible to follow the evolution of the employee and develop indicators that would contribute to our management,” said the Patient Experience Manager at Alliar.
"We chose Qmatic as a tool because it brought two features that we think are very important. One is real-time management, which we call "evidence management", which is managing things the moment it happens so that we can act quickly and fix problems immediately or even prevent problems from occurring. The other we call trend management, which is to analyze historical data and use this primarily to scale the headcount correctly," said Masetto.
Using Qmatic’s Orchestra dashboard, Alliar could reduce the complexity of serving patients by effectively allocating staff at each stage of the patient’s visit. Making it easier for Alliar to manage resources and improve customer satisfaction by providing clear communication about queuing and wait times.
"When we bring this to our flow management and to all our analysts who control it, we can be assertive in how we position ourselves, the best flows, the best days for this service and our floors as well. So, we can get an overview of our units, and position our team according to demand and waiting time," explained Cristina Reis, Director of Administration at Alliar Group.
Improved Customer Experiences and Increased Productivity Among Staff
After implementing Qmatic solutions, Alliar has already seen great results with improved customer experiences and a more efficient process, which led to more productive employees and a reduction in wait times and operating costs. "Before the implementation of Qmatic we had peak wait times up to an hour and a half and now we have an average of 5 minutes with peaks of 15 minutes," stated Masetto. With Orchestra’s online dashboard, Alliar can align patient flow with staffing needs – thereby ensuring a seamless experience every time.
