This year, Healthcare Contact Center Times is launching its first-ever HCCT Awards. The awards represent an acknowledgment that people leading healthcare contact centers are doing some of the most important and underrecognized work in healthcare. We believe organizations doing it exceptionally well deserve to be recognized.  

HCCT received submissions from across the country. The nominations were evaluated across three categories: Excellence, Culture and Innovation. The winners be honored in-person at our annual conference in Atlanta, June 3-5. 

The Contact Center Culture Award celebrates a contact center that has built a positive, empowering and inclusive workplace where team members thrive and patient care is enhanced. This year’s Contact Center Culture Award (Greater Than 50 Agents) will be awarded  to OSF OnCall, the digital health arm of OSF HealthCare in Peoria, Illinois.  

“Our contact center is often the very first human connection patients have with our Ministry, and our Mission Partners set the tone for the entire care journey, says Melissa Shipp, vice president of digital experience at OSF OnCall. “Their compassion, professionalism, and dedication turn every interaction into a moment of trust and reassurance. By intentionally investing in their growth, listening to their voices, and empowering their ideas, we strengthen not only our teams, but the experience of care for every patient we serve.” 

OSF OnCall operates a contact center of 300 FTE (90% of them remote), spanning primary care scheduling, patient navigation, diagnostic test scheduling, external order transcription, Cancer Institute intake and medication prior authorization. The rolling 12-month turnover for the OSF OnCall contact center was at 36.8% two years ago. Today, it’s 15%, a 60% reduction. One team, diagnostic test scheduling, has reduced its turnover to 8%.

OSF OnCall uses an annual engagement survey as an operational tool. Scores are stratified all the way down to the supervisor and work unit level, so leadership knows where to focus. This fall, 94% of staff participated in the survey, putting the contact center in the 96th percentile among national healthcare organizations. 

In addition, frontline “culture partners” are trained to facilitate culture conversations, solicit feedback and connect the day-to-day work to broader organizational goals. Action plans are built at every leadership level and with frontline employees at the table. 

“I think ‘culture’ is one of those words that gets used so often in healthcare it can lose its meaning,” says Derek Lok, publisher of Healthcare Contact Center Times. “OSF OnCall gave it meaning back. When 94% of your staff participates in an engagement survey and you score in the 96th percentile among national healthcare organizations, we could tell that something meaningful is happening there.”