Why Does Your Practice Need An Answering Service?

Answering phone calls promptly and handling patient enquires quickly are essential for creating a responsive and patient-centered experience. Having your phone ring endlessly, putting callers on hold for a long time, missing calls, or having your calls answered by an answering machine can leave patients frustrated and affect your practice’s reputation. Whether the patient is calling to request a refill, or book an appointment, or has a question for the doctor, a courteous and professional response is the key to making your patients feel valued. Is your practice missing out on calls and losing patients? Using an answering service ensures that all your calls are answered and handled properly.

Let us Explore Some of the Reasons Why a Practice Needs an Answering Service

Frees Up Staff

Having a professional answering service allows your in-house staff to focus entirely on patients and other important tasks that need to be done in person without having to worry about answering calls from patients, insurance companies or other healthcare practitioners. This allows them to improve patient satisfaction and boost patient experience.

24/7 Patient Access

Improving patient satisfaction and overall patient experience is fundamental to the success of any medical practice. However, you shouldn’t let your efforts end when you clock out. With a 24×7 telephone service you need not worry about staff being available during off hours and weekends. This way you ensure that no call goes unanswered, day or night.

HIPAA Compliance

Answering service staff are HIPAA trained and hence their services are HIPAA compliant. They are rigorously trained on HIPAA guidelines and are required to pass the HIPAA test annually. This ensures that patient information is protected and kept confidential with every call. Secure your calls with confidence with a HIPAA-compliant answering service.

Saves Money

Hiring a professional answering service costs a fraction of the cost of hiring a part-time or full-time employee. The best part is you pay only when you need their services, which means you save money. You don’t have to worry about hiring, training, payroll and about surplus staff during times of decreased patient load. You also don’t have to pay for benefits, insurance, sick leave, vacations and time off.

Improves Patient Satisfaction

Virtual phone answering specialists are extensively trained in professional phone-answering practices and etiquette. They pick up calls promptly, offer a warm greeting, and maintain a friendly and courteous tone throughout the call. This way they make patients feel valued and heard which improves patient satisfaction and perceptions of your facility.

Reduces No Shows And Appointment Cancellations

Medical answering services can considerably bring down the rate of no-shows and appointment cancellations. Patients often miss appointments or cancel them due to reasons like forgetting or not being able to get off work. With reminders from an answering service, patients are less likely to miss or cancel their appointments.

Boosts Efficiency And Productivity

Answering service professionals can boost the efficiency and productivity of your practice by handling routine tasks such as answering patient questions, routing calls, scheduling appointments, and taking messages. This can free up your front office staff to focus on more pressing tasks such as patient care and administrative duties.

To sum up phone answering services can greatly help to streamline your workflow, boost patient satisfaction and even improve your bottom line. Not sure if you really need an answering service? Do consider the following. Does your practice struggle to keep up with all calls? Is your front office staff often pulled away from patients to answer calls? Are you receiving frequent alerts that your voice mail box is full? Is your front office staff stuck at their desk due to ‘overringing’? Are you thinking of hiring more in-house front office staff to handle the incoming calls? Well, if you have answered yes, to any of the above questions, then partnering with Physicians Angels would be a smart choice. Our answering service makes sure that no call goes unanswered and you never miss out on a potential patient. We ensure that all calls are dealt with professionally to keep your patients happy and your reputation intact. For more details call us at (419) 318-4471.