North Central’s Clinical Director, Amy May, oversees the various services that North Central provides, including medication services, community psychiatric health, children’s services, counseling, health care home, and substance-use services. All four of North Central’s clinics administer these resources, so it’s important to Amy to have clear communication between the clinics.
North Central is a non-profit organization, so revamping their video conferencing technology was often put on the back burner for budget reasons. In March of 2020, North Central received a grant to keep them afloat during the global pandemic. They decided to use the money to modernize the technology in their offices.
Pre-Meeting Owl, North Central would use laptops and webcams to have company-wide meetings. These devices didn’t have the audio and video range to capture everyone in the large conference rooms, and when more devices were used, their bandwidth suffered and the calls became unstable.
Amy says that one of the most frustrating aspects of their old meeting room solution was the sound: “I always had to repeat what was being said over video to people who were further away from the speaker. And then I’d have to repeat what was being said in the room into the microphone. I became a ‘repeater.’”
After one of Amy’s colleagues described using the Meeting Owl at a different organization, Amy decided to purchase two for the office.
“Now, I don’t have to repeat everything being said. My favorite part of the Meeting Owl is the audio, it’s consistent, and it really picks up everyone in the room no matter where they’re sitting.”
North Central is now using their four Meeting Owls to have company-wide meetings, impromptu huddle meetings, and telehealth appointments with patients.
The Meeting Owl being used during a large meeting in the Trenton location
When asked about the implementation process Amy explains that she hasn’t trained anyone on how to use their Meeting Owls: “It’s a give-and-go process, we just give an Owl to our staff members and they start using it with no problem.”
Amy has seen an uptick in the number of meetings conducted. “Before, staff members would often feel excluded from conversations, but now they’re eager to participate. One of our departments has doubled the amount of meetings they have since they started using the Meeting Owl. They’ve really embraced it.”
The Meeting Owl being used at a small meeting in the Chillicothe location
Even when people are allowed back for in-person meetings and healthcare visits, Amy expects the Meeting Owl will continue to be used in all offices.
“North Central has patients and employees that are widely distributed across Missouri, and the Meeting Owl is able to connect them and save them the hassle of traveling. It’s really saving us on time and mileage when we can have meetings using our Owls.”