No business can be expected to be responsible for calls on a 24/7 basis without help. When it comes to the medical industry, each call coming through is urgent, and practices simply can’t afford the risk of improper call management. In hospitals, in-patient care facilities, and even small practices, it’s crucial for each call to result in customer satisfaction. For many health care centers, this means paying extra attention to what kind of messaging service they choose. As technology allows patients to access more and more information and materials online, the expectation for a medical office to provide around-the-clock service becomes heightened. If your practice hasn’t invested in an answering service that extends beyond traditional business hours to keep patients safe, happy, and care for, your practice could be suffering for it. Before choosing an answering service for your practice, use the following points as a guide for finding an answering system that best fits your patient needs as well as your practice’s business profile.
Services vs. Individual Workers
It’s common for smaller practices to assume that hiring a live operator is the best way to field all-hours calls. However, for practices that are short-staffed and cost-conscious, automated systems often provide the highest quality at the most conservative price. While many patients prefer the personal touch, overall efficiency has been shown to vastly increase when hospitals choose an automated messaging service to answer calls. Not only does this route leave zero room for human error, it’s able to compile caller data and keep track of patterns automatically, leaving you and your practice with instant access to helpful information about your callers and their needs. Organization is instantly increased by automated messaging services, with the cost of labor decreased to zero.
Choosing “On-Message” Services
Of course, choosing an automated service also has pitfalls. Patients don’t want to feel endlessly re-routed on calls, and they certainly don’t want to face the possibility of long hold times. A helpful way to let patients know their needs are being taken seriously is to utilize a high quality messaging service. Using services that allow you to record a series of customized messages can help you establish your own brand through personal modifications of statements and assurances. Taking the time to do a bit of background research into the services on the top of your list may reveal affiliations or branding that you don’t want your practice to be allied with. Preventing damage to your brand is always easier than trying to mend a damaged reputation.
Services That Provide Data Compilation
Messaging services don’t just exist to redirect calls. Ideally, you don’t just want your service to perform the robotic job of answering off-hour calls and recording messages, but to help you figure out larger trends and gather helpful data about your callers and their needs. If you find that you have a string of callers requesting a specific type of non-urgent information, that’s helpful to know. You can use that data to update your website and provide more easily-accessible info for your patients so you can clear up your phone lines for more urgent calls.
Services That Don’t Shut Down on Weekends and Holidays
One of the most consistent reasons for hospitals and practices opting for automated messaging services is their round-the-clock availability. If you’re running a medical facility, you don’t ever want patients to feel ignored or turned away, especially when they’re calling in with health-related questions and concerns. Your practice should treat every call as an urgent matter, no matter when it comes through. That’s why it’s not enough just to invest in a service that’s working hard 24/7 to help your patients with their needs. You’ll want to find a service that uses technology to notify you about calls as soon as they happen, especially if you’re part of a smaller practice. Many services are designed to provide doctors with real-time updates and notifications on their personal phone for a completely seamless process.
HIPAA Compliant Services
HIPAA compliance is one of the most important aspects of your practice. As a dedicated medical professional, you’re already aware of the HIPAA privacy rule and how it impacts the way you receive and give out information over the phone. When choosing an automated answering service, it’s crucial that you keep HIPAA compliance in mind at all times. Look for a service that’s completely secure and fully compliant with HIPAA privacy protocol. Additionally, you’ll want to choose a service that keeps private numbers blocked for extra security. Don’t make the mistake of employing a service that hasn’t done the necessary HIPAA research and training. While certain answering services are completely cleared for business use, they might not be using the correct safeguards it takes to protect privileged patient information. Try to find a service that has already has a number of medical offices and hospitals as clients to be safe.
Automated Services for Efficiency
Your reputation for prompt, careful, and sensitive service should never falter, no matter how many people you’re able to employ on staff at any given time. Having a messaging service on hand will help you designate one of your workplace’s most important office tasks to a trusted service that knows exactly how to cater to patient needs. Using an inconsistent answering system can create far more problems than it’s worth. Choosing the right automated service will help to streamline calls, increase your brand reliability, and help your staff stay on top of their own work.
Privilege Patient Needs and Expectations
In today’s world, so much information is readily available to patients at the push of a button. While technology has created so many wonderful, safe ways for individuals to access sensitive information safely, this trend has also made the bar much higher for medical practices. As a professional, you don’t want to have to compete with online sources like WebMD and Google for the trust and attention of your patients. By selecting a trusted answering service, you’ll be showing that extra commitment to your patient base and creating a smoother, more efficient work environment.
