Grow Your Medical Practice With A Premium Medical Answering Service

By Author: Robin Hewitt
Total Articles: 739
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If you’re a busy doctor, you already know the value of high quality when it pertains to your incoming calls. Whether you’re in the office, on-call, making rounds, or home asleep your patients still have needs that must be met. If your receptionist and triage are overwhelmed and you’re considering adding to your staff, think again. The solution may be at the touch of your fingers with a full-spectrum medical answering service as long as you know what to look for when choosing a company. The key is to make a list of your needs and then finding a business answering service that will meet them instead of a service that requires you to conform to their offerings. Here are some factors to keep in mind when looking for a medical answering service for your practice:

Reliability: look for a company that’s been around for a few decades rather than a few months. While offshore companies abound and are often more economical this is not an area where you should sacrifice quality for price. Check for references, testimonials, and industry awards when choosing a business answering service.

Availability: make sure ...
... the company you choose offers 24/7 service, 365 days a year. In addition, inquire as to their backup plans and services in case of electrical, hardware, and software outages.

Training: like your staff, the skills of your medical answering service should be top notch. Make sure the business answering service you employ trains their staff to be empathetic to patients, take accurate and detailed information, and are well-versed in spelling and basic medical terminology. They should also be able to qualify calls for emergencies and log daily activity to reflect patient information, whether an on-call doctor was contacted, and response time.

Confidentiality: determine whether the company trains its receptionists in medical privacy requirements. All agents should be Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) trained and all patient information that is sent electronically should be encrypted or the legal ramifications will fall on your shoulders.

Office Support: a premier medical answering service will offer a variety of support options, such as taking non-urgent calls when your staff is busy or scheduling and confirming appointments. The service should work with your office staff rather than just replace it after hours, such as allowing you the option of overflow support when your waiting room is packed and the phone is ringing non-stop.

Optional Services: check for optional services that are available that pertain to your medical answering service needs, such as Spanish-language support, call routing and scripting, and message options such as text, online, and email.

In conclusion, if you’re a busy doctor whose staff can’t always handle incoming calls on a timely basis your practice will benefit from contracting a medical answering service. All business answering services are not created equal, and you should look for a company that will become part of your business the same as if you hired an in-house staff member to take your overflow calls.

Robin Hewitt is a freelance writer working with Alert Communications to educate physicians about business answering service options. Customer calls are vital, and not all medical answering services are created equal. For more information on California answering services and Call centers in California visit our website.