Doctors answering service meets specialist- needs and cuts costs
If your practice is juggling the constraints of cost, care and convenience, it's time to explore the option of a doctors answering service. The right doctor answering service can keep things moving smoothly while meeting specialists' needs and reducing costs. A doctors answering service is a practical way to cut costs if the service is knowledgeable about your specific needs.
Some doctor answering service options are relatively generic and apply to the majority of practices. For example, many practices use an operator revert greeting to screen calls first. When a patient calls, a recorded message announces the practice name and the office hours. It tells the caller to hang up and dial 911 if this is a medical emergency or to press zero to speak with the doctor. As part of a doctors answering service, this pre-screening means only the necessary calls go through to the service receptionist, reducing call costs.
While doctors in every specialty area can use this particular doctor answering service option, it is important to determine whether or not you can create detailed call protocols for the agents of the doctors answering service to follow when the calls come through to them. Here are some of the ways a doctors answering service can help reduce costs while meeting specialists' needs.
Family Practice
Many family practice doctors use a recorded greeting so the patient can decide whether the call is an emergency. If the call goes through to a doctors answering service agent, she confirms it is an emergency, gets the necessary information from the patient and pages or texts the doctor on call.
Pediatricians
Pediatrician offices often have high call-volumes and need to know specifics about the child and her symptoms. The doctor answering service must be flexible enough to set up different call protocols so agents get the right information. A VIP patient list also is something to ask to include in the doctors answering service call protocols. This list might include newborns or patients currently in the hospital.
Cardio, Gastro and Internal Medicine
Cardiologists, gastroenterologists and internal medicine specialists also use protocols for doctors answering service agents to follow. Customized call protocols allow agents to get the necessary information so the doctor can quickly and accurately evaluate the call. Here, too, it can be helpful for a doctor answering service to have VIP lists so agents immediately know how to handle calls from specific patients.
Obstetrics/Gynecology
Depending on how far along in a pregnancy a patient is, certain conditions will require doctor answering service agents to direct the patient to go to the emergency room or to immediately contact the doctor. The doctors answering service agents should also be experienced at handling anxious or excited callers to get the necessary information while remaining calm and reassuring.
Clinical Psychologist
Clinical psychologists can use doctors answering services to prescreen calls as well. Messages are relayed to the doctor to determine if a call back is necessary. Special instructions regarding specific patients or situations should be included as part of call protocols.
Another service to check into when looking at a doctor answering service is appointment scheduling. Some services offer this option, which can cut costs by routing calls to the doctors answering service to schedule office visits, freeing office staff to do other things.
HIPAA-trained Agents
The best doctor answering services have agents with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) training. There are legal ramifications to consider if you choose a doctors answering service without HIPAA-trained personnel, so ask about this training. HIPAA laws also require encryption of any patient information sent to an electronic device. This includes receiving text messages from a physicians answering service. A doctors answering service should have the technology and software to protect physicians from HIPAA violations.
It is a very realistic goal for medical practitioners to cut costs by choosing a doctors answering service to handle calls and schedule appointments throughout the day and take care of after-hours calls. The key to success is choosing a service that offers the right call-handling options for the practice as well as HIPAA-trained agents to answer those calls.
Judy O'Brien is a freelance writer for Alert Communications, which offers a variety of small business answering services solutions, Medical answering service and Miedical call center.
Article Source: Messaggiamo.Com
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