Medical Answering Services – What Do Patients Hear When They Call?

For a patient, there are few things worse than calling a practice and not getting an answer. Poor medical  answering service is one of the top reasons why patients leave a practice. When they leave, they take their bad experience with them, sharing with their friends and colleagues.
Both general and specialty practices that employ sub-par medical answering services, or even let calls go to voice-mail, are feeling the pinch in today’s changing marketplace.  If you own, or operate in a medical practice, it may be time to review the process in which your patients reach you.   Medical practices, both large and small, that utilize a high quality answering service have significantly higher patient retention rates and higher marks for patient satisfaction.

Too many practice managers view an answering service as a necessary expense instead of an actual investment in their business.  Understanding that not all answering services are created equal is an important step.  Here are a few of the key items to keep in mind when you consider a relationship with a medical answering service provider:

• Will they be an ally, not just another vendor?
  The provider should be willing to learn and stay current on your practice’s unique needs; and build a customized account so their agents work as an extension of your business and following your unique protocol.

• Do they have a HIPAA compliant, rigorously trained staff?
  Regulations are changing at an accelerated pace.  The provider you engage should have the resources to stay current on the latest changes.  In addition, they should have a documented, weekly evaluation process of their agents to ensure they’re handling your patients professionally on a consistent basis.

• 24-hour medical answering is just the beginning
  In addition to basic answering services, the provider should have multiple options to help your staff become more productive as the practice grows or even just when things get busy.  Service options such as call overflow support during office hours, a virtual receptionist, appointment reminders and more should be available to your practice through the provider.

The above is just the short list.  Please tell us your thoughts.  “What things come to mind when you fill in the blank to the following statement: “My practice would be better if my answering service just did  ___________”.  Going through this exercise on a regular basis can really help your practice – if you take it seriously.

To learn more about Main Line TeleCommunications, please click here.  Or complete our Contact Us form.  To hear a couple of samples of our experienced medical answering services agents at work click » Listen now .