While many medical and clinical managers see a virtual or an automated answering service as strictly a system to handle calls after hours, there are other ways that these systems can be a significant help to office and reception area staff.
Having a well-designed virtual answering service for doctors that is fully customizable to the needs of an individual facility, practice, or clinic can also be a way to handle all incoming calls round the clock, freeing up reception staff to deal directly with admissions and processing patients.
During the Day
If you have ever been in your waiting room during the day, especially when it is busy and patients are being processed, and some staff is off on breaks or lunch, you will notice there is a lot of activity and few staff.
By just watching what they are dealing with it is easy to see why sometimes the phone isn’t answered in a timely fashion. In fact, you may find that most inbound phone calls ring multiple times before they are answered, or they are answered and then the caller is put on hold while the staff deals with someone at the counter or someone on another call.
When there is virtual answering service for doctors in use, every phone call is answered on the first ring. This means patients are on the phone wondering what is going on in the office and why their call is being ignored, and it also frees up your staff to work with the patients that are waiting for assistance.
Then, the staff can simply listen to the messages when they are free, providing a call back with the information that the patient needed. This also streamlines efficiency as the calls are professional, informed, and specific to the caller’s message.
After Hours
One of the biggest hesitations for many clinics or healthcare service providers is the concern over patients over-reporting emergency situations to speak to the doctor and not the virtual answering service for doctors.
In fact, clinics and practices that have made this transition have found that the number of emergency responses by doctors on-call decreases, as patients have the option to self-select for emergency or non-emergency messaging options.
When clients know that their doctor is going to have the message in their own words to listen to on the next business day, they are less likely to inaccurately report an emergency medical situation, which helps to manage on-call responses and overall patient care.
