Having a medical answering service can help a medical practice handle the volume of calls it receives. Whether the practice is a hospital or a home care facility, the ability to handle phone calls on a 24-hour basis can be very helpful. This type of service can help doctors and other medical practitioners streamline their work, freeing up time for in-office staff to focus on patient care. It also can help improve the flow of work, allowing patients to schedule appointments without having to wait on hold.
The best medical answering service will be HIPAA compliant, which ensures that patient information is kept confidential. It will also offer a high level of customer service. It is important that the service has trained staff that is knowledgeable in healthcare. It is also a good idea to use a service that has external quality checks in place.
An answering service can help improve a doctor’s patient relationship by providing an individual to take calls and answer questions. It can also provide patients with an efficient way to schedule appointments, cancel appointments, and handle other important issues.
A medical answering service can also help a physician comply with HIPAA requirements. A service can work to ensure that all calls are properly recorded, enabling physicians to be able to track call statistics in real time. A good service will also be able to offer emergency message delivery.
Having a medical answering service can also help your practice save money. This service is especially useful for physicians who don’t have administrative staff to answer the phone. It can also help with call overflow. For example, when a patient calls with an emergency, a service can immediately dispatch the call to an emergency room. This medical answering service helps keep the patient safe, while also cutting down on the cost of phone calls.
It is important to have a medical answering service that is trained to work with scripts and back-end systems. This will allow the service to handle multiple calls and provide all of the information the patient needs when they call. It is also important that the service has trained staff that is able to answer questions, enter patient information into management software, and provide a high level of customer service.
In addition to handling incoming and outgoing calls, a medical answering service can also provide scheduling and triage services. They can be available during holidays, too. A good service will also offer live ASL video chat and IP Relay for the hearing impaired. This will give patients the assurance that their calls are being answered properly.
A medical answering service can also help your practice to reduce the number of no-shows. This is a problem that costs the healthcare system approximately $150 billion a year. A service can send automatic reminders that should help reduce the number of no-shows.
The best medical answering service will be able to provide a live receptionist to take phone calls. This can help a practice avoid frustrations from patients who are frustrated with a voicemail greeting or a busy signal. A service can also provide an empathetic approach to patients. This helps to build trust, which will help to improve the doctor-patient relationship.