Month: October 2013

One rude phone call from an angry or dissatisfied patient can instantly destroy medical office staff morale. Training your staff to diffuse patient anger and handle rude phone calls tactfully can help keep your medical office functioning smoothly and improve patient relations. Even if certain people are tasked with answering the phone, you should consider […]

Working as a medical receptionist is a tough job. Receptionists can feel squeezed between physician needs and patient demands. When patients call their doctor’s office, it is often difficult for them to understand why the receptionist cannot immediately get them in for an appointment or connect them to their doctor or his nurse or reveal […]

In the push toward patient-centered care, “patient engagement has emerged as a key strategy for not just treating chronic conditions but also providing better, more collaborative and more efficient healthcare,” Brian Eastwood, senior editor of CIO.com, notes in a recent article on new methods medical practitioners are using to improve patient engagement. As we tweeted […]

With the government promising vigorous auditing to ensure compliance with new revisions to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), physician practices and medical clinics are reviewing their information security policies and procedures to ensure that they meet the new requirements. As we noted in our previous post, at the annual Medical Group Management […]

At last week’s annual conference of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) in San Diego, strategies for achieving and maintaining compliance with the Omnibus Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) were a hot topic. With implementation of new federal privacy and security requirements on September 23, HIPAA compliance issues dominated many discussions. […]

When a patient leaves a message whether via a live medical answering service team member or through a voicemail system the caller’s circumstances or emotional state may lead to confusion. A patient may be frightened by some sudden ailment; distracted by other conversations going on; frustrated by a perceived lack of progress in treatment; confused about a […]

We’re in San Diego this week for the MGMA 2013 Annual Conference October 6-9. If you’re attending the conference, stop by our booth #1532 to say hello and test drive our new HIPAA-compliant Secure Message App. Compatible with Android, iPhone or Blackberry software, our HIPAA Hitech Secure Messaging app employs SSL/TLS encryption to safeguard your […]

An extraordinarily efficient and cost-effective method of managing incoming calls, call centers have become a part of everyday life. Call centers have become such a normal aspect of doing business in the U.S. that you are likely to be talking to a call center whenever you phone your utility company about your bill or the […]

Training your medical office staff to handle difficult patient telephone calls effectively is good business. The receipt of an angry phone call can disturb the flow of office routine and seriously erode your staff’s morale. As noted in our previous post, countering angry or aggressive patients with courtesy, comfort and an effort to resolve their […]