Answering services provide a beneficial and necessary service to businesses of all kinds. Though many business owners hire receptionists who answer calls and manage the office’s front, they often run into gaps when more pressing needs arise. These receptionists become saddled with other tasks within the office, and answering the phone tends to fall to the wayside.

Holding the belief that the customer will leave a message and you’ll get back to them later is dangerous territory. These messages can sit for hours, if not days. By the time you get back to the customer, they have likely moved on to a competitor. However, for those in the medical industry, failure to answer phone calls can have serious, if not deadly, consequences.

The Benefits of a Medical Answering Service

Medical answering services can provide many benefits to medical, dental, or related healthcare practices. The key difference in a medical answering service is that these call answering professionals are trained specifically to answer medical-related telephone calls. This allows those in the office to focus on physically-there patients while ensuring that patients on the phone are properly cared for.

When you leverage medical answering services to handle your incoming calls, you can rest assured that medical answering professionals will maintain a high customer service level. Further, trained medical answering professionals abide by HIPAA standards to protect the privacy of every one of your patients. These professionals free up the time of your clinical or medical practice staff and also save you money. Ensuring that the right person is answering your calls promptly makes your patients feel valued.

Three Advantages to Hartley and Associates Medical Answering Services

1. Best in class technology with near 100% uptime – Those in the medical field can’t afford downtime. Medical emergencies can happen at any time. Our team has the experience necessary to respond to the demands of urgent medical calls that can’t wait. We offer state-of-the-art technology to ensure accurate, reliable, and friendly customer service.
2. HIPAA and HITECH compliance – Not all answering service professionals are properly trained in HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or HITECH (Health Insurance Technology for Economical and Clinical Health Act). Professionals at Hartley are trained to ensure patient privacy through electronic information and telecommunications technologies. This includes video conferencing, the internet, streaming media, landline, and wireless communications.
3. Over 30 years of experience supporting the medical community – Our medical answering professionals weren’t just hired yesterday. Rather, our virtual agents have a well-earned reputation for outstanding patient service, responsiveness, and flexibility. Hartley’s dedication to our medical clients has resulted in preferred-vendor status with several significant medical groups and hospitals.

What Does a Medical Answering Service Do?

Similar to an answering service for a small business or retailer, with a medical answering service, your incoming calls are routed to live professionals who greet your patients using the agreed-upon greeting for your practice. These receptionists are trained to handle basic inquiries, such as informing customers of your practice’s location or office hours.

Medical answering service receptionists can also make appointments for patients, reschedule appointments, and provide important information to new patients. New patient registration can be time-consuming. Thankfully, medical answering professionals can take care of patient pre-registration on your behalf. This alone can save you from some serious administrative burden, freeing up folks in the office to serve patients there for their appointments. Patients also appreciate the ability to take care of pre-registration before arrival, as it gets them in and out of the clinic faster.

Suppose a patient calls and needs to be connected with someone in the office. In that case, the virtual medical receptionist will forward the call (or applicable message) to the primary office line or a doctor’s pager or mobile device. Medical receptionists can also send emails or texts based on the needs of the business. Virtual receptionists can answer calls for your practice 24 hours a day and seven days a week. This is a critical advantage as medical emergencies can happen at any hour of the day.

A Quick Recap of the Benefits Provided by a Medical Answering Service

If you are in the medical industry and aren’t yet clear on a medical answering service’s benefits, we’ll try and recap it here in a few short bullet points.

• Coverage 24 hours a day and seven days a week – with a medical answering service, you don’t have to worry that your patients’ calls will go unanswered.
• Medical receptionists can schedule, change, and cancel appointments – and new patient pre-registration can take place over the phone, saving valuable time for both the patient and office staff.
• Medical emergencies and needs will be properly triaged, ensuring critical situations are routed to medical professionals for quick attention.
• All calls and communications are HIPAA and HITECH-compliant – this protects patient privacy and provides your patients with confidence and trust.

Contact Hartley & Associates today at 866-918-8700 or fill out our online contact form to see how our answering service can help your business.