Here are five things every medical office should look for in the right automated medical answering services:
1. A Highly Trained, Professional Staff
Your medical office takes calls day and night because a medical emergency could happen at any time. If you’re unavailable, you want to know that a trusted, professional staff that understands the nature of your business is handling your calls. The right automated medical answering services hires empathetic, courteous and professional representatives to work for you. They will be trained to escalate the call when needed, keep up with doctor and nurse schedules and schedule appointments. A patient call will be handled seamlessly, as if the call representative was sitting in your office.
2. Full HIPAA Compliancy
Your automated medical answering services is considered an associate to your practice and therefore should be HIPAA compliant. Your patients are supplying personal information and you need to make sure you are following the proper regulations in your industry. Hiring a third party automated medical answering services could put you at risk if they are not HIPAA compliant. The right answering service will ensure that your patients’ medical records and other personal health information are protected and used properly, following government standards.
3. Availability
A medical office or hospital works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and must adhere to doctor and nurse schedules, as well as on-call schedules. Your phones should be answered by a service that will be available any time and answer every call. The right answering service for your medical office will invest in the latest technology and backup power to be available to you and your patients whenever needed.
4. Promptness
When a patient is urgently calling your office, you need to know that their call will be answered promptly and professionally. The right answering service will answer your calls within one or two rings, have a less than a minute average hold time and have a less than 10% average calls on hold.
5. Customize for Solutions
Every medical office is different and every medical call is different. You need to know that your calls are being handled with this in mind. The Call24 Communications answering service offers many options for your office including customized message formats, customized call handling by situation and customized scripts. These solutions should fit your needs like a glove, so that you can focus on the task at hand: taking care of your patients.
If you are considering an answering service for your medical office, please consider Call24 Communications. Call24 has a full range of services and over 30 years of experience to make your telephone, monitoring and dispatch services a great success. Contact us today for an always free consultation.