On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the dialogue agency gkk dialog set up a telephone information service as part of the campaign for the Corona vaccination in the record time of only three weeks and went live on 21 December 2020.

As part of the internal project team, TIGGES  took over the full legal support of the project and continues to act in an advisory capacity. This included the entire legal design of the network, inter alia with regard to challenges under data protection law, to the design and negotiation of the relevant service contracts with the BMG and the network partners, as well as with regard to issues under public procurement law.

Team of advisors TIGGES Rechtsanwälte

• Yvonne Quad (Partnerin, Competition & Distribution, Data protection, Procurement law)
• Dr. Georg Jaster (Partner, Procurement law)
• Sebastian Keilholz, LL.M. (Competition & Distribution, Data protection),
• Patrick J. Kaatz (Competition & Distribution, Data protection)

Background of the project

In order to cope with the enormous call volume, a nationwide network of 18 customer service agents, tourism providers and airlines was established. gkk dialog is responsible for the management of the central project team and, since January, has also provided a call centre team with around 60 agents at the locations in Hanover and Munich to support the initiative "Together against Corona", which was launched by the BMG, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA).

In addition, gkk dialog is responsible for the central telephone system, the set-up and maintenance of the knowledge database as well as the management of the editorial processes, trainings, work processes, recruitment and onboarding of the partner network and contract management - all under the highest security and data protection standards.

Since the official launch of the telephone hotline on 21 December 2020, more than nine million calls have already been received and the population's questions about vaccines, the vaccination process, rapid tests and all around the recommendations of the Permanent Vaccination Commission have been answered. However, arranging vaccination appointments is not one of the tasks of the information service. The federal states are responsible for organising and arranging the appointments. At peak times, more than 2,500 people make calls via a central, cloud-based telephone system - never before has there been a service team of this size and distributed across so many providers in Germany. The project is already a complete success: the ratings of satisfaction with the information provided by the callers in the direct after-call survey are above average.

For gkk dialog, the Corona Hotline is the largest single order in the agency's 25-year history. Dr. Markus Gräßler, Managing Director of gkk dialog: "We are pleased that we can contribute to the fight against the pandemic with this project. At the same time, it sends a great signal about our ability to develop and operate powerful, reliable and sought-after dialogue platforms."

The info hotline is integrated into the patient service number 116 117 of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV) and can be reached under the menu item "Information on Corona vaccination" seven days a week from 8 am to 2 pm.

Since 15.03.2021, it has also been possible to communicate in English, Arabic, Turkish, Russian and in sign language (video telephony) via the telephone number 0800 0000837 - which is free of charge for callers.
The central knowledge database and the associated editorial processes for releasing content are permanently updated and adapted to the respective situation in coordination with the competent authorities.

• Partners of the call centre alliance: bee:con, bkd, Bosch Service Solutions, Telus International, Concentrix, DER Touristik, gevekom, gkk dialog, iCare dialog, Lufthansa, prodialog, snt/regiocom, Swiss Post Solutions, Teleperformance, Transcom, vilua, walterservices, Webhelp.
• Editorial team: gkk dialog, Scholz & Friends, Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Robert Koch-Institut, Paul-Ehrlich-Institut und weitere assoziierte Dienstleister.
• Internal project team: gkk dialog, Schacht Consulting, Das Lösungsinstitut, Converneo, TIGGES Rechtsanwälte
• Technical partners: 4Com, AC Süppmayer, Sabio