Case Study: WellStar Health System achieves rapid, seamless patient transfers with PerfectServe

Communication key to success of new WellStar transfer center; five-hospital health care system partners with PerfectServe

WellStar Health System, an Atlanta-based five-hospital system whose flagship Kennestone Hospital has 630 beds, faced inconsistent, paper-based transfer communications and no reliable way to track or quantify why transfers were breaking down. To create a repeatable, timely process for connecting referring physicians with the right clinicians, WellStar engaged PerfectServe to design and implement the transfer center call flow and rules-based routing.

PerfectServe implemented a single customer-service phone number and its rules-based routing so clinicians could set precise contact preferences, following a three-month pre-implementation planning period. The results were dramatic: in the first year the transfer center handled more than 2,600 transfers (including a 30% increase in non-WellStar patients), nearly 90% of transfer communications completed in five minutes or less, an average response time of 3.5 minutes, and over half of contacts resulting in real-time conversations — the fastest contact cycle times seen across DirectCall’s 200 transfer centers.

WellStar Health System

Allison Haldeman

Transfer Coordinator