I’ve always been fascinated with how systems work together, taking things apart and putting them back together, hopefully better than before. This curiosity brought me into various industries until I fell into healthcare and call centers about a decade ago.

I found myself as a trainer in a healthcare call center, but discovered that training itself wasn’t enough to fix root causes. So, I started pulling on threads. The threads led me to quality, workforce management, knowledge management, telephony, and more. What I found is that few industries are more complex than healthcare, few departments are more complex than the call center, and nothing is more complex than leading people.

The Vicious Cycle

Let me tell you a story about how things often go in the call center. Mark’s a call center agent who has been on the job for 60 days, and he’s eager to do well. Like all employees, he craves three things:

Mark takes a call, and on the other end of the line is Bill, a patient who has been sick for three days. Bill’s needs are pretty clear: He wants to be scheduled with his doctor, know when he needs to be there, how much it’s going to cost, and to be treated with respect and kindness in the process. Bill just wants to feel better.

Mark and Bill’s goals align. So, why, in many call centers, does it seem like everything’s on fire and even simple interactions are hard?

The root cause is that the organization’s incentives for the call center are not always aligned with what the call center employees do. Organizations often view call centers as a cost center, a number on a balance sheet that needs to be cut or replaced with automation. To save money, they might reduce the time spent on training or lower the headcount.

This creates what a vicious cycle, a negative spiral that feeds on itself. If you have untrained workers, you end up with longer handle times for each call. Patients might get angry and take it out on agents. If agents are mistreated, they will leave, causing understaffing, which adds to the stress, long wait times, and increased errors.

When there’s an error, the patient will have to call again the next day ….

Breaking the Cycle

At Hummingbird, instead of expecting heroes to jump into burning buildings, we’re building superheroes—fully trained, well-supported agents equipped to provide patients with an efficient, consistent, accurate, and caring solution to their needs.

Like any great superhero, our agents don’t work alone. They have teams behind them to support, including the Support Services team. Support services provide:

These teams create a virtuous cycle: fully trained, supported agents provide better service, which leads to happier patients, fewer callbacks, and lower attrition rates. With less turnover, agents gain experience and become even more efficient, creating additional margin for growth. The result? Better patient experiences and a healthier bottom line.

A Future Built on Empowerment

Our mission at Hummingbird is simple: Elevate patient access while creating good jobs for our agents. One of our agents put it best:

“I feel like a human being here, not a micromanaged robot. It’s uplifting to be trusted with the responsibilities of the job.”

That’s the power of a well-supported healthcare call center. By investing in our agents and aligning their success with patient outcomes, we’re not just running a call center—we’re transforming healthcare access one call at a time.