Using a medical answering service can be a great way to streamline the operation of a medical practice. This service can save your practice money by freeing up your staff’s time to concentrate on patient care. Medical answering services offer a variety of services including voice mail, appointment setting, and relaying messages to the appropriate person.
An answering service can also help your practice adhere to HIPAA guidelines. Most medical answering services have trained staff to manage patient information in accordance with HIPAA regulations. Some offer bilingual receptionists to help patients with their Spanish and English speaking needs. Some answering services even have IP Relay capabilities to accommodate those with hearing impairments.
One of the best benefits of an answering service is the ability to provide callers with a high level of customer service. For many practices, patient communication is the backbone of their operations, and an answering service can help take care of that. Some medical answering services even provide live ASL video chat and TTY capabilities. This will allow patients to feel confident in their ability to contact a practitioner in the event of an emergency.
An answering service can also help reduce no-shows. No-shows cost the healthcare industry upwards of $150 billion per year, and an answering service can help reduce those missed appointments.
In terms of efficiency, a well-trained medical answering service will be able to save you time and money. You’ll save money on hiring a full-time receptionist, and you’ll also save time when it comes to handling the influx of patient calls during non-business hours. The right medical answering service can save your practice time and money by handling caller-specific needs. A service that offers call screening, appointment scheduling, nurse triage, and other basic patient care can be a boon to your practice.
An answering service can also help you find the best time to schedule your appointments. Most medical practices have busy schedules, and many calls come in after normal business hours. The best answering service will have agents available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This medical answering service can help reduce the number of no-shows you see and free up your staff’s time to focus on patient care.
A good medical answering service will offer a number of features, including a web-based reporting system, automated phone calls, and nurse triage. An answering service can also streamline the operation of your practice by providing a central hub to upload and store patient lists, schedule appointments, and fill canceled appointments.
The best medical answering service will also have a well-designed website, which is another good indicator of the type of service you’ll be receiving. Some medical answering services even offer web-based applications to give patients instant access to their messages.
A quality medical answering service should also be HIPAA compliant. Many answering services will offer an online reporting system that will help your practice streamline its operations, improve training activities, and enhance patient care.