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.