During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Medical Information (MI) and Pharmacovigilance (PV) teams are providing an extremely valuable service to deliver current and accurate product information to patients and healthcare professionals as well as performing critical Adverse Event intake and processing. Yet, around the world, many MI and PV teams are facing unforeseen challenges due to increased case volume as well as operational and logistical issues, which threaten service delivery and regulatory compliance.
With a customer and patient-centric approach to service delivery, ProPharma Group has successfully and seamlessly adapted its operations to provide our clients an uninterrupted support experience. We executed our robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and as of mid-March, our nine (8) global contact centers were fully remote and mobilized to respond to the increasing numbers of medical information inquiries, adverse events, and product complaint reports in more than 30 languages, from patients and healthcare professionals around the world.
Through our collaborative approach, we partnered with each of our clients to enable prompt implementation of enhanced crisis-driven services in a rapid timeframe to ensure no disruption of service for their patients.
"Our collaboration with ProPharma Group takes us a couple of years back with the Medical Information service across Europe. More recently, we have also requested their support in a more demanding situation that requires an agile and flexible solution. ProPharma Group has been able to propose a solution that adjusts to our needs in a timely manner. They are a true business partner and always have an extremely positive attitude to new challenges." - Sebastian Rodriguez, PharmD., Senior Manager, Medical Information Operations ACE (Australia, Canada, Europe) Region, Medical Affairs Operations, Gilead
Four Ways we are Proactively Supporting our Clients
Responsiveness:
ProPharma Group has a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan for our Global Medical Information Contact Center and Pharmacovigilance services to address key operability scenarios, while maintaining Service Delivery requirements, during a pandemic event, including Loss of Facility and Loss of People. As of March 17, 2020, we have proactively enabled the Loss of Facility BCP across our worldwide hubs to ensure the safety and welfare of our employees, and to ensure availability of our staff to continue supporting our clients. All agents, support staff, management, and core service colleagues are fully transitioned to virtual operations whereby all employees are outfitted with secure company laptops and softphones (networked through a secure VPN), along with scanning/faxing capabilities to maintain service delivery and performance requirements.
Our early BCP implementation and mobilization allowed our team to utilize comprehensive communication, documentation, and defined processes to ensure clients experienced a seamless transition, with consistent quality and continuous delivery of services.
Flexibility:
As an extension of your team, we are collaborating and developing innovative solutions to meet clients’ changing needs during this unique situation. Our dynamic global service model allows for rapid service adjustments and support based on an individual client’s needs.
- Flexible service models allow clients to scale up services and training to support increased call volumes, triage, and respond to cases as needed, and provide actionable customer insights and reports.
- Our global team and “follow the sun” capability allows us to seamlessly staff supplemental hours of operation with front-line intake from patients, HCPs, and pharmacies, and additional adverse events due to potential supply shortages and missed doses.
- Offering support in more than 30 languages, our team is available to update and localize your approved global COVID-19 communications to customers, making your internal staff available to focus on more critical tasks.
- Our experts are available to step-in when a client’s existing providers are unable to deliver BCPs or experience service interruptions due to staff sickness or lack of remote work capabilities.
Compliance:
We understand the importance of proper training and compliance, especially in these unique circumstances. We provide thorough documentation to ensure quality service and regulatory compliance is achieved at every step. All documentation is developed in collaboration with, and approved by, our clients.
We can also help establish improved triage protocols to manage increased inquiry volume effectively, ensuring timely and accurate responses to customers. For added peace of mind during this time, we are also initiating increased client awareness and reporting via daily communication.
Technology:
Businesses are facing new challenges and requirements to enable work from home (WFH) technology, while needing to maintain successful business operations. We recognize that technology can be a barrier, and our internal IT experts are available to offer support and solutions for clients during this transition.
In response to the current situation, we have leveraged our global telephony system to ensure that all users can effectively work remotely, and implemented (in partnership with clients who require it) an automatic call distributor (ACD) to direct calls as appropriate to enhance customer inquiry triage and responsiveness. This means we can rapidly and successfully modify services and leverage technology while providing clients with solutions to meet their internal SOPs and databasing requirements. We also continue to ensure that our environment and user access is secure through the use of VPN capabilities, endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication to critical services, and vulnerability management.
How may we Support You?
If your team is being impacted by the effects of COVID-19, our flexible support options and adaptable resources can support you as your business needs scale up or down, ensuring seamless service delivery and business continuity.
To learn more about our services and how we can help you during this ever-changing time, contact us today.
