Anyone who has ever operated a medical practice can tell you that it is not easy work. There are a lot of patients to deal with, their questions and concerns to answer to. Not to mention emergencies and all the other admin-related activities. That is exactly why there is a medical answering service – it simplifies the communication with the patients and also takes away some of the pressure off your staff. But you should remember that there are different kinds of answering services. In order for you to determine whether a certain answering service is good here is a list of the most important features to consider.
1. Is At Work 24/7
There is no denying the fact that the healthcare sector operates outside the confines of normal business hours. Patients reach out for help whenever it is needed, be it because they have queries concerning their medication even on weekends. As such, you will want your medical answering service to operate at all times. The last thing you want is for a patient to be left stranded with nobody to answer their phone call.
The benefit of offering medical answering services is that it complements the efforts put in by your practitioners. After all, the last thing you want is for your practitioners to be overworked. You would only want your practitioners to concentrate and work during working hours while the service provider takes charge after hours.
2. Keeping with HIPAA Protocols
With regards to healthcare, privacy is not a compromise, it is a requirement. Any good medical answering service has to be compliant with HIPAA rules and regulations.
This would cover appropriate receipt, transmission, and storage of patient data, I suppose. Communicated channels would be confidential, and the personnel would appreciate confidentiality. It’s all about encryption, but I suppose encryption is much better than locking up your file cabinet.
3. Interactive Phone Answering Service
This is why the ability to change call scripts is such a sought after feature. Patients do not like to engage with someone reading off a script (even if that really is what is happening).
Such a popular feature allows patients to stop stressing if the answering machine of the medical facility would upset their communication style. Whether it’s a receptionist who starts off by wishing a patient a happy birthday or addresses the nurse who offers them an appointment on a busy day or requests urgent care.
4. Reminders and Scheduling of Appointments
How often do missed appointments disrupt your entire day? A medical answering service that has inbuilt scheduling of appointments and reminders can be of great help in managing your daily routine.
As an example, consider this: a patient tries to call after hours to change an appointment. Instead of waiting for business hours, the answering service can do it then and there. Furthermore, automated reminders through call, text, or email can help cut down on no shows and help patients remember their appointments.
5. Bilingual or Multilingual Communication
The diversity in population across the US is so much that language should never be a barrier between a patient and a health care provider. That is why bilingual (or multilingual) capabilities are such an important feature to have in any medical answering service.
It is very important to have operators who are fluent in the different languages in which the patients speak. This makes sure that every patient is understood and feels appreciated. This goes a long way in building trust and better patient relationship management.
6. Management Of Emergency Call Situations
A medical answering service must understand the typical structure of a phone call considering this is an area of great concern for patients during emergencies. Where else would an emergency come from?
Test this theory out: If there is a medical emergency that must be attended to right away. For example, if someone is feeling chest pain, it should not matter which doctor they get handed over to, there is no time to waste and any doctor on call would suffice. One with the correct medical service knows what effort being put will cut their time short.
7. Linkage With Appointment Scheduling System
If you are a busy individual juggling too many platforms, frustration is bound to arise. Office management software compatible with the reception service helps reduce such redundancy. In doing so elevates your comfort around the platforms.
Why do video meetings have so many layers of unpreparedness? The answer is always one and the same: incomplete employee integration or prior preparation. This feature allows for smooth updates to patient records, real-time appointment syncing, and an overall reduction in administrative redundancy. Thus, communication delays can be avoided and multiple updates become possible through seamless synchronization of patient records and booking appointments.
Conclusion
Although a thorough evaluation doesn’t seem pleasant, choosing the correct answering service is a massive responsibility. By putting in this small amount of additional work today, tomorrow expect less clients to miss out on calls, and expect a more efficient working environment all together. Bear in mind these specific features and rest assured you will be ready to integrate in your team an answering service. This is for a better future of the healthcare industry.