Unique Aspects Of A Physician Answering Service

A physician answering service is a call center

, but not a normal one. It needs to pay special attention to a number of things that a normal center won't find as important. For example, if representatives are taking calls from people who are responding to television commercials and requesting free brochures about some product, then it's okay if those employees work from home, as is quite common. If their callers hear a screaming baby or howling dog in the background, that won't damage a mail order company's image of professionalism as much as it would that of a doctor's office.

Confidentiality is another issue that's more important here. While steps do need to be taken to protect information as basic as a caller's name and address, when that information becomes medical in nature, protecting it naturally becomes even more important. HIPAA training is therefore one key difference, as are more reliable security systems. Information must be either secure or destroyed. Background checks should be ran on employees when they're hired, and no one should be allowed into those buildings who isn't supposed to be. In regards to the document destruction we mentioned a moment ago, professional companies which specialize in exactly that should be utilized whenever possible.

Professionalism is vital, too. Of course, all companies want their telephone representatives to be professional, but there aren't many industries where that's more important than in the medical profession. In terms of how they deal with your patients, you should require no less courtesy from a company which answers your phone calls than you would require from your in office staff. After all, your patients will not make such a distinction. If they are treated in an unprofessional manner by the person who answers your phone number, that will reflect badly on you. In order to prevent that from happening, you will want to check out a company's track record prior to drawing up a contract with them, which is always a good practice anyway.

Disaster preparedness is another vital issue for a physician answering service. If someone isn't able to request a brochure about a dog grooming kit when they want to, it isn't a vital issue in the grand scheme of things. However, if they are calling with a medical concern, it could be a matter of life and death. Therefore, you want to make sure the company answering your calls has back up power generators and alternate locations. That way, you can now that they will always be available to answer your patients' calls in the event of an emergency.

by: Kurt Duncan

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