subject: How To Choose The Best Medical Answering Services [print this page] Medical answering services are a valuable service for healthcare providers. With a physicians answering service, you no longer have to worry about missing critical calls from patients or fellow heath care professionals. All your calls will be handled by a full time service staffed by qualified professionals.
What is Medical Answering Services?
Answering services are basically a new kind of service industry that allows businesses and offices to outsource their phone answering needs to an external service provider. Physicians answering services refer to specialized answering services that are oriented towards servicing the healthcare industry.
Unlike regular answering services, medical answering services are staffed by people with extensive knowledge of all aspects of the healthcare industry, including knowledge of medical terminology. This ensures that your phones are answered by qualified professionals who can be relied upon to record and relay the correct information with speed and precision.
Advantages of choosing a Medical Answering Service
With physicians answering services, doctors can rest easy knowing that no phone call to their office or clinic will ever go unanswered. Unlike a physicians office or clinic, an answering service will have multiple dedicated phone lines for each business. Moreover, answering service staff are trained and hired for the sole purpose of answering business calls in a friendly, professional and reassuring manner, ensuring that they are never too busy to answer a call.
Most medical answering services also offer email alerts and paging services to their clients, which can be personalized according to individual preferences. This ensures that the client is always up-to-date on key calls, regardless of whether they are physically present at the office or not.
Hiring a Medical Answering Service
Efficiency, precision and confidentiality are the three key criteria to keep in mind when hiring a physicians answering service. Any answering service you hire, should not only be able to provide staff who can answer your calls promptly and correctly, but also guarantee that your patient records will not be disclosed under any circumstances.
One of the best ways to ensure the above is to choose a service that is specifically designed to serve the specialized needs of health care professionals. Your fellow physicians will be able to suggest possible services and also advise you on which firms to stay clear of. Online directories and yellow pages are also a good place to find medical answering services. Finally, always ask for a trial run before signing an agreement.
