For a single doctor in an solo office, choosing an answering service is really a personal decision based on preferences and needs. In larger offices with multiple professionals, or in clinics or other healthcare settings, it may be necessary to choose medical answering services that meet the needs of a diverse group of professionals.
The good news is that these systems do exist, and they are surprisingly low cost, typically billed at a flat monthly rate. They are fully automated systems that are also customized both to the facility as well as to the individual healthcare professionals.
Doctors, as well as patients, find that the automated medical answering services are much more effective, efficient and error-free, something that is not possible using traditional healthcare call center services.
Accuracy of Messages for Patients
With the best in the automated systems, patients have the ability to choose from emergency and non-emergency messages. With the best automated systems, the patient selects to escalate the message for an immediate return call from the physician on-call or to leave a non-emergency voice message that will be addressed by the doctor or staff the next business day.
Patients like this option as they know the professionals who will hear the message, so there are no awkward or embarrassing conversations with non-medically trained operators. Additionally, with the information in the patient’s own words both emergency and non-emergency information is never incorrectly reported or confused through a third-party answering service.
Immediate Information for Doctors
With the automated systems, within seconds of the patient identifying an emergency call the system contacts the doctor on call. This can be set up to include text messages, phone calls to landlines or cell phones, pager notifications or other types of notification.
The doctor then listens to the patient’s message in his or her own words, and can call the patient directly through the system with the push of a single button. When the doctor’s call comes into the patient’s phone, it will show the clinic or office number, letting the patient know their medical professional is on the line.
With these automated medical answering services in place, on-call doctors will find they virtually eliminated false emergency calls that are so problematic with live operator systems. Additionally, they system can be set up to go through a pre-set roster of contacts if the on-call doesn’t respond, ensuring there is never a missed emergency call.
For the best in automated medical answering services that are highly rated by doctors and medical facilities, visit No More Phone Tag.
