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Many medical offices and healthcare providers rely on a professional answering service in order to better serve their patients and make high-quality care more accessible. With a quality answering service, patients can reach the care and guidance they need without jumping through a bunch of hoops, being put on hold, or reaching voicemail.
Not only will businesses receive quality care from an answering service, but an exceptional service will also be a professional representation of your company. From the moment an operator picks up the phone until the customer’s questions are answered or issues are resolved, a professional service will be an extension of any business—courteous, empathetic, and helpful.
But when it comes to patient answering services, being professional is only the beginning. Our answering service for medical offices is personable and empathetic. They know what it means to talk to someone calling with a problem, or needing assistance with a question. They’re intelligent, friendly, articulate, and prepared to fulfill your specific phone and message requirements.
If you’re wondering how an answering service can benefit your practice—and, by extension, whether it’s worth the modest investment—this article is going to take a deep dive into medical answering services. We’ll look at what answering services are, how they work, and how to find the best medical answering service for your practice.
The term answering service refers to a specialized, third-party service an organization or company uses for anything from providing basic information to redirecting calls, scheduling appointments, and answering callers’ questions.
A medical answering service provides a medical office or healthcare facility with the tools, technology, and personnel needed to provide high-quality phone services to patients and other callers. Here’s a run-down of how it works.
Let’s say Sally D. needs an appointment with her doctor, who has been helping her manage a chronic health condition. She already has a follow-up scheduled, but she is experiencing some new symptoms and wants to be seen by the doctor sooner than her existing appointment. So she decides to call into the office, and is pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a human (as opposed to an impersonal, pre-recorded message).
She explains her new symptoms and asks about moving up the date of her scheduled follow-up appointment. The answering service employee asks questions, takes notes, and checks the doctor’s schedule. Once they return to the line, they provide her with a few dates and times to choose from. She picks one, and the new appointment is scheduled.
From start to finish, Sally was able to reschedule her follow-up appointment over the course of just a few minutes thanks to the knowledgeable and professional help she received
Most medical facilities would benefit from using an answering service if they want their patients to have the best experience contacting their offices. It is no secret that patients want to feel like they are taken care of. This is true whether their situation is serious or merely routine. They want to be heard and make sure their needs are being taken care of. With a medical office answering service in place, you can rest assured your patients will be satisfied.
Now, you might be wondering, “What about after hours answering services for medical offices?” Obviously, patients’ health questions and concerns don’t just occur during business hours. That’s why medical answering service companies like Answering Service Care provide an accessible, 24 hour medical answering service for offices and healthcare facilities. Whether a patient calls at 3:00 a.m. or p.m., they can receive the same reliable, patient-centered service they expect.
Happy patients mean return business. Additionally, it is likely that your patients will refer your practice to their friends and family. Simply put, if your patients feel like they are being taken care of, they will boast about their experience. This can only mean good things for your medical practice.
When a patient has a question or concern, they need easy access to their medical providers. Quality medical answering service companies provide dependable 24/7 coverage, meaning help is always just a call away. Providers ASC make patients
People often mistake professional answering services for glorified answering machines or basic receptionists. But a medical answering service serves more as an extension of your practice, ready and willing to handle a wide range of inquiries, from scheduling appointments to providing important information and resources to address patients’ questions.
There is no question that a medical answering service will lighten the workload of your employees, making your operation more efficient. After all, if someone is constantly having to answer the phone, it takes away from their regular responsibilities. When your employees are working, they should be completely invested in their jobs. A medical answering service makes sure patients’ calls are answered promptly and efficiently by someone who can help them. Outsourcing these tasks also frees up valuable time for your employees to focus on other critical aspects of their job—like providing patients with in-person (or telemedicine) care.
One of the qualities that makes medical answering services unique is the need to comply with industry regulations and requirements, such as HIPAA. When patients call into your practice, privacy is not only an expectation but a legal requirement. Working with a medical answering service ensures that your practice can retain patients’ trust by maintaining compliance with all HIPAA and related regulations that affect the healthcare industry.
There are several different ways in which a medical answering service can cut costs for a medical office or healthcare facility. For example, the average medical receptionist salary is around $40,000. And that cost only grows when you consider the time and resources required to onboard, train, and develop them. With a medical answering service like Answering Service Care, expenses are both reduced and streamlined, which helps with managing the budget.With Answering Service Care, you can leverage our services for low monthly rates, including pay-as-you-go options. Visit our website to learn more about our current plans and pricing.
When patients call into a medical office, their expectations aren’t so different from any other company they contact. They expect their call to be answered, promptly and by a friendly human being. They expect the person who answers their call to be knowledgeable and ready to listen. And they expect their requests to be handled with professionalism and courtesy. These all happen to be specialities of the best medical answering service companies, like Answering Service Care.
Serving as an extension of your practice, the agents who work for medical answering service companies are trained professionals. These agents often undergo industry-specific training, so they can provide a consistently high level of sophistication and courtesy when handling incoming calls and patient inquiries. In addition to medical answering services, ASC also provides services tailored to a wide range of additional, specialized industries—including real estate, finance, insurance, and more. Because of ASC’s versatility in many industries, you can be sure you’re receiving the professional and specialized care that is important for your clients.
Choosing the right professional call answering service is an important consideration, but not overly complicated. It ultimately comes down to finding the features you need, from a company you can trust, at a price point you can afford. Here are 6 important things to consider:
There’s nothing inherently risky about working with a newer company, but working with a company that’s been in the business for a long time—with plenty of happy customers—can provide an extra level of trust. After all, a medical answering service acts as an extension of your practice, meaning experience and expertise are crucial. Answering Service Care has been in the business for over 50 years, offering services tailored to the medical industry (among others). For more information, check out some of our customer reviews and personal testimonials.
If you’re looking for a professional medical answering service you can trust, look for one that prioritizes giving their employees specialized training tailored specifically to the medical/healthcare industry. That way, they’ll be well-equipped not just to answer phone calls, but to help patients find answers, resources, or services they need—both efficiently and effectively.
Medical crises don’t just occur during regular office hours. It’s especially important for providers to choose an answering service that they can count on for 24/7/365 service—like Answering Service Care.
In addition to seeking out a professional answering service with reasonable pricing, it’s also important to find a service that is willing to guarantee the availability and overall quality of their services. What happens if their systems go down, for example? Every patient—and every inquiry—matters, so Answering Service Care offers a 21-day money back guarantee and no long-term contracts for our professional services.
Would it surprise you to learn that 13% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish in their homes? What about the fact that the United States has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world (second only to Mexico)? These are the facts according to Forbes, and they underscore the importance of making medical services accessible to all patients—regardless of their native or preferred language. ASC offers bilingual medical answering services, so speaking English doesn’t have to be a barrier to receiving vital information and care.
While the whole point of a medical answering service is to ensure that patients are greeted by—and helped by—real, knowledgeable humans, that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities for increased efficiency through automated features. These often involve integrating their services by connecting them to the applications you’re already using to manage appointments, patient data, and more. Answering Service Care offers over 5,000 integrations, making it among the most versatile and efficient medical answering services out there.
We don’t have to tell you how critically important it is to treat your patients with dignity and respect. Our live medical office answering service team members are alert, empathetic, and dedicated to giving your patients the attention they both expect and deserve. Every individual medical office answering service agent is trained, skilled, and experienced in the subtle art of patient communication.
As an industry leader for over four decades, we know that reliable telephone answering support plays a pivotal role in your ability to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. That’s why we do what we do. To help you better serve your community. Here’s a quick overview of what makes us one of the best 24-hour medical answering services you can find:
We’re fully compliant with HIPAA, giving you—and your patients—peace of mind.
Receive your messages securely and in compliance with HIPAA laws.
Never miss an appointment – or an opportunity for an appointment.
We make sure you never miss a call and your patients don’t miss you.
Answering Service Care offers several different medical answering service plans, starting at just $25/month (at the time this article was published). Visit our medical answering service pricing page to learn about the current rates for our plans, which include:
The best way to put these costs into perspective is to compare them with the average salary of a medical office receptionist or similar professional. According to Salary.com, the average salary “typically falls between $35,706 and $42,674.” What’s more, that doesn’t account for related costs—such as those associated with recruiting, onboarding, and training one or more new employees, or the cost of benefit plans and other expenses.
Of course, our team at Answering Service Care will also work with you to create a customized plan to ensure that our services will meet your needs and help you provide the highest level of professional service to your patients. Curious what this might look like for your practice? Learn more here.
We don’t have to tell you how critically important it is to treat patients* with dignity and respect. Our live medical office answering service team members are alert, empathetic, and dedicated to giving your patients the attention they both expect and deserve. Every individual medical office answering service agent is trained, skilled, and experienced in the subtle art of patient communication.
The pandemic has transformed the way many businesses operate, and medical offices are no exception. Many of our medical clients have switched to telemedicine, supporting their patients virtually on a short-term or long-term basis. As we all adapt to a new normal, there’s no denying that telemedicine has a significant role to play in keeping up with routine needs and follow-ups—and it is becoming clear that telemedicine is here to stay.
When you treat patients by phone or video, the format of your appointments may be different and your reliance on technology increases exponentially. If your office staff is working remotely or has had to self-quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure, don’t leave your phones to chance.
Now more than ever, people are hungry for connection, and callers are eager to hear a human voice at the other end of the line. Whether they are calling with an urgent medical concern, or to find out the social distancing requirements at your office, a friendly and professional voice goes a long way.
With both patients and practitioners adopting telehealth to some degree, we are pleased to provide a professional, HIPAA-compliant telemedicine answering service to our clients in the medical field.
Over the course of this article, we’ve provided the blueprint for the perfect medical answering service, so you can find the best answering service for your practice. It’s one that offers accessibility, versatility, efficiency, cost savings, an improved patient experience, professionalism, and HIPAA compliance. And you should prioritize working with an answering service company you can trust—one with experience and expertise, highly trained personnel, and a willingness to understand your needs and tailor your services accordingly.
As a fully compliant HIPAA “business associate,” we understand the importance of patient privacy, and we’re committed to full compliance so that we can best protect and serve you and your patients. Our medical patient answering service is dedicated to providing top customer service while also maintaining privacy and patient security standards for each of your patients. Read more about HIPAA and our secure messaging medical office virtual assistant service.
While you will certainly feel the benefits of partnering with our physician answering services, your patients will feel rewarded as well. After all, if your patient is calling your medical practice, it is likely because something is wrong. This doesn’t mean that every call is an emergency, but there is some sort of concern at play.
Some calls might simply be to schedule an appointment down the road. Other calls might be to ask a question about a medical bill. Other calls might be personal, and a patient wants to speak only with a doctor. Regardless of the point of the call, our medical answering services will address each individually and accordingly.
At Answering Service Care, we provide a comprehensive and customizable answering service for your medical office or facility. Get started today with the perfect plan and never miss a call again.
Our clients stay with us because we meet their needs and exceed their expectations. No obligation, no hard sell.
When you are ready, we can get you up and running in one day. Easy and efficient!
We believe in empowering our clients to manage their services in the most user-friendly way possible.
We know that call patching is very useful for doctors. That is why we offer it for free.
We love Answering Service Care We have been using them for over 15 years and never had an issue. If we have any questions, they answer us as quickly as possible. They are open to suggestions and will do whatever they can to help us. In this world of quick changing employees, it is once to know we have someone we can count on.
I have been with Answering Service Care for the entire 15 years I have been in business. What a great choice to choose them to be my call center representation. The professionalism has been outstanding and if there are any issues, they are quick to resolve them. What a dynamite team.
As a customer for 10+ years I am very satisfied with the service I've receive; however, I've had to have conversations with management to iron out some issues relating to length of time before the phone is answered. Hopefully the matter is resolved.
This business is surrounded by many long term caring people with state of the art advanced technology.
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