There is never a dull moment in a medical practitioner’s office. The days are generally full of attending patients, emergency calls and whatnot. Often in this mayhem, calls from some patients may remain unattended. This is exactly where a phone answering service may come in handy for medical professionals. There are many benefits of medical telephone answering service.
Filtering Calls
Not all calls may be important but there is no way to know that till you receive the call. To hire a virtual receptionist who will handle these calls 24×7 is both expensive and impractical. But what if there was a way to filter the calls. You may have the flexibility to choose filters up to your convenience, like emergency support, after-hours support, sales calls from med representatives and the like. This will ensure that you are not swamped by unnecessary calls at odd hours. You can make a conscious decision about what calls need to be directed to your office and what can be avoided. This will help bring down the volume of calls without impacting patient care.
Follow Up On Appointment
Another key benefit of a medical office answering service is that rescheduling appointments, following up on existing ones and creating new become very simple. Studies indicate that 90% of callers who are on hold for more than 3-4 minutes hang up. When you have an phone answering service for medical professionals, this problem can be easily remedied. It ensures that patient calls are instantly answered and those who want theirs to be rescheduled are also catered to fast. It is almost like having a virtual receptionist in a medical office at a much lesser cost and with equally effective service.
Patient Registration
A medical phone answering service is quite effective for patient registration too. When it is handled by a third-party service provider like this, your in-house staff has more free time and the ability to tend to patients in the clinic. This is also useful in avoiding unnecessary calls. Patients can be referred to your office based on a certain set of criteria that you set. That also becomes an important way to minimize the volume of calls without affecting patient care in any way. This is also useful in providing follow up service for patients at regular intervals.
Dealing with Emergencies
However, the biggest advantage of this service is that your emergency call management becomes way more effective. You cannot be available 24×7 to take patient calls. As a medical professional keen to care for your patients, this answering service allows you to be accessible for patients who need emergency care at any time of the day. This also improves the credibility of the doctor as well as the overall goodwill.
Therefore, a medical answering service is a smart way to handle the rising volume of patient calls without affecting patient care. Even in terms of pricing, it is a comparatively more cost-effective way to handle a greater number of calls from patients in one go.