For healthcare providers of any type, it’s vital to be able to ensure that patients receive the highest standard of care that you can possibly provide.
However, healthcare quality goes beyond medical procedures and prescribing medications. There are many other factors that can affect your patients’ satisfaction, including the attention that they receive from the rest of your staff.
One way to improve the quality of this attention is by hiring a virtual answering service to outsource your “customer service” department. Here are 5 reasons why your practice needs a live answering service.
Reason #1. Allow your staff to fully focus on your patients
No matter the size of your medical office, each member of your staff probably already has enough on their plate. There are many tasks involved in the successful running of any healthcare institution, and even the most seemingly trivial duties can take up a lot of time.
But if your staff struggles to successfully complete all their daily tasks, adding phone calls on top of everything else could significantly impact the quality of the services that they provide. Overworks staff are often distracted, grumpy, and stressed out – none of which are characteristics that you want to encounter during a medical appointment.
You can take one thing off their plate when you hire a live answering service. Highly skilled operators will work to make sure no phone call goes unanswered, which will also give the rest of your staff more time to complete other tasks and focus on patient care.
Reason #2. Make managing your schedule easier
A poorly-managed schedule makes everyone’s day worse at a medical office. Cancelled appointments are bad for business and make waiting lists longer, late arrivals keep your patients unhappy in the waiting room, and an inefficient schedule can result in longer working hours for you and other providers in your office.
However, it can also be quite difficult to stay on top of every scheduling modification that happens throughout the day. Patients often require to change their appointments, or they forget about their consultation and arrive late.
A medical answering service provides a quick way to solve this issue. Remote operators will be able to keep track of any changes to your schedule. They can quickly schedule new appointments, check your availability, reschedule and take cancellations, and keep your calendar updates.
You can also choose to send out automated reminders through your virtual answer service. These messages can be customized, and they’ll be sent out automatically to minimize the risk of patients forgetting their appointments.
Reason #3. Promote a better relationship with your community
As a healthcare provider, it’s extremely important to be able to maintain a positive relationship with your community. You want members of the community to trust you, feel respected by you and your staff, and know that they can come to you with their health concerns.
But to achieve this, it’s important to guarantee a high quality service. Patients need to know that you’re doing everything you can to care for them, which includes keeping your communication lines wide open. This is another reason why virtual answering services are so helpful; they make it easier for patients to communicate with your office and know that they can rely on you.
Reason #4. Keep your office open 24/7
Healthcare functions around the clock, and emergencies can happen at any time of the day. If your office is only open during office hours, it can be complicated to find a balance that allows patients to reach you while still giving you time to rest.
But remote operators will be able to take phone calls 24/7, 365 days of the year. Depending on the caller’s concern, they will be able to take a message, schedule a consultation for the following day, or even transfer the call directly to you or another member of your staff. Don’t worry – this will all be done according to your own previous instructions to ensure that proper guidelines are followed at all times.
Reason #5. Ensure HIPAA compliance
Any healthcare provider knows how important it is to comply with HIPAA regulations. These regulations are in place to keep patients’ intimate and sensitive health information safe and confidential – after all, having your personal medical information spread without your consent is a very valid worry that many of us have experienced at some point.
But with a highly qualified virtual answering service, you won’t have to worry about HIPAA. Operators are already trained in HIPAA compliance, and they will always keep your patients’ privacy and wellbeing in mind while working to make your office run more smoothly.
