What Are the Benefits of a 24-hr, HIPAA-Compliant Answering Service?
Doctors lead busy lives. Even the most dedicated physicians and their staff cannot be available to all their patients 24 hours a day. Yet, the medical needs of patients won’t wait for when doctors find it convenient for them to deal with.
How can doctors make sure that their medical practices’ needs and the needs of their patients are all being met? HIPAA-compliant answering services provide a convenient solution to this problem. Many medical centers turn to 24-hour answering services to help them better manage their patients and to provide their patients with a higher standard of care. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of using a medical answering service.
24-Hour Availability
What happens when a patient wakes up at 2 a.m. with a serious medical issue? Their doctor isn’t going to be available to take the call, but that doesn’t mean that they can wait. Medical answering services for doctors’ offices are available to take calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning that, no matter when a patient needs to get in touch, there will be someone for them to speak with.
Familiarity with Medical Terminology
Another benefit of using a dedicated medical answering service is that staff members are trained in medical terminology and industry practices. Medicine is a highly specialized field; doctors can’t just hand anyone a phone and expect them to be able to accurately and effectively deal with patients, suppliers, and laboratories. Medical answering services solve this issue by screening all employees for the requisite knowledge and understanding of ethical issues, ensuring that all calls will be handled with the necessary care and expertise.
Bilingual Services
Many doctors serve communities made up of multiple ethnicities and nationalities. As such, some patients do not speak English, or only speak it as their second language. Because of the sensitivity of medical issues, it is paramount that every patient’s messages and questions be relayed carefully and accurately.
A properly equipped medical answering service will have bilingual staff on hand, allowing them to make sure every patient call is treated with the proper care and understanding, and that all messages are relayed accurately and efficiently.
In order for an answering service to best help doctors and medical offices, they need to be familiar with the industry and fully compliant with all appropriate regulations. Answer MTI’s medical answering services are fully HIPAA compliant, and all employees have the appropriate training to work effectively in the medical field.
Answer MTI’s answering services are available 24 hours a day and can help doctors by handling all customer service and appointment scheduling calls. Why put the burden of handling these tasks on your staff when there’s a dedicated and experienced team waiting to handle them instead? Doctors and medical staff should focus on what they do best: providing care for patients. We’ll handle the rest.
Want to learn more? Contact us today at 800-673-2000.