Encore Introduces NEW on-line directory

July 2006

Did you know that each day over twelve hundred searches are conducted on the Provider Search feature of encoreconnect? And since most of these inquiries occur during working hours (EST), that means almost every 30 seconds someone is using encoreconnect to find the doctors they know and the hospitals they trust in the Encore Health Network.

And although the previous version of Provider Search was more user friendly than most—allowing users to search by name, specialty, or zip-code proximity—Encore felt that a service this important to its members should be considered for improvement. So in October of last year, a team of Encore professionals set out to make Provider Search the best it could be.

The team began by conducting user studies. The tests confirmed the need for the three methods of searching (name, specialty, or zip-code proximity), but showed the team that the modes should be more distinct and should make their functionality available to the user only at the user's request.

In addition to this breakthrough in mode functionality, many improvements were made within the workings of each search mode itself. One of those involved Encore rearranging the way the provider specialty information is organized and delivered to the website.

"One of the things we saw in the user testing, " added Adam Walker, Encore's internal programming specialist, "is that the user often doesn't regard the specialist categories the way we do. So we made a real attempt to step outside of our vantage point and look at it from the common user's vantage point. We decided not to group the data in the way our system uses it, but to actually rearrange the data to a format that the member needs it."

This approach of putting themselves in the user's shoes didn't stop at the planning level. After undergoing weeks of internal testing, ProSearch was made available for field testing to a team comprised of payors and members. The results have been very favorable.

"Although I really thought the provider search they previously had was good, they have really made some fantastic improvements. It's really easy to use, and it seems like it's faster too," said one tester.

Click Here to try the new on-line provider directory