Last month we talked about how it was an ideal time to update your account information with your medical answering service. By providing them with complete, up-to-date information, your answering service is in the best position to serve you with excellence. Hopefully, you’ve taken care of this, but if not, there’s still time.
Now that you’ve reviewed the information you provided them and fine-tuned your instructions on how to handle your calls, you’re set for the rest of the year, right? Wrong. Instead, you’re now properly positioned to transition into fall. With summer—albeit not a typical one—behind us, we move into a new season—again, not a typical one, but a new one, nonetheless.
Although there will be many areas of your practice, clinic, or healthcare facility that you’ll want to transition into this new time of year, let’s look specifically at how you transition with your medical answering service.
Here are some things to consider:
Let Your Answering Service Cover Additional Hours
Your medical answering service should already be providing you with complete after-hours coverage. Anytime you’re not in the office, your answering service should be taking your phone calls. If this isn’t the case, start here. Have them cover all after office hour calls.
Next, consider what your answering service can do for you during regular office hours. Did you know they can cover for your employees during breaks, lunch, and staff meetings? They are also a great resource to assist you during sick days and paid time off, as well as for staff vacations.
You can even maximize efficiency by having your answering service take all your calls during business hours too. They’ll be able to handle some of these calls themselves, with no involvement from you or your staff. Other calls aren’t urgent, which they can triage for someone in your office to call back later. And for urgent, time-sensitive matters, they can simply transfer callers to someone at your office. Think of all the time you’ll save by letting your medical answering service frontend all your calls.
Have Your Answering Service Expand the Work They Do for You
Though telephone answering services are renowned for taking messages from callers, the leading medical answering services can also do more—much more. They can also give out information, screen calls, and transfer callers. Factor these skill sets into the work you would have them do for you. Yes, message taking remains their forte, but don’t limit them to just doing that.
Route Other Types of Calls to Your Answering Service
You have your answering service handle your main telephone line. But what about other specialty numbers in your practice, clinic, or facility? Can you route some of those lines to your answering service as well? You can forward them to the same account, or—if the secondary calls have unique requirements—you set up an ancillary account with your answering service for just those callers.
The point is to use your answering service whenever possible to free up you to do what you do best: address the healthcare needs of your patients.
Summary
During this shift from summer to fall, look for ways that you can expand what your medical answering service does for you. As you move more work over to them, you’ll free up office staff and even clinical practitioners to serve your patients better. In this way, everyone benefits.
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.