NotifyMD notifies Maine it
plans to expand right here
Governor John Baldacci raises
the state flag over NotifyMD in Farmington
"After the first six months trail, using
the new disease management program at our Farmington center, we will be looking to expand
it to another location in Maine," said Ferguson. "We’re looking at
opportunities now. It’s exciting."
NotifyMD in Maine—
Article and photos by Ramona du Houx
"The thing is, the desire to achieve
perfection should be present everywhere, but it’s not. It does exist in Maine,"
said NotifyMD CEO Dr. Garry Ferguson. "We struck lightning in a bottle here."
Six months ago, after a nationwide search,
NotifyMD, Inc., a provider of after-hours messaging, business-hour call management,
automated patient-reminders, and patient-care compliance for physicians, selected
Farmington for its new national Care Coordination Center, in the former MBNA facility.
NotifyMD
personnel with Gov. Baldacci and CEO Gary Ferguson, later they served lunch to the
employees thanking them for their tremendous work - photo below
"We are the largest contact center base that
deals with physician-to-patient communications in the United States," said Dr.
Ferguson. The Farmington site is their sixth U.S. contact center. The company’s
client base consists of about 18,000 physicians in 47 states, and more than 75,000 patient
encounters are managed daily.
Dr. Ferguson has a doctorate in pharmacology and
worked at a trauma center in California. He developed a healthcare messaging system to
improve the way patient calls to physicians are handled. This Tennessee-based company will
fill the Farmington facility to its capacity of 120 employees within the next two years.
All patient calls are answered personally by
care-coordinators who then match the patient’s symptoms to computer files provided
and analyze the importance of the call. They identify the five percent of patients who are
most at risk. This helps to streamline a physician’s practice.
"Its real-life situations you are dealing
with when a call comes in. You are seriously helping people. You come away from work
thinking you’ve done something good today," said Lynne Buchheit a
care-coordinator call employee who had previously worked for MBNA’s call center in
the same location. "The difference of call centers is that here we’re helping
people not hindering them. It’s a great place to work."
"No one else is doing this," said Dr.
Ferguson who also announced he hopes to expand operations in Maine. He was in Farmington
attending a picnic flag raising ceremony honoring the success of the employees who made
the center the company’s highest performing, last September.
Ferguson credited Governor Baldacci and the
governor’s team, the Greater Franklin County Development Corporation, and Maine &
Company’s efforts in bringing the business to the state.
"Maine represents pride, quality and
craftsmanship around the world. We know that Maine people can outcompete, outwork, outdo
anybody anywhere in the world. Our job, in state government, is to help give them
opportunities," said Governor Baldacci. "NotifyMD is a quality organization.
It’s a number-one company in a number-one community. We’re proud of our workers,
and to have such a great employer here in Maine."
The Farmington center is used both for care
coordination and selling the company’s services to new markets. Soon they will be
given a new responsibility that no other call center has had.
"Employees here already are working on our
most innovative products," said Ferguson. "In the near future, disease
management and outcomes management of at-risk patients will all be seated right
here."
The new disease management program is based upon
real patient data, not a random sampling of the population. Random sampling is currently
how disease management research is conducted. NotifyMD wants to change all that, and
according to Ferguson his disease management program can be done at 1/200th of the cost of
existing systems.
"We’re providing the resource base, the
technology, and the clinical algorithms to create registries of documented patents.
It’s a huge product shift in the way that chronic diseases have been managed
previously. That’s the opportunity that exists. We’re viewing an expertise that
will be inaugurated at the Farmington call center," said Ferguson.
"The state of Maine is lucky to have an
employer like NotifyMD," said Peter DelGreco of Maine and Company.
(photo below)
 After
Bank of America bought MBNA, they closed four major call centers in the state, including
the Farmington center. It was the largest buyout in recent history in the state. Bank of
America agreed to sell the centers at way below their market value to help the state
recover. An economic disaster was adverted when all these locations were filled with new
call-center businesses that the governor’s administration, working with local
development authorities, avidly searched for.
"The state is better off with these new
businesses, at all the former MBNA centers," said the governor. "People worked
hard to turn around a bad situation, and we have some wonderful employers at these new
call centers."
Now NotifyMD is looking to expand again.
"After the first six months trail, using the
new disease management program at our Farmington center, we will be looking to expand it
to another location in Maine," said Ferguson. "We’re looking at
opportunities now. It’s exciting."
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