If your medical practice or healthcare facility is important to you, then it matters who you select as your answering service. If serving your patients with excellence and putting their healthcare first is a priority, then you know how important your answering service is in helping you achieve your vision.
Here are four things that matter the most when you select a medical answering service.
1. Singular Focus on Healthcare
Start by selecting an answering service that serves the healthcare industry exclusively. Though there’s nothing wrong with answering services that take on commercial accounts, such as funeral homes, plumbers, attorneys, and property management firms, that isn’t the type of answering service you want. You want an answering service that handles only medical accounts. That way they can focus on healthcare, without a myriad of distractions.
2. HIPAA Compliant and More
Having an answering service that is HIPAA compliant is essential. Though many may claim that they’re HIPAA compliant, they may not fully understand it or be completely committed to achieving this critical goal.
Yet a few leading medical answering services view HIPAA compliance as the baseline of their service. They go beyond what HIPAA regulations requires, providing enhanced technical and facility security. They also have exacting standards of data privacy and staff performance that far exceeds what HIPAA mandates.
3. US-Based
Being 100 percent based in the United States stands as a third key element. They don’t outsource calls to another call center offshore. They handle everything themselves here in the United States. Though this may cost a little bit more, it’s worth the expense because the integrity of your operation and your patients’ personal health information are at stake.
4. Centralized Workforce
Many answering services allow their employees to work remotely, such as from their home—or anyplace that has Internet access, which is about everywhere. Who knows where they might be when they login? Who’s looking over their shoulder or listening to your calls? No one knows, and it’s too big of a risk to take.
Instead, only consider a medical answering service that insists their staff work from a centralized office. Only with a centralized workforce can they maintain the exacting expectations required to properly handle healthcare-related calls. Only there can they maintain HIPAA compliance and beyond. Only there can they ensure they achieve their high-quality standards on every call.
Conclusion
If you’re in healthcare only to make money, it doesn’t matter who answers your phone. Go with a low-cost provider. However, if you see your medical answering service as a critical extension of your practice or healthcare organization, then you want the best.
Start with one that only handles medical calls, with an exclusive focus on healthcare. Then drill down to select one that exceeds the mandates of HIPAA regulations, is US-based, and answers all calls in their state-of-the-art facility. That’s who you can trust to answer your patients’ calls.
Learn how medical answering service from MedConnectUSA can help your practice, clinic, or facility. Then get a free quote to discover how affordable their healthcare communication services are. Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer and call center authority.