With over 922 million visits to physician offices in the United States each year, doctors are busy people who lead busy lives. In the business world, their daily tasks are related to seeing and treating patients back to health. Since doctors need to sleep as well, they are after all human, they cannot answer phone calls throughout the night to set appointments, answers patient’s questions, and perform a variety of other tasks. Luckily, hiring an answering service for doctors office administrative tasks is an excellent alternative.
How Does it Work?
Having an answering service for doctors office tasks is a call center with employees who are trained to manage medical-related calls. The most basic duties include screening calls to your office, relaying messages, communicating basic information to the caller, and providing 24-hour support. Doctors can choose to take the answering services a step further by adding scheduling responsibilities, assigning prescriptions, and other patient support.
An answering service is different than a call center in that answering services manage a variety of tasks while only employing a few individuals. Call centers control a variety of tasks for businesses in different industries and have hundreds of employees. This means an answering service for doctors office delivers a more focused and personalized touch.
Appointment Scheduling
By adding the appointment scheduling option to be managed by your answering service, patients have the freedom to schedule medical visits around-the-clock. You even have the flexibility of providing reminders to your patients which will reduce no-shows thus making your business more efficient.
Reliable Services
When all your lines or busy, your office is closed, or your staff cannot get to the phone, a live receptionist is required. Hiring a receptionist equates to a salary and benefits but an answering service does not. If a patient calls your office when these situations occur, it forwards the call to the answering service with the operator following a script you create. This will be the same as having a receptionist sitting at the front desk. Best of all, answering services utilize software that is HIPAA compliant to ensure your patient’s information is secure.
During an emergency, doctors will receive real-time messaging. Also, representatives are extensively trained in how to manage and evaluate urgent calls to ensure a situation is an emergency before calling the physician.
An answering service for doctors office is a reliable and cost-effective option versus having an in-house receptionist and you receive the benefit of having the phones managed after the office closes. This provides better customer service which will increase retention rates and boost business. In the busy world of a doctor and the staff, an answering service can be a savior!