When a patient is in pain or has any sort of medical emergency, they want to have the comfort of knowing that their physician is just a phone call away at all times, day or night. That is the number one reason why all types of medical professionals hire a medical answering service, they want to offer their patients total peace of mind.
Communication is of paramount importance in providing high quality healthcare, requiring a team effort of doctors, nurses, and staff to make each and every patient who walks into their office feel safe and assured that the circumstances of their particular illness or injury will be handled efficiently and thoroughly. When the communication between doctor and patient breaks down, that can lead to frustration and anger, resulting in the patient finding another provider for his or her care.
Hiring a medical answering service can ensure that the lines of communication are always open and ready to assist your patients, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But peace of mind is just one of the many benefits that come from having a reliable communication solution. The following are some other benefits of hiring a medical answering service:
First Impressions
You never get a second chance for one of these and when a new patient calls your practice, the first interaction he or she will have with the organization is the initial response from a member of your staff. Doctor’s offices can become very hectic at a moment’s notice, staff members can get distracted or stressed resulting in hurried interactions with patients or missing calls entirely. A busy office is no excuse for poor performance with any phone call.
Hiring a dedicated medical phone answering service eliminates these problems. Every call is answered and handled with the utmost care and professionalism, so even if your office is full of patients or it’s after hours, every patient experience will meet the highest standards.
Professional Training
Any patient who calls their doctor’s office wants to know that the person to whom they are speaking is well-equipped to understand the medical problem or concern that they are calling about. One of the most important benefits of outsourcing your services to a medical contact center service is properly trained call professionals who are well-versed in medical terminology and have the knowledge to determine a medical emergency from a wellness check-up.
This can be especially important depending on the type of medical practice that is being operated. Certain terminology and medical acumen may be acutely important for an oncology office but it’s just as vital for the representative answering the phones at a general practitioner as well. With a medical call center, you can rest assured that your patients will feel comfortable with the person at the other end of the line.
Analytics
A call center is only as good as the service it provides and hiring the right organization for your medical practice is the one that provides the highest level of customer service as well as response time. Patients should only have to call once to get a response and if they don’t, they may call elsewhere. One poor patient experience is enough to damage your reputation, which can be costly and time consuming to improve.
That problem can be easily avoided by using a medical answering service and you and your clients can enjoy the benefits of a superior level of service and response times. How quickly are calls answered in number of seconds? How many patients can your call center handle in a given hour or day? Identifying this data can provide an accurate picture of the level of service you are providing your patients.
Security
Another benefit of outsourcing your medical call answering services, comes in the security it can provide for your practice. Most top quality answering service centers record each call that comes in and they store these records for a pre-determined number of years. If your practice is named in a malpractice or harassment suit, you can refer to these recordings to defend yourself from such litigation.
HIPAA Compliance
Before you hire a medical phone answering service, be sure that the organization is HIPAA compliant. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, any call center that comes into contact, in any way, with electronic Patient Health Information (ePHI) is bound to follow the same Privacy and Security Rules as the healthcare provider that has hired them. In order to be HIPAA compliant, all call center operators are fully trained on the correct handling of ePHI. If a call center is not HIPAA compliant, they are not the right fit for your medical practice.
