Answering Service for Callers Who Can’t Speak

 

In the healthcare world, medical professionals sometimes work with patients who are unable to talk. That is when it’s important to have an answering service for callers who can’t speak.

Image of a man with his hand on his head who can't speak but can communicate with an answering service

We all know that a doctor answering service must be HIPAA compliant, but an often overlooked quality is the ability to handle calls from people who aren’t able to speak. Doctors, hospice care workers, and other healthcare professionals will occasionally work with patients who can hear just fine, but can’t talk. These patients are considered “non-verbal.”

Non-verbal patients can understand what is said to them, but are unable to respond with spoken language. So you’d think they might be in trouble if they call an answering service, right? Wrong!

When you partner with a medical answering service that has experience and built-in methods for handling callers who can’t speak, you really set yourself up to take care of ALL your patients.

Here are a few things that are important to know when it comes to answering services for callers who can’t speak:

Work closely with the answering service right off the bat to get your account set up properly – let them know who your non-verbal callers are and how you’d like those people to be taken care of.

Make sure your non-verbal patients don’t block their caller ID – if an answering service can see who the incoming number is from they can quickly categorize the call and the call center agent taking the call will know how to handle it.

Get your script dialed in – there are special steps that need to be taken with callers who can’t speak. A series of questions from the agent and touch tone responses from the caller can help identify the issue and work towards a solution.

Ask how the answering service agents are trained to handle calls from people who can’t talk – operators receive many calls per shift and every once in a while they’ll get a prank call or a hang up. If they answer the phone and nobody says anything, it’s important for them to stay on the line and follow proper procedure in the event there is a non-verbal caller on the other end.

So yes, it is possible to provide great service for non verbal callers with an answering service for people who can’t speak. We are available to help out with these types of calls around the clock. Feel free to contact us with any questions about how our answering service for callers who can’t speak works.

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