A healthcare answering service is a business that helps doctors and other health professionals to manage the call flow of their office or clinic. These services help medical centers stay on top of their call volume, reduce overhead costs and provide an added source of revenue.
A medical answering service can be customized to the needs of each individual healthcare institution, from dentists and chiropractors to hospitals and hospice care providers. It can also integrate with secure healthcare communications platforms for a seamless experience.
Outsourcing your healthcare answering service is a smart move for specialized medical practices that are busy and don’t have the time to answer calls and respond to messages. The healthcare answering service takes on the heavy burden and enables the medical office to focus on providing quality care.
HIPAA Compliant Solutions
Choosing a healthcare answering service that complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is critical to ensuring that your patients’ personal information remains secure. These healthcare answering services will be trained to keep patient data confidential and protected from unauthorized access.
Live Customer Support
One of the most important aspects of a healthcare answering service is that it has live receptionists who are knowledgeable about your practice and can answer questions and address concerns promptly. This gives patients the feeling that they are being treated by a human being, instead of a robotic voice that only knows how to pass messages.
This can give a huge boost to the reputation of your medical facility as a place that truly cares about its patients. This means that patients are more likely to return for repeat visits and share their experiences with others.
It’s also a great way to get your patients to understand how your practice operates and why they should trust you with their health. A healthcare answering service can help with Go here a range of patient-focused tasks, including scheduling appointments, handling cancellations and no-shows, and more.
Appointment Scheduling and Reducing No-Shows
Every missed appointment is a lost opportunity to provide billable services. A good healthcare answering service will schedule these appointments in advance, and send reminders to patients via phone, email, or text if needed.
When patients have to wait to speak to a medical assistant, they often become anxious. Having an experienced answering service staff member who can calm them and provide basic information about the situation can alleviate their anxiety, prevent them from having to leave your office to go to a doctor or hospital, and make their visit as stress-free as possible.
An experienced employee can also determine if a patient’s symptoms are a sign of a serious medical condition or simply anxiety. This is a skill that should be learned by any professional answering service team member.
Depending on the healthcare answering service, they may also have bilingual receptionists who can answer calls in both English and Spanish. This is helpful for patients who aren’t familiar with the language or don’t have the necessary skills to communicate on their own.
