A Professional Answering Service – An Inclusive Business Partner

A professional answering service, if selected properly, is a complete partner in business.

The business can be trading, medical, educational, or any other.

The mission of such a firm is to assist clients by providing bespoke and competent communications with their customers 24 x7.

The best among such firms have fully automated communications systems that are continually upgraded to meet the changing needs of their clients.

As businesses become increasingly dialogue focused, it is but natural that they develop outlooks that focus on customer experience throughout the business cycle.

But sadly, many small to medium businesses struggle with customer service issues.

You may have a great product and a first class marketing team, but if customer service is lacking it is impossible to make any headway in business.

This holds good even for the medical profession. A doctor’s staff is the first line of contact for the patients. If they are not motivated or adequately skilled in communicating, potential customers (patients) can stay away.

“Setting customer goals is vital in my profession”, says a physician. “It is for this reason I have hired a professional answering service”.

What the physician has done makes good sense. Outsourcing is the right solution even for moderate budgets.

An answering service works like a virtual receptionist. It is practically the front desk of a doctor’s office.

For example, a hospice answering service handles common problems without interrupting the flow of business. The call agents are provided with instructions to handle calls specific to a hospice center.

They can also provide callers with scripted advice in response to queries.

Importantly, the call agents are trained to maintain emotional composure and tackle each call with empathy, and not to mention compliance with HIPAA.

To be HIPAA compliant is not a cakewalk. Data security is of paramount importance. Most other run-of-the–mill answering services do not handle sensitive data.

“When it comes to patient health information, the stakes are high”, says a New York based doctor. “Breaches can lead to heavy fines and/or jail terms”.

By hiring an answering service that is also HIPAA compliant, numerous medical professionals are solving most of their routine headaches.

They now have the peace of mind that an agency is picking up all calls 24x7, responding to them in a professional manner, and also performing several other tasks such as appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and more.

What Does a Medical Office Answering Service Do?

Let us first understand that an answering service is different from a call center. A call center can be outbound or inbound. However, an answering service simply takes up the incoming calls. Now, when this service of answering the calls of people is provided for medical purposes, it is called a medical office answering service.

As we all know, hospitals and clinics have their own receptionists that take calls from people and then either route these calls or perform certain functions, such as fixing appointments. While big hospitals or clinics can provide this service round the clock, the same is not true for other, smaller health sector organizations or agencies. When this service works exclusively in the niche segment of healthcare, it employs experts in the domain in order to provide answers to the callers.

A medical office answering service often ties up with hospitals, clinics, doctors, pharmacists or other people/agencies in the healthcare domain. This tie-up allows them to answer the queries of people on their behalf. The modalities of the framework within which the health-care practitioners outsource this service are worked out mutually. The service providers are not required to delve in those tasks which are exclusive to the medical experts. All those tasks which relate to the management or administration of the services can be assigned the healthcare answering service provider.

Benefits of Medical Office Answering Service

There are certain clear benefits of this service. For doctors and small clinics which cannot function round the clock, this is a welcome service for the patients who can get to fix the appointments. So, the patients can still tell what their problem is.

It has also been seen that there could be missed calls even during the operative hours of business. With outsourcing of this service, this problem is taken care of. There are no missed calls anymore and every single call is attended to. This improves the service quality and improves health care.

As this service is provided 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, the calls of patients do get attended to even during holidays and off-duty hours.

For certain medical sectors, such as pharmacies, this answering service can be staffed with trained pharmacists who are able to provide the right information pertaining to medicines. 

The service is well-integrated into the operations and work-flow of hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare institutions so that not only the call management is good but also the subsequent action on the calls coming in.

A Few Tips On How To Select A Medical Answering Service

As a doctor you are already aware of the benefits of hiring an answering service.

There are no any doubts about this.

However, are you able to select the right medical answering service for your needs?

The straightforward answer is that you get what you pay for.

To assist you in finding the right answering vendor to meet your unique needs, here are a few pointers you must keep in mind.

Staff expertise

Get to know how the call agents are trained. A standardized training program specifically crafted to help medical professionals will ensure your callers will get the right responses.

Of particular importance is that the vendor must necessarily be a HIPAA compliant medical answering service.

Stability

How many years the company has been in the business of assisting the medical profession?

A long experience and a good record of medical clients’ assistance is a favorable point.

Is the company a dedicated physician answering service?

Just any telephone answering service is not fit to assist doctors. To assist medical professionals, the call agents must undergo customized training as an ongoing process.

Specifically, to be HIPAA compliant, the service must have staff that keeps itself updated on the latest revisions of HIPAA clauses.

Reliability

Does the answering service have back-up power and redundancies to take care of unexpected outages due to power-cuts/storms?

Ensure that the company has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place.

Service availability

Will the call agents be available 24 x 7 and 365 days a year?

Doctors can get calls from patients at any time, night or day. There is nothing more important than uninterrupted availability of the service at all times.

Ask about association membership

Find out if the vendor is approved by the Better Business Bureau or any other such organization. Answering services involved with such associations usually provide good service.

Pricing

There are several ways a medical answering service bills for their service. It can be by the call or by the minute or even a fixed charge per month.

If you want good quality operation that can handle the volume of calls you generally get, choose a service that is hired by most medical professionals.

Strive to get the best value for your money.

Do not forget to ask questions like:

•    How quickly the agents will answer my calls?

•    Is there a hold time? If yes, how much?

•    Do the agents sound friendly, helpful, and courteous?

•    Can the agents help with prescription refill and patient appointment scheduling?

A good answering service is not just a convenience. It is a great business partner.

Medical Answering Services – Taking Clinical Practice to New Levels of Efficiency

In this fast paced world of instant communication, ecommerce, and social media, people are used to having every kind of service at their fingertips, available round the clock. Therefore, there is no reason why doctors must miss out on this opportunity and leave their patients unable to access medical expertise outside regular working hours.

Being available for patients 24x7 is obviously not possible for any doctor. However, with advanced techniques such as doctors answering service, patients will be effectively able to keep in touch with their doctors, book or cancel medical appointments, and seek help in case of emergencies. In fact, medical answering services continue to streamline the processes in doctors’ offices without doctors having to employ, train, and maintain staff especially for the purpose.

How does the service work?

To put it in simple terms, hiring answering service for doctors is like appointing trained and experienced front office staff. The calls received at the doctor’s office are seamlessly forwarded to the answering company where efficient and reliable staff will promptly and courteously attend the calls. With ample medical training, the staff at answering companies is competent enough to make out the medical jargon that patients may specify while requesting for appointments. Answering services also offer doctors the option of sending text messages or emails to remind patients of checkups or consultations, thereby keeping the cases of no shows to a minimum. 

In addition to scheduling appointments, these services also reduce the workload of receptionists employed at the doctors’ office. For instance, during peak hours, there will be a high influx of calls that one or two receptionists will be unable to handle. As a result, a considerable number of calls will go unattended. However, doctors answering service companies feature a large number of staff who will pick up calls within two rings, thereby creating an excellent impression of professionalism and efficiency. 

The healthcare industry has always been on the lookout for ways to reduce operating costs without affecting the quality of communication with patients. Hiring extra staff and setting up necessary infrastructure to handle a flourishing practice can be an expensive option. The reasonable subscription rates and reliable efficiency offered by answering service for doctors make it an excellent choice for doctors keen on maintaining high standards of professionalism. Patients will surely be pleased when their calls are always promptly answered and they have the flexibility to schedule appointments any time of the day, even on weekends and holidays.