Whether you’re looking to schedule appointments for patients or to find a way to make your practice more profitable, hiring a medical answering service is a smart choice. Not only do they free up your staff to focus on patients, they also provide a higher level of customer service. A medical answering service can also provide an added layer of protection for patient information. They use native speakers of English, Spanish and French to answer calls.
The healthcare field is a busy profession. Often, medical practices are understaffed. This means that if a patient has an emergency, the physician or nursing staff may not be available. This can lead to long holds and frustrated patients. With an answering service, your patient can call in for an appointment whenever they are available. They can also ask for an appointment reminder.
The healthcare industry spends a lot of time handling patient communication. It’s important to create the best patient experience possible. Medical practices want to streamline their operations and help make their patients’ lives easier. The best medical answering service will help ensure that they get the information they need, and that the patient is treated appropriately. They can also provide a variety of other services, including appointment scheduling, nurse triage, call recording and comprehensive documentation.
When choosing an answering service for your practice, consider how many patients the practice serves and how often they call. You may have a lot of calls coming through at medical answering service once, so make sure the service can handle them all. A good service will allow you to choose which types of calls are handled, including messages sent to multiple email addresses, voicemail and cell phones. You should also make sure that the service is HIPAA compliant. Some providers will charge you a flat rate, while others will bill by the minute.
The price of a medical answering service depends on the type of plan you choose. You’ll find some providers charge for answering calls during holidays or during periods of high call volume. Others charge by the minute and include everything from sending messages to placing calls. You can also choose a plan that is based on talk time. This type of plan will reflect the actual time the provider spends supporting your business. This is a more cost-effective choice.
Many medical answering services offer 24-hour live support, so you don’t have to worry about your calls getting lost in the shuffle. Moreover, most of these services use simultaneous translation technology to help communicate with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing. They also offer IP Relay, which allows patients to talk to a live operator. Some even offer live ASL video chat.
A medical answering service can help reduce no-show rates, alert patients about office closures and reschedule appointments for practitioners. It can also provide feedback to patients from their physician. You can also use the service to streamline call data.
The best answering service will also screen calls to make sure there’s no disruption to your staff during an emergency. A good service will also use decision trees to determine which calls should be forwarded to an on-call physician. Some providers even provide nurse triage services, which can help ensure that medical emergencies are handled properly.