subject: The Inner Workings Of A Medical Call Answering Service [print this page] The first part of the inner workings of a medical call answering service we'd like to talk about is what happens when the call first comes in. A patient dials your office's phone number after hours, and that call is forwarded to a call center, where it is placed into a queue. If all of the employees in that facility are already on the phone, then your patient's call is still answered automatically by an automated system. As soon as an employee becomes available, your patient's call is answered. Due to the nature of these types of calls, it's important that the time between the call coming in and the human being answering it should be as short as possible.
Once the call is answered, it needs to be answered by someone who will treat your patients with the same kind of courtesy and respect you would expect to be used by your front office staff. After all, for the duration of that phone call, that person is a representative of your office. Also, it's better if they're in a professional building. Some answering services allow your employees to work from home. In that case, your patients might hear crying babies or barking dogs in the background, and that wouldn't be very professional. Thus, before doing business with any such provider, ask them if any of their employees work from home.
Once the conversation that person has with your patient has come to an end, the employee will take whatever action your guidelines require. Typically, in the event of a medical question for which your patient requires an answer as soon as possible, you are sent a text message. You can then either call the service itself for more details about what transpired in the conversation or call the person back directly. On the other hand, if the person was just calling to leave a message, the employee can simply take it down and forward it to you via some previously agreed upon method and schedule.
As far as calling patients back, some doctors have made a practice of teaming up and taking turns being on call. That way, there can still be some nights when you are never interrupted for any reason. Both doctors and patients have testified to the great benefits such a system has to offer. They get the care they need, and you get the free time you need.
