Most businesses can benefit from the reduced labor costs and increased productivity that come along with hiring a professional answering service. But healthcare providers, in particular, need to consider a qualified medical answering service in order to meet the demands of patient care and keep the business aspect of a practice running smoothly. Here are five reasons why all practices should hire an experienced medical answering service:
- Round-the-Clock Services
Medical emergencies don’t always happen between 9 and 5. Having 24 hour live answering services can reassure your patients that you care and ensure that all true emergencies are dealt with promptly. And unlike giving your beeper or cell number out, with this route you won’t be interrupted unnecessarily when you should be enjoying your limited time away from the office. If you prefer to have in-house receptionists answer during the day, you can choose to utilize answering services only for overflow or after-hours calls.
- Appointment Reminders
A medical answering service can place some calls, as well as answering them. Making the most of an answering service’s live or automated appointment reminder system can reduce no-shows, which are bad for business.
- A Calm and Compassionate Tone
Any call answering service should be courteous and polite to callers. But people calling about medical situations can need extra compassion and guidance giving all the relevant information, particularly if they’re anxious or distressed about an emergency.
- Secure Call and Message Routing
It’s very important that medical information gets where it needs to — and nowhere else. An answering service that’s accustomed to working with physicians should have additional layers of security to make sure all calls and messages are correctly routed.
- HIPAA Compliance
In addition to general security concerns, medical answering services should be HIPAA compliant so you don’t need to worry about liability. HIPAA has some very specific requirements, so it’s important you choose an answering service that meets all of them, instead of just having generally good practices regarding privacy.
What other considerations should medical offices take into account when choosing an answering service?