Most any answering service can claim to handle medical accounts, but not everyone specializes in it or gives it their full focus. And even those medical answering services that only handle healthcare-related accounts aren’t always a full-service provider.
Here are some of the things you can expect from a full-service medical answering service:
24/7 Phone Support?
The mainstay of a full-service medical answering service is providing 24/7 telephone support to your patients and callers. This means they’re available around the clock to answer your phone calls when you can’t. They can take messages, screen calls, and escalate urgent situations for you, whenever you need it: day or night, weekday or weekend, and even holidays.
After-Hours Answering Service and Emergency Coverage
Many medical practices and clinics have staff to handle phone calls during regular office hours. They don’t require an answering service to provide coverage during these times. Their need for communication support occurs outside of regular office hours, once they go home.
Just as with 24/7 phone support, a full-service medical answering service can take messages, screen calls, and dispatch emergencies for after-hours situations. This provides your patients and callers with a high degree of prompt, professional support whenever they happen to call.
Telephone Receptionist and Office Hours Overflow Support?
However, some medical practices and clinics benefit from having a full-service medical answering service help them with their calls during office hours. This frees up your staff to attend to the needs of the patients who are in your office, allowing the answering service to assist those who are outside the office. They can do this for all calls or on an overflow basis, when things get busy.
Appointment Setting and Confirmation
Everyone in healthcare knows the importance of having appointments booked throughout the day and of minimizing no-shows, which represents a loss of billable services and an increase in inefficiency. Full-service medical answering services can securely access your appointment calendar online and fill open slots for you 24/7.
In addition, your medical answering service can remind patients of their appointments, which will reduce no-shows. They can do this through telephone calls, email, or text messages. Often, they use a combination of all three. The outcome is a fuller schedule and fewer missed appointments.
Disaster Standby
No one wants to think about a disaster that threatens a medical practice or clinic, but they do happen. Planning for them is the best way to minimize the negative impact a crisis could have on your practice and your patients.
A full-service medical answering service can essentially be on call to answer your phone if a disaster occurs that prevents your staff from doing so. But you need to set this up ahead of time; trying to make arrangements in the middle of a crisis is too late.
Other Healthcare Support Services?
Full-service medical answering services can also provide many other healthcare related telephone services. If you have a need, they can probably handle it. All you need to do is ask. Two examples are drug study registration and drug interaction lines.
Telephone Nurse Triage Integration
While it’s unwise for a medical answering service to provide telephone triage, and vice versa, a full-service medical answering service has established relationships with many leading telephone triage operations. They have experience working with these providers and can make a smooth handoff when your patients need medical assistance over the phone.
With all these benefits and service opportunities, why trust your practice or clinic’s communications to anyone but a full-service medical answering service?
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.