A answering service cannot see patients for you, but they can schedule appointments, facilitate patient-doctor communication, and in some cases push information to customer relationship management (CRM) systems. With all that is at stake, there are many factors to consider when hiring an answering service to work with your medical practice.
- HIPAA Compliant: Medical practices, surgeons, medical care facilities are required to operate and comply with HIPAA compliant laws.
- Scheduling Appointments: Allow your clients to call when convenient to them and schedule appointments, after hours, weekends, or even during office hours when staff is not available.
- Emergency Calls: When time is crucially important, emergency calls can be routed to the necessary first responder service or hospital.
- Prescription Refills: Some refills are time sensitive or may warrant specific call handling.
- Have The Right FAQs: Answering service operators are not qualified to provide medical advice, they can certainly address frequently asked general questions.
- Hospital, Emergency & Consult Calls: Depending on the area of practice, consult calls could be emergencies.
- Specific Mentions: Patients will speak of doctors or staff by name, operators working knowledge of office staff builds integrity.
- Overflow, Weekends & After-Hours: Calls during office hours and calls outside of regulary office hours should be handled differently.
- Keep it Simple: Common call types, frequently asked questions, and canned scripts make it simple for operators and patients.
- Knowledge of Triaging Techniques: Use pointed questions or an IVR recording to filter out priority calls.
