Flushing Hospital Medical Center Selects The Beryl Companies to Provide Call Center Services.

Business Editors & High-Tech/Health/Medical/Education Writers

FLUSHING, N.Y.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 14, 2002

Flushing Hospital Medical Center (FHMC), a 293-bed, non-profit teaching hospital, has selected The Beryl Companies to provide outsourced physician referral and class registration services. Beryl is the nation's leading healthcare-exclusive customer interaction company.

Through this agreement, callers into the hospital will be able to seamlessly register for a myriad of community education classes offered by FHMC or find a physician 24 hours a day, 7 days week. Beryl call representatives are specially trained to match callers' preferences to local physicians, taking into account medical specialty, office location, insurance accepted, office hours and a host of other variables. This unique competency comes from the more than 10 million calls Beryl has answered on behalf of over 500 healthcare-related organizations since 1985.

Founded in 1884, FHMC is Queens' first hospital. Last year, the medical center was awarded accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Heath Care Organizations scoring 94 out of 100 percent. FHMC is part of MediSys Health Network a three-hospital system that includes Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and Brookdale Hospital Medical Center.

"We are eager to begin our partnership with The Beryl Companies and look forward to providing an enhanced level of service to our patients and the community," said Ole W. Pedersen, vice president, emergency medicine and public affairs for Flushing Hospital. "After careful research and consideration, we are confident that The Beryl Companies call center solution will allow us to provide competent and efficient referral services to our high-quality medical staff and will allow us to provide a superior level of service for our growing patient base," he continued. "Beryl is a leader in this field, and we anticipate increased satisfaction of our staff and the community that we serve."

Flushing Hospital Medical Center operates a full-service emergency department that consists of separate adult and pediatric units, and it is a 911 receiving station for NYC EMS. Last year, more than 39,000 patients were treated in FHMC's emergency department.

The hospital has an inpatient psychiatric unit, a chemical dependency unit for medically managed detoxification and a new outpatient alcohol clinic. FHMC's on-site ambulatory care center includes over 40 general and specialty clinics including internal and pediatric medicine, ophthalmology, podiatry, obstetrics, gynecology, dentistry and mental health. In 2000, FHMC treated over 39,000 ambulatory care patients.

Flushing Hospital houses Queens' only inpatient geriatric medicine unit. The 32-bed unit serves the many special needs of the older adult community by providing its patients with highly qualified geriatric specialists.

In 2001, FHMC delivered over 2,000 new babies. The hospital has an extensive pediatric department that includes one of the city's largest neonatal intensive care units and the borough's only Infant Apnea Program. Information on Flushing Hospital Medical Center is available at www.flushinghospital.org.

From its 50,000 square-foot, multimillion-dollar call center located in Dallas, Texas, Beryl provides hospitals, managed care organizations, medical groups and integrated delivery systems across the country an expanding portfolio of services including outsourced call-center services, clinical nurse triage and online customer support services. Beryl's technologies include live agents, Internet referral, live chats, and e-mail. Information on The Beryl Companies is available at www.beryl.net.