Four Reasons Behind Hiring A Professional Medical Answering Service
Running a medical clinic isn’t a cake-walk. In the medical profession, the most difficult thing
to bear with is the constant buzzing phone. It’s because people may face an emergency
situation at any time of any day. Doctors can never deny serving or helping a patient to
recover. But, this humongous task can’t be handled single-handed. A doctor isn’t only
responsible for treating patients, but for answering a thousand calls, taking appointments,
reminding patients of an upcoming appointment, and whatnot. Most of the doctors hire a
receptionist in their clinic to do these miscellaneous tasks but that includes some major
problems as well. The staff may be absent on any day when a patient needs emergency care
and the doctor is busy treating another patient.
These issues can create a lot of problems and tarnish the reputation of the doctor because
every patient wants to have a premium standard medical service when they’re ill. So, the
ideal solution to overcome this mess is to hire a medical answering service. They are
professionally trained staffs who operate virtually to help doctors with their miscellaneous
tasks. The staff will greet patients more professionally and improve their satisfaction rate. If
the medical clinic is overwhelmed with calls and people are unable to handle the influx of
calls, then these professional medical answering services can be a lot more beneficial. There
are innumerable reasons why doctors should consider a medical answering service for their
clinics. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
1. It Saves Money
Well, most of the doctors hire in-house receptionists to take calls, handle the patients,
schedule appointments, and do miscellaneous tasks. However, doctors are required to
invest a significant amount of money to conduct the entire process. It’s because the medical
staff should be properly trained for the task. They should know the rules of medical calling.
They should be able to filter the emergency and non-emergency calls to better facilitate the
patients.
This is undoubtedly not an easy task. Most doctors spend a lot of money hiring the in-house
staff and then train the staff to properly handle the process.
However, the best medical answering service provides staff that is properly trained to handle all the tasks. There will be no need to train them anymore by spending money on them. It means doctors can save a hefty amount by hiring a professional medical answering service.
2. It Improves Patient’s Experience
Patients need someone to take care of them when they’re in pain. This is the reason why it’s
important for the medical staff to know the professional calling etiquette before answering
them. The answering services will be available 24*7 to answer any number of calls in a
day. Since they are trained to manage the influx of calls, there will be no single slip up during
the entire process.
It means patients can reach out to the doctor any time they face an emergency. Having this
service will reduce the workload on the other staff as well and everyone will be working
seamlessly during the clinic hours. In fact, this staff is reachable after the clinic is closed. It
further improves the patient’s experience and improves their satisfaction over time.
3. It Increases Doctor’s Time
Medical professionals have immense pressure as they’re dealing with someone’s life. Every
decision must be taken carefully so that nothing gets complicated. Previously doctors used to
struggle to handle the patient’s care as well as the phone calls. It means they barely could
provide undivided attention to any single patient. This used to reduce the standard of
healthcare facilities and sometimes the reputation of the doctor used to get tarnished.
Also, despite leading stressful lives doctors were not allowed to have their own time to spend
with their families due to immense pressure. However, this can be simplified by hiring a
medical answering service. The staff can take care of the miscellaneous activities when the
doctors can increase their time with patients and their time with their families. They can take
a little vacation and spend time with their families without degrading their professional
standards.
4. It Improves Patients Security
Hiring an in-house receptionist to handle the huge data of patients is a risky task. It’s because
anyone can misuse this data and bring a negative impact on the clinic. The clinic can be
forced to be closed legally if anyone misuses the data of any patient. The medical answering
services are HIPAA certified.
However, not all of them have this certification so doctors should spend a little time
investigating the professionals with HIPAA compliance. This health insurance portability and
accountability act protects the information of a patient. So, these are some of the few reasons
why doctors should consider virtual medical answering services from now on.
