Jan 9, 2020 4:52:41 AM
Benjamin Pure
Healthcare answering services reduce work overload while providing your facility with the capability to operate around the clock. Professionally trained agents attend to all incoming calls, as your in-house staff focuses on day-to-day tasks uninterrupted, which enhances the quality of services, strengthens care coordination, and improves patient flow. By subscribing to the live call answering service, you ensure that all aspects of your business are handled, and no prospective patient is neglected.
The business benefits of retaining a live answering service provider are crystal clear. But what’s the value of 24/7 live answering to your patients? Let’s find out.
Here are five ways medical answering services can benefit your patients when you and your staff aren’t available:
1. Easy Access to Healthcare Services
The latest healthcare consumers’ study by Accenture shows that especially younger generations of patients are dissatisfied with the core aspects of traditional care such as wait time and speed of appointment, the convenience of channels, and efficient operations. They complain about the efficiency of operations, the lack of convenient access to healthcare, and failing transparency.
Medical answering services are available 24/7 to interact with your patients, even when your office is closed. By extending the capability to reach your practice or hospital at any time, you can tackle the most frequent patient complaints and ensure patient satisfaction.
2. Personal Touch
Many healthcare providers turn to voicemail to ‘take’ incoming calls when they are unable to pick up the phone. However, when practices use voicemail, they loose patients. Answering machines are a free solution to managing call overflow and after-hours inquiries, but one that is highly ineffective. Up to 80% of callers hang up when they hear a recorded message and they never call back.
This is because redirecting patients to voicemail brings up a poor image of your facility, it alienates the caller and makes them feel unimportant. On the contrary, getting all calls answered by a team of professionally-trained agents who are there for your patients any time can only reinforce your reputation as a reliable and caring provider.
3. Less Frustration
Health issues and questions can arise anytime, anywhere. If your patients are unable to reach your on call physician, you are testing their patience. Unanswered calls significantly impact satisfaction with your healthcare services and may negatively affect your patients view of your practice.
Getting support from a 24/7 specialized after-hours answering services to handle your patient calls is an easy way to show that you care. Professionally trained agents greet your callers in a friendly and engaging voice, encouraging them to leave their message, and take steps to get their issue resolved, quickly and efficiently.
4. Respect for Data Privacy
When your patients reach voicemail, they can never be certain who can hear their message. When they speak to a live agent representing a HIPAA-compliant answering service, their details are protected. Answering Service providers who meet HIPAA requirements deliver the highest level of patient health information protection with encryption, secure messaging, and strict data protection policies that are regularly reviewed and updated to provide your patients with comfort and ensure confidentiality.
5. Five Star Patient Care
Dealing with a continuous flow of phone calls is a major distraction for desk and medical staff alike. By freeing up your employees’ time with answering services, you will allow them to fully concentrate on their duties and be more focused on the needs of the patients in your facility.
A dedicated team of agents can handle all inbound calls and only forward true emergencies. This process not only improves your staff’s efficiency and satisfaction but also benefits patients with five-star patient care, establishing the foundation for a meaningful doctor-patient relationship.
Do You Want to Keep Your Patients Happy?
Today, healthcare consumers are becoming increasingly demanding and expect convenient high-quality service. Fast and efficient call handling is one of the essential ingredients of superior patient care that brings benefits not only to your staff but also your patients.