Tips for effective Healthcare Answering Services

If you are having a hard time coordinating your doctor-patient communication, you might want to get medical answering services to help you do that. These experts will take the stress out of the communication process and allow you to focus on your work.

When it comes to medical practice, time is always of the essence. You never know what will pop up every minute. Besides, that very minute could mean a difference between timely care and a missed opportunity. That’s why you never want to put a patient on hold or miss their call altogether. However, as you may know, this is easier said than done. With plenty of things to take care of around the office, it can be challenging to respond to all calls whenever your patients call in. Maybe you are treating another patient, or are in a meeting, or out for lunch and are far away from the phone. If it’s in the evening, you are maybe off work and are catching up with your loved ones. Unfortunately, patients won’t understand this. They expect you to be available whenever they call, irrespective of the time. 

The best way to deal with this is to get medical answering services. This way, you can focus on doing other things without having to worry about who is calling and whether or not you missed a call or message. But before you even think about hiring a call answering service, it's important to remember that not all of them are created equally. Like any other business, some call answering services offer quality solutions than others. In this article, we will let you in on how to find the right medical answering services. We will also give you insights into tips for effective medical answering services. 

Finding the right call answering service

Specialization: First and foremost, you should sieve down your options to companies that offer medical call answering. 

Experience: in addition to specialization, it is a good idea to ensure the company (and their agents) has the expertise to respond to medical calls. 

Professionalism: The agents should receive calls and respectfully address patients. 

Reputation: find a company with a track record of delivering on their promise. It should be consistent with offering quality services at all times.

HIPPA compliance: medical information is very sensitive. That’s why your company of choice should comply with the HIPPA regulations.

Your preference: Find a company you are comfortable working with so that your communication doesn’t seem additional stress.

Tips for effective healthcare answering services

When done correctly, delegating your call answering services to a call company can help relieve a lot of stress on you and your team. And as we mentioned earlier, it also ensures that no call goes unanswered. On top of that, call answering companies allows your facility to cut down on costs that you would otherwise spend if you hired an in-house team. When call answering is done correctly, your facility may experience a series of problems, including money wasted, bad reputation, and lost clients. To make sure you don’t fall into the latter, here are some tips for effective healthcare answering services:

Customize your account instructions

If the call answering service of your choice has worked with numerous clients, they will likely present you with a standard script that they use. While this may work fine, you still want to adjust it to fit your practice. For instance, if your practice handles prescription calls after hours, you may need to include that in your account instruction. Ideally, you want to script to represent your hospital and not be something generic. 

Inform your team about the call center procedures

So, if you are handling prescription after hours, you need to notify the relevant people that they might be getting a call in case of anything. They also should be aware of how the call company will be contacting them about emergencies after hours. Patients, too, need to be informed of what makes an emergency and how to reach the call center. 

Use existing data to improve your services

A good call answering service will log and record all calls and messages coming in. This provides an incredible amount of data that you can leverage to enhance your customer services. For example, you can analyze the calls to identify which areas are lacking and which ones are doing okay. 

View the call center as an extension of your business

Do not hire a call center and forget about them altogether. It is a good idea to work with them carefully and keep them informed regarding any changes in your organization. For instance, if you change your on-call procedures, or lose a doctor or change your patient page option on your website, you should let them know. 

Conclusion 

Finding the right company to work with is a step in the right direction. But to realize the most out of your investment in a call center, you should follow the steps listed above.