subject: What Makes A Great Medical Call Center [print this page] There are a number of factors that go into determining what makes a great medical call center. The most important of those factors is that the business must hire the right kinds of employees. Such a person needs to have the same pleasant attitude dealing with people on the phone that you would expect your front office personnel to have. Therefore, if you're shopping around, it's probably a good idea to make sure that the company you're looking at has some sound hiring and firing practices in place in order to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy and professionalism among their employees.
Of course, the hiring of those employees is just the beginning of that process. The next step is training them. Of course, best practices regarding courtesy and professionalism should be a part of that training, and so should best practices regarding security. After all, the employees of the answering service you use will have access to some sensitive information about your patients. Incidentally, that's also why HIPAA training is such an important component of this process, too. As you can see, there is more to what these professionals do than just taking and relaying messages, although they certainly need to be able to do that as accurately and efficiently as possible.
Having access to the right kind of equipment can make their job a lot easier. Therefore, when you sign up with one of these services, you want to make sure they have enough power to handle all the calls for all of the physicians they serve without any of your patients ever having to wait on hold for extended periods of time. Sophisticated call routers are a must, and so are backup power generators. In the event of a power failure, they need to still be able to handle your calls. Also, their security systems should still be up and running at all times, too. That's another reason their needs to be no interruption is such a building's power supply.
Another thing that makes a great medical call center is the ability to render the service you require in a number of different ways. When call comes in to leave a message, for example, they need to be able to forward that message to you how and when you want them to. Some common options include voice mail dictation, emails, and text messages. On your end, you need to provide them clear instructions on how and in what circumstances you should be contacted.
