Pick the Right Medical Answering Service With the Help of This Guide

If you are looking for the top physician answering services for your medical facility, you have reached the right place. Here are some essential characteristics to look for in a medical answering service when you select them for a great customer experience and caller satisfaction for your patient:

Experience

Experience matters when choosing the top physician answering services. Although the expertise of medical professionals cannot be replaced, a calm and collected professional can do wonders to ensure that callers are in good hands. An experienced answering service staff can provide 24/7 support to patients when they need it most.

Experienced virtual receptionists can help patients differentiate between emergency and urgency and know when to escalate patients to 911 or an on-call provider. They can seamlessly integrate into your medical practice by providing just the right support and guidance to the patients. They answer service providers, schedule appointments, answer questions, and address concerns when the patients need it the most. They are perfect for anyone experiencing an urgent medical issue.

Medical calls need to be handled as accurately, quickly, and sensitively as possible. They can act as the voice of your practice and represent your values in each call. An experienced team can ensure that patient privacy is their priority. 

So, choose a service that has been in the market for a significant time. This will help to ensure that your patients receive the best service possible when trying to contact your facility.

HIPAA Compliance

HIPAA outlines patient privacy rights and procedures for protecting sensitive healthcare data. Make sure the answering service you choose prioritizes HIPAA compliance. Also, consider your organization’s existing policies and procedures for HIPAA compliance. Make sure the services use a secure messaging system to communicate with patients via email. 

They should also store data in a cloud database with extra layers of protection. If they fail to meet HIPAA standards, your practice could be in serious legal trouble. So make sure this is your priority when choosing a medical answering service.

Flexibility

There is no busy or slow season in the healthcare industry. Hence, it is difficult to predict exactly how much support a healthcare facility needs in a month. You never know what will happen next. However, partnering with a medical answering service that offers flexible hours and availability can up your support during busy periods and also scale back during slow months.

Look for a service provider that offers 24-hour availability. If you have traditionally limited your calls to business hours, you may increase your availability. Busy parents and shift workers will appreciate the chance to connect with your office over the weekend or after hours. The increased availability will allow you to row your medical business.

Moreover, healthcare workers are eager to take vacation days. This time off can provide a much-needed reset for stressed-out workers. Physician answering services can give you a skeleton crew as your employees take time to rest and recover. If your employees are out on leave, you can simply dial up the coverage you need from your answering service. 

Once employees have returned to work duty, you can again dial things back down. Such flexibility helps keep your workers from feeling overwhelmed while also ensuring that there is always a professional voice at the end of the line.

Customization and Collaboration

Choose a physician answering service who understands the nuances of healthcare customer service. This is especially important due to the sensitive nature of the calls medical facilities receive. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for such calls. So consider, how collaborative is the company willing to be as you look for medical answering services.

Your partner needs to work with you to create a customized plan that meets your requirements. All healthcare facilities are different. So, the service provider should not treat your account like any other. They should offer customizable call scripts that will allow you to control the messaging. This will enable you to set a tone for each phone call and also ensure that the conversations match your facility’s philosophies on customer service.

When working with a script, the receptionist has the necessary foundation to connect with any caller. Patients need to feel more secure in such conversations, and this happens when the receiver comes across as professional and in control. So, when hunting for an answering service, consider how much scripting may make a difference in your patient calls. It is one of the best ways to ensure that your practice’s policies and procedures are followed.

Bilingual Support

It is also important that they offer bilingual support for callers. It is essential that they speak with prospective and existing patients in their preferred language when they call. So, choose a service provider that can offer bilingual support if you want to stay relevant and extend your care to all populations. A bilingual answering service can be a great relief for callers as well as an in-house administrative team.

Bottom Line

So look for these features when choosing the best physician answering service. Make sure they have highly trained employees passionate about customer service—explore your options for a collaborative answering service experience.