From Left
to Right: Randy Layman, Bari Conte, Scott Barksdale and Louis
Valdes
Photos by David R. Williams, Air Methods Kentucky
From Left
to Right: Adam Schreibman, Karen Tayes, Kent Padmore
Rich Obertots
ThinkThroughTools
As the business director and flight
nurse for Life Net Miami, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Methods
Corporation, the largest provider of air medical emergency transport
services and systems in the country, Bari Conte's goal is to safely
generate sustainable, medically necessary and appropriate flight
requests for her organization.
To help improve her outreach initiatives in accomplishing this
objective, Bari was referred to ThinkThroughTools about eight months ago
by Air Method's senior vice president, Ken Grimes.
"ThinkThroughTools did some outreach and marketing work with Air Methods
in Kentucky and it went really well, so they came highly recommended,"
Bari said. "Ken suggested that Rich [Obertots, ThinkThroughTools CEO]
work with us to increase our flight volume."
Rich said that he appreciated Ken Grimes’ leadership to engage
ThinkThroughTools in Florida after Ken utilized them with what Rich
calls, “a magnificent LifeNet team in Kentucky." He added,
"There—utilizing our principles and TargetingMatrix® Outreach Operating
System software and a heck of a lot of hard work—the project culminated
in breaking their all time records for safely completed flight
transports. In Miami, we are using our processes and software with
similar system objectives."
Bari, who was already familiar with ThinkThroughTools as a result of
being a subscriber of their former newsletter, ThinkThroughTIMES, looked
forward to working with them.
"I've been in the role of business director for the last few years and
did some outreach and marketing prior to Air Methods buyout of the
former program I was with, Baptist Air Transport," she said. "I had the
knowledge and the resources, and was able to put everything together on
my own. But there's never been a structure as to exactly how to do all
of this."
ThinkThroughTools implemented its TargetingMatrix® Software and is
working with Bari to create individualized plans for each customer in
each category.
“Key to market space intelligence and decision-making, Bari is getting
very proficient using our TargetingMatrix® Outreach Operating System
software and this is helping greatly in the management of the
initiative," said Rich.
Bari said that they have noticed a difference.
"With Rich's efforts, we managed to increase our flight volume," she
said. "I never had an organized way of documenting it until now, mainly
due to their TargetingMatrix® Outreach Operating System. Now we have
better organization and documentation."
“Presently we are also fortunate to have Randy Layman involved who
oversees the state’s business development initiatives," added Rich.
"He’s seasoned, methodical and understands the complex dynamics in play.
He and Bari both understand the discipline and requirements needed for
sufficient customer engagement to sustain and grow authentic appropriate
relationships. They are both working well with us to systematize the
outreach; something that takes the patience and persistence of
agriculture.”
Outreach is important for Air Medical Transport programs like Life Net
Miami, which covers a 300-mile radius in the tri-county area, from
Broward to Palm Beach to the Bahamas, Orlando and Tampa, added Bari.
Over the years, Bari has learned the importance of always
going above and beyond what you can offer a customer.
"One of the things I always offered to other clients is to find out what we can
do for them and not just increase our flight volume because we want the
business," she said. "We want to offer them things that are unique that other
programs don't do. For instance, right now we are offering other hospitals and
facilities education classes that we don't charge for. So we're able to go in
and help the hospitals and EMS agencies with whatever it is that they need."
In order to continue to improve their customer service, Bari has also added
ThinkThroughTools' 365 CriticalCUSTOMERCare™ on-demand software as part of
daily, ongoing training for her crew. Each day, crew members are provided
learning lessons, scenarios and quizzes related to their duties. The training
software is integrated into each shift brief to assure daily consistency and to
make it part of the daily Safety/AMRM culture and operations.
"We just recently started using 365 CriticalCUSTOMERCare for our crews," Bari
said. "It'll take some time to see the results of 365, but the other programs
implemented by Rich are starting to come to fruition now. We've been pleased."
Rich credits Bari and her staff for their desire to enhance their outreach
initiatives. "Bari has initially been in the lead and now she is working with us
to develop Outreach Specialists among LifeNet staff, a few of whom include Adam
Schreibman, Marie Bonneman, Kent Padmore, Louis Valdes, Scott Barksdale and
Karen Tayes who recently were engaged in our OutreachU™ crew training prior to
an intensive initiative engaging with Immediate and Transactional 2 customers."
Another key to Life Net's flight volume improvement has been consistent
communications between both parties.
"As with all of our clients, we are highly disciplined to engage in weekly
template-driven conference calls to assure communication, collaboration and
real-time decision-making among Randy, Bari, Adam and other key actors," said
Rich. "Special thanks to Bari who is maintaining detailed documentation and
oversight so vital to making sure all matters are managed."
In the current stage of the process, ThinkThroughTools has engaged Life Net
Miami through interactive video (Microsoft LiveMeeting®) which has proven to be
more timely and cost-efficient.
"We are also using more and more Real-Time Interactive Video-Data Conferencing
during this project to enable more intensive engagement as we develop Outreach
Operating Plans and manage activities," explained Rich. "This technology saves
Air Methods significant travel expense costs while still maintaining our
momentum."
Rich praises Life Net for their patience in implementing ThinkThroughTools’
system which has paid great dividends for the program. "Ken Grimes, Randy
Layman, Bari Conte, Adam Schreibman and all the devoted LifeNet Miami staff are
working with us to patiently develop a robust Outreach Operating System. It’s
working. Most recently, year-to-year data was analyzed and substantial
improvements were achieved. Now it’s a matter of being dedicated to much more
infrastructure, remaining loyal to and implementing more advanced principles and
software, and always listening to, and understanding all four categories of
critical care customers."
