Medical professionals hire a medical answering service to enable their medical offices to run smoothly and to ascertain that their staff – doctors, nurses, etc. – are doing their job properly. Patient experience is very important and to ensure that all patient related activities and communications are carried out without any difficulties, a medical answering service can really prove very beneficial.
There are many factors that are responsible for making an answering service extremely useful for medical professionals. Some of these are enumerated below.
1. Cost savings: Since it is not possible for medical staff to be available for attending all incoming calls, an answering service can take care of this need as there is someone always available to take calls and record messages. An answering service provider will supply trained operators who can effectively manage and prioritize calls. This way you will not have to incur any training costs. Also, this will invariably allow your internal staff to focus on other critical aspects of their medical profession.
2. Compliance to HIPAA: Most answering service providers will be HIPAA complaint. HIPAA offers protection of information related to patient health that is held by a medical organization. HIPAA also mandates for health information to be communicated through a third party. Answering service providers will be adept at knowing how to handle patient health information to fully ensure HIPAA compliance.
3. Time saving: Since medical organizations and offices can get highly busy – with patients calling to book appointments, check on their prescription status, etc. – virtual receptionists from the answering service can easily screen and filter calls to enhance efficiency. The number of wrong and cold calls can be greatly reduced, thereby allowing your staff to deal with more important tasks.
4. Availability: Virtual receptionists from your answering service will be available 24/7 to attend calls and take messages. Even during the periods of emergencies – where you witness an overflow of calls – can be effectively managed by your answering service. You can rest assured as your answering service will even attend calls on the weekends and during holidays to expand your reach to a large number of patients and in the process enhancing their experience.
This being said, while hiring a medical answering service provider, you need to ensure that it is able to meet and even exceed the your expectations. In other words, it should allow your doctors and other medical staff the room to carry out their practice without being disturbed by calls. It is very important for you to feel the importance of your answering service. You need to make sure that it is properly catering to the patients and the right person is being delivered the message in time and with efficiency.
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