title: Trends in outsourcing. Anatomy of a customer care solution.
abstract: Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, Conn.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The hospital had a history of complex and confusing patient billing forms and in at least one instance the billing department was unreasonably unresponsive to a patient's needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Officials in the hospital's patient and guest relations department began outsourcing services to address the billing needs of the hospital and the patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the hospital overhauled its billing procedures, complaints dropped and bad debts came in far below budget.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  "The hard work includes establishing advisory boards and task forces to examine new ways to communicate better with patients."
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Zacharilla
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D003237:Connecticut; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management / Q000592:standards*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D020416:Outsourced Services; D010350:Patient Credit and Collection / Q000592:standards*