Cracking the Code to Doctors’ Satisfaction with Healthcare Answering Services

Doctor’s practices and hospitals seek assistance from medical answering services companies for various reasons. They may be grappling with high call volumes, trying to reduce long hold times, or simply wishing to ensure 24/7 patient access to their office.

One essential, but frequently neglected, motivation behind outsourcing calls is to improve the doctors’ welfare and job satisfaction. Well-performing physicians are the core of any hospital or practice, attracting patients and enhancing the reputation of the facility. Keeping them content should be one of the top priorities for your medical business.

While specialty answering services cannot be expected to resolve all the issues that physicians encounter in their job, they can make a huge difference in the quality of doctors’ lives. Let’s see how.

After-Hours Answering Services Help Protect Physicians’ Private Time

The physician’s profession is almost like any other. With the one exception that doctors are accountable for other people’s lives. Such responsibility makes it easy for them to succumb to stress, anxiety, and frustration. On top of that, other factors affecting doctors’ health creep in, such as severe fatigue and overwork.

The above issues make it essential for doctors to maintain a healthy balance between their professional and private lives. Outside of work, physicians may put their duties aside, focus on well-being, connect with friends and family, and repose. Medical answering services help doctors cherish the precious moments when they are off duty.

Thanks to live answering services, patients can speak to trained, qualified agents any time. Emergency issues are immediately relayed to a doctor on call but less urgent requests are dealt with by the call handling staff or transferred to the medical personnel once they’re available. This way, doctors can enjoy their time off undisturbed, while patients are never left out of touch.

Medical Call Answering Removes Distractions at Work

Allowing patients with more face time is becoming increasingly difficult, considering the abundance of distractions in the doctor’s office. Frequent phone calls during a patient’s visit are one of them. Patients on-site require that doctors provide them with undivided attention. This can be extremely challenging while the phone in the exam room keeps ringing every other minute.

To enable doctors to focus on their patients fully, medical answering agents take care of all inbound calls. The medical personnel may forget about the hassle of handling routine calls at inconvenient times. All the phone communication is processed by specialty call agents according to established protocols.

Healthcare Call Support Improves Doctors’ Relations with Patients

Positive interaction with patients is one of the greatest incentives that keep physicians motivated. It is also the main source of job satisfaction for 79 percent of physicians. Good relationships between doctors and their patients facilitate treatment while making physicians feel valued and empowered. And there’s hardly a stronger motivation for work than the feeling of being relevant.

That said, some patients demand the same high level of care and attention whatever the time of day. They consider every situation an emergency and may have no insight into how frequent phone calls affect the private lives of their doctors. As routine calls during the day and after hours pile up, physicians’ frustration with their work keeps growing. This may have a serious impact on the doctor-patient relationship.

Retaining professional call answering services can change that by helping your practice maintain a good rapport between doctors and patients. Patients will be able to reach your facility whenever they wish and receive the attention and service they deserve. And physicians will no longer complain about frequent interruptions at work and after.

24/7 Live Call Answering Service Reduces Paperwork and Admin Tasks

What’s one of the biggest pain points for physicians? The fact that instead of focusing on their clinical duties, they have to devote countless amounts of time to admin work and activities that they consider irrelevant, call handling included. Physicians spend almost a quarter of their time each day on paperwork!

By outsourcing your calls, you will quickly and effectively reduce the number of non-medical obligations that physicians perform. Qualified agents will promptly process every call to your practice or hospital, and only forward the ones that are really urgent to your doctors. That’s a win-win situation, as physicians can delegate menial tasks they despise and patients will be impressed by the availability of your services and immediacy of response.

Conclusion

Most medical facilities are concentrating their efforts on delivering personalized, patient-centric healthcare services. While the patient focus is essential, the needs of doctors and other medical staff shouldn’t be ignored. The most profitable and successful practices and hospitals are the ones that strike the right balance between providing impeccable patient services and keeping their doctors highly-motivated.

By selecting a trusted answering service that understands the healthcare industry, you not only ensure excellent healthcare services to your patients but also improve doctor engagement and job satisfaction. Would you like to give it a try?

Leading a Fulfilling Life as a Doctor

P.S. Would you like to get more tips on living a life of happiness and fulfillment as a doctor? See what the most successful physicians have in common.