Answering Service
The Right Answering Service for Your Medical Practice
On April 5, 2019 by 12oaksAn answering service is that service that handles both the incoming and outgoing business communications. These communications may include; answering phone calls, replying to emails or text messages, transferring calls or even making appointments. In short, an answering service offers customer service.
WHAT TO CONSIDER;
Adherence to HIPAA
HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The best answering service for a medical practice is the one that complies with the HIPAA. This is because it’s crucial for health information to be guarded when using the answering service. The HIPAA ensures the protection of patient’s health information. In case of any issue with the breach of health information, the doctor is held liable even if the answering service is the cause. Therefore it’s very critical that when choosing an answering service for medical practice select the one that completely and truly complies with HIPAA. Here is what you need to know about HIPAA.
24 Hour answering service
An answering service for medical practice should have 24/hour coverage. 24/hour coverage ensures that patients can always keep in touch at any time. it also enables patients to call in case of an emergency and get help, or in case they wish to cancel appointments or if they wish to seek clarification on any prescriptions given earlier on.
Scheduling of appointments
Choose an answering service that has the appointment scheduling feature. This feature should be able to make appointments, change appointments or even cancel an appointment. It should also be able to offer reminders on any appointments which help in reducing cases of patients scheduled for appointments not showing up. Such answering service helps in increasing the efficiency in the scheduling of the appointments process.
Nurse Triage Component
A nurse triage service involves the sorting of patients so as to determine the order of treatment in regards to urgency. Having an answering service that includes the nurse triage service ensures that you offer high-quality healthcare support to your patients. This is possible whereby the answering service gets all the information that the nurse triage requires and then transfers it to the triage service via a secure portal. This feature ensures that at all times the patient can pass their health information without repeating them when they come for treatments or appointments.
Medical practices are very critical in the sense that they deal with the health and lives of human beings. This fact makes it very important to choose an answering service that will ensure quality services to the patients.
Answering Service
Features of a Good Answering Service
On March 30, 2019 by 12oaksWhen looking for an answering service, it’s natural you want to pick the best one. After all, it’s the reputation of your business that is on the line every time your customers or suppliers interact with anybody representing your company. Call answering services are vital in your business. They provide a virtual phone call reception and ensures that all your calls are attended around the clock. Good answering service is worth it; you can trust it and above all its services are the best. So, how do you determine an answering service is best? Check the following features of good answering service.
Flexible pricing
Good answering service does not have to be the most expensive or the cheapest one, but the one with a variety of pricing options that suits your plan. Mostly, the services are priced per call or per minute. Prices that are a flat rate or the ones that have few plans are not likely to be cost effective. However, different price models allow you to pay the services according to your usage.
24/7 availability
Good answering service is available around the clock. So, when shopping for an answering service, you have to determine whether it handles calls only during the business hours or around the clock. With your calls being handled 24/7, it means that your customer queries will be handled any time whether on weekends, at night or during the normal business hours.
Good reputation
A good answering service has a good reputation. Check their reviews online to get an insight into how the company operates and how they treat their customers. Although not all reviews are accurate, they are good indicators of a company’s performance. Also, you don’t have to read the company’s reviews; you can get referrals from your friends, former clients or your business associates.
Provide a free trial
A good company is confident enough to let you try their services or product for free. Most trial periods last between a week to a month. A good answering service will be ready to work with you diligently within that time frame to iron out any drawback you may come across. Of course, they would want to sign you up to their service eventually, but making you happy will be their priority.
When shopping for an answering service, you have to make careful consideration before settling to your decision. It is going to handle your daily business activities and schedule appointments, and thus they need to be the best. So, look for a company that its services are always available, flexible and they would want to see you happy.