Professional Answering Service - Evolving to the Need of Doctors

When doctors are on the hunt to hire a professional answering service they look for the best call agents, excellent value for money, and with satisfaction guaranteed – all rolled into one.

But is it easy to get physician answering services that can satisfy all the needs of the medical profession?

The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, there are professional answering services for doctors who can improve the inter-office efficiency with an excellent technology base and a well-trained work force.

The answer is also no, because satisfying the needs of doctors is an ongoing process. Medical answering services must continuously upgrade their systems and services to add to the patients’ experience.

The better among the doctor’s answering services will identify their clients’ needs, tailor a solution for them, and evolve with passage of time.

New technology has been of immense help for any professional answering service.

The answering service equipment has evolved a great deal with most hardware elements going virtual.

It is no longer simple inbound telephone lines. Today, answering services have virtual computer systems that track and convey messages. Paper based systems are almost obsolete with most companies owning virtual switchboards and ACD routing technology.

“We need meticulous call management,” says a specialist doctor. “Each inbound call must go through an established protocol.”

This is certainly a challenge for any professional answering service because such a requirement necessitates development of a call flow process that is precise.

Incoming messages must move in the following way.

• The patient calls the answering service
• The answering service responds on the first ring
• The answering service captures information
• Determines which doctor is on call
• Pages the doctor
• Doctor retrieves message and contacts patient

Besides, outbound calls have to be based on client’s preferences. Some calls require doctors’ attention at once and some can be queued to the office staff the following day.

For outbound calls reliability is of utmost importance – rather, it is imperative. Urgent messages cannot wait. They need responses by the doctor concerned at the quickest.

In such a situation, fail-safe notification is a must. A competent medical answering service logs each outbound page. If the important call is not responded within a specified time an escalation protocol is followed. This can entail using alternate contact options, re-paging, or calling alternate health care providers.

Medical Answering Services NJ Help You Manage Your Practice Better

If you or your medical office is missing an inordinately large number of calls from your patients, it can damage your reputation and make you patients look for better options. The time is ripe to consider hiring the services of a reputable medical answering services NJ. It immediately enhances the quality of medical service you are able to offer your patients by remaining accessible to them when they need you the most.

The Problems that Most Successful Medical Professionals Face

Successful doctors, healthcare specialists, psychologists and other medical professionals are hard pressed for time to carry out their daily tasks. They have to deal with the daily grind of seeing patients and running their office and deal with tons of paperwork. Practicing medicine is more stressful and complicated than ever before. It leaves doctors with no time for their family or to pursue their personal hobbies and interests because their professional time overlaps their personal time.

The Benefits of Using a Reliable Answering Service

Smart medical professionals are realizing the importance of using NJ medical answering services to deal with the problem effectively. The trained call executives can take away your administrative workload so that you can focus more on the core areas of your profession. The best medical answering services NJ ensures that a live person answers all calls to your office 24X7 on all days of the week including weekends and holidays. The calls are customized to meet the demands and work situation of your medical office.

What to Expect from a Professional Answering Service

A well trained and professional team is assigned to manage all calls to your organization and answer them to address the specific need of each caller. The call executives works as an extension of your office staff because of which callers won’t know that their calls are being answered by an external agency.

Making the Best Choice for Your Call Answering Needs

Top medical answering services NJ offer a range of answering plans and products to suit the needs of various clients. You can have urgent calls transferred to you or a dedicated number. Routine messages can be relayed to an office staff for necessary action and follow up. Your directives will decide which calls are to be treated as urgent and which ones as routine. Call answering services ensures that your patients get the deserving attention and superior service.

The call executives are trained on a regular basis by the answering services companies to remain current with the latest technologies in the answering services industry. The best medical answering services NJ also make sure their executives are trained for compliance with HIPAA regulations.

Leveraging the Potential of Doctors Answering Service

Doctors answering service is the first point of contact for patients. For the doctors it is vital that the answering service conveys to them messages that are accurate and dependable. Precise messages play a pivotal role in providing the right treatment - especially in emergencies. It is not uncommon for healthcare providers to leave their answering service because far too many blunders are committed after hours. These can relate to either unprofessional handling of calls or imprecise communication of patient conditions.

Let us face it. No one knows your clients better than you do. So when medical professionals choose answering services for doctors, they expect consistent and professional handling of every call.

Sadly, smaller healthcare practices have been slow to use the modern forms of electronic communication that work so well in patient–doctor interactions. Admittedly, the proliferation of communication channels and shift in patients’ preferences are presenting a challenge to medical professionals.

Today doctors answering service has come to stay. A professional service that is HIPAA compliant can benefit the medical profession in many ways. Here is a list of some key advantages.

•    A live answering service provides patients with a simple process. There is no confusing list of menu options to navigate. There are no impersonal messages that patients find so distressing.
•    Doctors answering service supplies the doctors with quality, convenience and a broad range of delivery options. This is beneficial to the staff as they can do away with the cumbersome job of sorting through voicemail messages.

Doctors can choose from many options to have their patients messages delivered to them.

•    To their PDA
•    Cell phone or pager as a text message
•    In an email format that will enable a doctor to receive the messages at any location.

The medical profession has now understood that a caring practice not only helps build relationships but also provides continuity in quality care. Patients feel that a healthcare professional who takes good care afterhours demonstrates responsibility and accountability.

Increasing no-show rate has been a perennial concern with the medical profession. It is no easy task to lower the no-show rates. Here answering services for doctors can help a great deal. The service can:

•    Track and provide feedback why no show occurs
•    Send effective patient reminders as follow up for no-shows
•    After consulting with the doctors, provide incentives for showing up

To stay afloat in competitive business, doctors are increasing adopting for effective measures. A doctors answering service is one of them.