“I always have the goal of a one call solution.”
Takisha R. is a senior contact center specialist with UPMC Scheduling Services. She has been in the position since 2017 and fields between 50 and 70 calls per day helping to connect patients with expert providers and state-of-the-art care.
She started her career working on-site to schedule patients at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, but now she works from home and has done so for about four years.
“In my position, I schedule appointments mainly for pediatrics, but I also schedule for other departments as needed. I also do the referral lines, where a provider has referred a patient to another provider. So, I'm pretty busy all day,” says Takisha.
She has been working in customer service for over 10 years and says that she always wanted to work for UPMC. “In 2017, a finally got an email that they were interested in me as a scheduler.”
“When I was in school, one of my teachers kept telling me I need to be working with people. And I really do enjoy it,” Takisha says. “I spoke to a patient’s mother the other day, and she told me what a pleasant voice I have. She said it just made her day to hear my voice. So that made my day too.”
Takisha shares that she likes working at home because of the peace and quiet, but she does miss interacting with coworkers in person. They chat on Teams to help each other on a daily basis, but some colleagues Takisha has never met in person. That is, until they all got together after work.
“I really appreciate my colleagues. We met up after work one day, and it was so nice to see everybody’s face. Especially nice to put faces to their voices. We all support each other. We’re looking forward to getting together again.”
It’s on those challenging calls, like one Takisha had recently where a mother wanted to schedule visits on the same day for her three children, that the support and knowledge of coworkers really helps.
“I was able to schedule three visits for her and got her where she needed to go to schedule a fourth appointment,” Takisha says. “I always have the goal of a one call solution or to a least get them to someone who can help. I have patience and do my absolute best to assist them with all of their needs.”
At UPMC, Life Changing Medicine means leaning on colleagues to help meet patients’ needs.
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