Doctor NOT on Call

The best way for any medical centre to be able to maximize the number of patients its doctors can attend to is through medical answering service. Medical service professionals are able to answer all calls after the first ring, which is reassuring for the callers. Most of all, they help build trust in the services of the doctors in question.

Separating urgent and non-urgent

Those successful in life have only been able to do so by prioritizing tasks, no matter where in the world. The same holds true for a reputed company that provides healthcare answering service as well. It’s not the doctor on call but the service professionals, who help the doctors give unwavering attention to their medical practice. In this manner, they are able to separate the urgent calls from the non-urgent calls. The urgent ones require immediate attention from doctors and have to be connected to them. Of course, the service professionals are always trained as per clinic protocol.

What happens when the call is urgent?

An urgent call is one in which the patient is in need of immediate medical attention. Medical service professionals must understand the nature of such a call and not waste too much time in ascertaining the exact condition. Such a call gets directly routed to the concerned doctor within a matter of seconds. Other emergency options are also available in case the specific doctor does not answer the call soon.

Major advantages at a glance

Here’s a look at the main reasons that should compel every medical centre to choose these services:

1. Medical services do not face interruptions and can be handled even if the main doctor is off duty  Cost-effective for the clinic
2. The patient is less irritated as he or she doesn’t have to go through an automated voice
3. Every patient’s data is systematically recorded and remains tamper-proof
4. Service agreements with the healthcare service company can be renewed on a yearly or monthly basis and allow performance to be the ultimate yardstick
5. Efficiencies of current medical staff also go up due to focused services. They also face lesser stress than earlier.
6. Patients feel more satisfied than earlier
7. Be able to send appointment reminders to patients
8. Appointments can be booked at any time
9. Outsourced medical services help save money since one doesn’t have to invest in extra office space or technology
10. Agents are HIPAA compliant and possess a comprehensive understanding of medical terms

More information about HIPAA

All medical centres and healthcare organizations have to work in sync with HIPAA privacy regulations. HIPAA stands for the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and was originally passed in 1996, though it was amended many times as per the changing medical landscape.

To ensure that everyone in the organization is compliant, regular training is necessary. This training should ideally be carried out by third-party vendors. It is best to break these training into easily understandable sections. Clear guides for error reduction and daily activity should be part of the training programs.

Tasks for healthcare services teams

The following tasks can be efficiently performed by a well-known healthcare services company:

• Picking up live calls and speaking to customers
• Maintaining a record of all messages
• Sending emergency calls to the doctor(s) on duty as soon as possible
• Arranging appointments and sending reminders to patients
• Ensuring that customer payments are made
• Recording audio calls
• Answering customer calls even after doctors’ business hours

All the above tasks will be performed in a manner to provide immense peace of mind to doctors. There is no service that provides better value for money over longer than this.

Trial periods

Doctors must not pressurize themselves to sign up for healthcare answering services as soon as they get information. Even after taking up the services, payments do not have to be made on the first day. Companies give medical centres the option to try the services over a specified trial period, which often comes with a number of benefits. It is the ideal way to evaluate the doctor’s answering services vis-a-vis one’s requirements. This will help to find out whether the same plan can be continued or not, or if the services are not required at all.

Answering services for other industries

So far we have got to know about the medical industry which makes use of answering services. However, it is not just doctors who get benefited from these services, but others as well. The staff can easily be trained as per requirements, and are primarily meant for the following industries:

• Contractors for various field workers such as plumbers
• Insurance companies that have
• to inform their customers about premium deadlines and insurance coverage limits
• Property management companies
• Corporations that employ them in large numbers for taking orders
• Entrepreneurs
• Lawyers