Medical Answering Services

Find out more about Medical Answering Services

Written by Steven Bryan

Doctors can’t be in the office 24x7. Whether they are at home with their families, on vacation, or relaxing on the golf course, they need to stay in touch with their patients. Using medical answering services can be a lifesaving investment in more ways than one.

Much more than an answering machine

When you use medical answering services, you get a lot more than just someone to answer the phone. For a few basic patient needs, some providers offer an automated menu that allow a caller to order prescription refills and schedule appointments. Of course, if a patient needs to speak to a human being, the system will route them to one of the agents in the answering service call center.

If you want to add additional levels of after-hours service, a medical answering service can provide a trained staff that is able to field some basic medical questions. For more complicated issues, providers can have licensed nurses listen to symptoms and make recommendations. Messages can be relayed to you via an alphanumeric pager as well as by e-mail; the more critical messages and calls will be forwarded to you immediately.

What to expect from medical answering services

Because a patient's health is at stake, you should always use an answering service that maintains the highest standards of professionalism. Some things to expect from a provider include:

• Automatic forwarding of calls. When you and your staff are out of the office, calls should immediately go to the answering service. If they need to speak to a human being, they should not have to navigate a complicated automated menu.
• No communication breakdowns. During a medical emergency, having a call routed to an offshore answering service can be harmful to someone's health. Minutes count in a crisis, and precious time can be wasted overcoming a language barrier.
• Full HIPAA compliance. Contracting with medical answering services means giving an agent access to a patient's protected health information. Make sure that any service adheres to all the proper government regulations, especially HIPAA.
• Emergency backup. In any industry, computers crash and the lights go out, so make sure that your medical answering services maintain a backup site.

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