Archive for the 'Medical practice' Category

Who is in Control in your medical clinic?

Richard Lango March 8th, 2010

Is technology controlling you or are you controlling it? Do you find that your medical practice management system determines how you work, or are you the one who determines how the system should function?

There are very many types of remote receptionist services that you can choose from, and here is where you should start determining whether you will be in control or not.

Live agent vs an automated system

This begins by considering whether you want to use an automated appointment scheduling programme or a live agent. While you may think of hiring the services of a live agent because of the human touch among other things, there are several drawbacks to using this method. For example, a live agent will simply relay all the messages without making any distinction between emergency and non-emergency ones. A good medical office assistant online, on the other hand, will filter the calls and give more priority to the emergency ones.

Another very significant consideration is the cost of the services. An effective automated system will give you 24/7 medical reception at just a small fraction of what you would otherwise spend on a live agent service.

Payment methods

Another way that you should determine whether your medical practice management program will have the upper hand is the way you make the required payment. First of all, a reputable system will give you the ability to test the services before you make any commitment. This will give you the best way of verifying whether you will really benefit from what is being offered.

You should as well consider whether the system requires you to make a large upfront payment that effectively ties you up for several months. You should find an online scheduler that you just use on a monthly subscription basis, without making such long-term commitments.

Another consideration as far as payment is concerned is the ability to choose different payment plans. For instance, would you like to go for a flat rate monthly payment? Or would you rather opt for a method that charges you per call? A good system will be flexible enough to offer you both methods among others.

Freedom of accessing your scheduler from your blackBerry, iphone or smart phone

This refers to both the way you will manage your online scheduler and how easy it will be to reach your patients. Basically, a good system will not tie you to your office to be able to check and make your appointments. For instance, it should be able to synchronise with Google Calendar so that you can check your appointments and make any necessary adjustments. It should even go further by allowing you to use it whenever you may be, even if there is no internet connection by using sms service.

You should as well have different ways of reaching your patients, which ensures that you cater well for the needs of different people. These ways include via the telephone, email, and mobile text message SMS.

Be in control.

The Secret to Cutting Patient No-Shows

Richard Lango February 24th, 2010

“If patients don’t have a relationship with physicians, they don’t mind not showing up,” said Dr. Tim Gorski from Arlington, Texas. If this is the case, how do you form a relationship with a patient who has not yet shown up for an appointment? This is where your office automation system comes in handy.

You should know that the monthly fee of a good scheduler with telephone, email and mobile text message reminder is roughly about the cost of one patient no-show to you. So can you afford NOT to use a reminder service?

The appointment stage

Your first contact with a patient will often start at the appointment stage. You should therefore ensure that you use a medical appointment scheduling program that is friendly to the patients. Although the patients will obviously like to speak to a live human being, they would rather find a faster alternative than being put on hold.

There are also other patients who would prefer to use the internet to book their own appointments. Self-service patient appointment scheduling makes this possible, where you will set up an online scheduler.

Remind the patients

After the patients have booked their appointments, it is important to make a follow-up by having an effective reminder service. There are some important factors you should consider when finding a good reminder service.

First, it will be very boring for a live agent to keep calling patients with the same message over and over. The frustration and exhaustion that results can easily make the receptionist talk in an unpleasant tone to the patients, and this will cost your business.

You should therefore let a computer that does not get tired or experience boredom do the job. This does not mean that you need to install any hardware or software in your office, which will be unnecessarily expensive. You just have to sign up for an appropriate service to take care of your needs. In this way, preventing just one patient no-show per month will be enough to pay for your subscription.

The appointment reminder service you use should enable you to get in touch with the patients in a variety of ways. For example, you should be able to reach your patients via the telephone, email, and mobile text message (SMS). This will ensure that you reach different types of patients. Each method has its strengths and drawbacks, hence using all of them will offer you the best possible deal.

You can also opt to give your patients the ability to cancel their appointments during the reminder process to further eliminate patient no-shows. You will be able to re-schedule the empty slots in good time.

Your office automation system should help you to maintain a good relationship with your patients and cut patient no-shows.

Office Automation – How to Get the Best Medical Practice Management Program

Richard Lango February 17th, 2010

The importance of office automation has resulted in the supply of many types of programs in the market. It is therefore very crucial that you go for a system that will give you the best value possible. This means that you should consider some factors before you even start looking for your office automation program. The following are some of the pertinent points that you need to bear in mind.

Compatibility with your office work flow and multiple communication channels

You most likely already have some system in place. For instance, you are already using telephone in your clinic. The automated telephone reminder that you would like to set up should not create a complete overhaul because it will not be able to operate seamlessly with your present telephone system.

People use different modes of communication in today’s world of Information Technology. You should therefore ensure that the office automation system you want to use is compatible with many types of systems and devices. This means that apart from using the telephone, the program you are looking for should be able to send emails, and instant text messages among others. In this way, you will be able to cater for the needs of different types of patients. While there are those patients who will prefer to use the telephone, particularly the elderly, others will prefer using the Internet. There are still some patients who have busy schedules and would like to receive automated reminders on their cell phones.

24/7 medical reception with automated virtual receptionist

While your medical office front desk receptionist will not be able to work round the clock, the virtual medical office receptionist should give you a 24/7 service. You will therefore have a self-service patient appointment scheduling, whereby the patients will be able to book their own appointments at any time of the day or night.

This means that your system should be robust enough to handle unlimited number of appointments in a day.

In addition to these considerations, you should use a pre-paid medical scheduler. This means that the patients will make some small payments when they make their appointments. As a result, you will be protected even when some patients do not show up. Patient no-shows result in what are known as invisible costs.

The type of office automation that you use will either make or break your medical practice. You should therefore ensure that you get the best service that suits both you and your patients.

Effective Office Automation

Richard Lango January 26th, 2010

We live in a world of advanced technology where people use a wide variety of machines to simplify the things they want to do while they get a better output. You should not let yourself remain behind as technology passes you by if you have a medical clinic. If you would like to streamline your medical practice in order to be more productive, you should ensure that you set up a good medical practice management system. In order to achieve this, you need to set up an effective office automation system.

There are various areas that you need to take into consideration as you look for your office automation system. One of the crucial areas has to do with booking of appointments. You should use a system that gives your patients the opportunity to book their own appointments. The self-service patient appointment scheduling program that you use should enable the patients who would like to use the phone to do so. In order for this to be more effective, you should put up a very robust automated medical receptionist that will work round the clock, even during those times when your front desk receptionist is off duty.

In addition, the service should enable those patients who are Internet savvy to be able to carry out online medical appointment scheduling. You will thus take care of patients with different tastes.

The office automation system you use should also incorporate the ability to remind the patients of their approaching appointments. A good appointment reminder service will help you to deal with the problem of patient no-shows, which can affect your business significantly. Apart from this, you should use a system that will protect you in case a patient still fails to show up even after being reminded of the appointment. Are you wondering how you are going to achieve this? Simple. Just use a pre-paid medical appointment scheduling program, which will require the patients to make a small payment during the booking process.

You should ensure that the system you use gives you as much anywhere-anytime convenience and flexibility as possible. First, the program should be easy for you and your staff to use. Second, you should be able to access your records irrespective of where you are. You should be able to access your records either online or via instant text messaging, which means that the system needs to be compatible with a wide variety of devices, including ordinary cell phones, iphone and Blackberry devices. Remember that you are automating your office, not yourself!

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Does Your Office Automation System Stand Up to the Test?

Richard Lango January 9th, 2010

If you have a medical clinic, you will find very many types of programs that you can use for your office automation. However, you should have a comprehensive checklist against which you compare the system you would like to use in order to determine that you are really going for the best. The following are some of the things you should take into consideration as you look for a suitable medical practice management program.

Does it act as your virtual receptionist?

The system you use should be able to act as your medical front desk receptionist so that all your operations will be able to function seamlessly even when your receptionist is off duty. The patients who require your services should still be able to reach your clinic even when there is no one to pick the phone, which brings us to another consideration.

Does it operate 24/7?

You should ensure that you use a 24/7 medical answering service so that your office will never get out of touch and drive some patients away. People should be able to reach your clinic whenever they have the need.

Is it user friendly?

Self-service patient appointment scheduling will only be effective if it is easy for the patients to use in the first place. This means that it should have a simple interface where the patients do not need to fill page-long questionnaires! In case it is complicated in one way or another, the patients will simply look for another medical service.

Does it act as a reminder service?

The system you use should have an automated reminder service that will get in touch with the patients in a variety of ways to ensure that they do not forget their appointments. This will help you to minimize patient no-shows, which are among the major sources of revenue loss.

Does it protect you in case of no-shows?

In spite of all your noble steps, there are still some patients who will not show up after booking appointments. The online scheduler you use should protect your business without making you rub shoulders with the patients. It should therefore have a way in which the patients make some pre-payment during the booking process.

How easily can you access it yourself?

It is quite inconvenient to use a system that ties you down to the office in order to check your medical appointments. The program you use should offer you the flexibility of accessing it from anywhere in a variety of ways. For instance, you can just send single-word instant text messages in order to access the records you are interested in. In such a case, you do not even need an internet connection. When you are connected to the internet, however, you can achieve even more. If the system has two-way synchronization feature with Google Calendar, you will not only be able to access the medical appointments but also make and upload some necessary adjustments.

These are some of the important things you should ensure that your office automation service has.

Tired of Front Office Management at Your Clinic? Think About Automated Answering System

Dr. Maulik October 26th, 2009

You really feel frustrated when come across ‘never heard’ reasons from reception managing people when you get a complaint from your patient that they were not assisted when required! It actually becomes very difficult as you cannot virtually present in your clinic or health care centre all time, throughout the day! The things may become worst when it comes to assist, fix up an appointment or answer patients when they call during night hours, off the clinic hours!

With betterment and advancement in technology, you can now make your office automated! The automation is also the best solution for a smooth clinic management. The product called online appointment scheduler can solve all the worries that you have come across. Virtual medical assistant comes with software to be installed in your health care centre in order to tackle every patient’s call. This is a 24/7 online answering medical service that keeps your medical reception activities alive, all the time!

Whether you want to feed your own answers and want to play then as and when required or if you have planned to make reminder calls to all the patients who are potential customers about their forthcoming schedules of meeting and consulting you or just visiting the health care center for some general purpose; online medical answering automated system can get into all!

Automated medical assistant can be used as online appointment scheduler to fix up an appointment automatically, answering machine to answer patients’ calls anytime and also as patient reminder automatic service that calls up potential customers about their coming schedules at your clinic. The benefits that come with such office automation are it is round-the-clock service and never keeps your patient away from clinic assistance. Patients can call and get help from your front desk any time they want. Also, such medical answering service comes with multilingual option to tackle foreigners for a better communication.

Online patient reminder service can also be set into multilingual answering machine in case the staff at your front desk finds it difficult to communicate. Also, such online scheduler comes with very affordable price and in a long-run; it is really worth installing and making your medical office automated. More and more health care centers are now installing 24/7 virtual medical assistant for a smooth and hassle-free medical clinic management.

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Virtual medical front desk is changing the face of medical practice management

Martin Wright June 20th, 2009


Like any other business, first impressions matter a great deal in the medical private practice. Patients and clients of private medical clinics, chiropractors, dentists and spas judge the entire practice and the quality of the services offered there by the reception they receive when they make their first contact with the practice.

You’ve probably heard of patients who have vowed never to seek services from even under the best medical practice management because of the reception they received at the medical front desk or on the phone while making an appointment. Thus it become important for professionals in the medical field who are in private practice to ensure that they get the best front desk helper that technology offers; A virtual medical receptionist.

Medical Practice management, in this modern society, is often about manage time involved in complete a service. People appreciate efficiency in everything because in most cases it will save their time. Anyone who has walked into a busy medical practice reception will agree that a front desk medical receptionist’s job can be overwhelming. There are old and new patients calling to make enquiries, patients waiting in the reception for assistance and loads of paper work. It is no wonder that a good receptionist buckling under the load of paper work and trying to assist patients on the phone and in the reception may become frustrated and rude. A virtual medical receptionist would be a relief to your regular receptionist.

The virtual medical receptionist will handle all incoming calls when your regular receptionist is busy with other office matters. The virtual receptionist will answer all new and old patient queries and help register new patients. The virtual receptionist also comes with online patient appointment scheduling software. Your regular receptionist will appreciate the reduced paperwork as patients will now fill online forms with the assistance of the online appointment scheduler.

The changes in your medical practice will be noticeable. With the virtual medical receptionist on, your regular front desk staff can attend to patients in the reception area without worrying about the phone ringing. If the phone call is an emergency call or if the virtual medical receptionist cannot handle the phone call satisfactorily, the call is forwarded to one of the staff or you.

Patients and other clients who visit your practice will be impressed by the efficiency of the front desk services offered at your practice. There will be less chances of your regular receptionist being rude to or ignoring your patients in the reception or on the phone. The first impression your clients will get of your practice is efficiency and they will be glad to return to your practice for further medical assistance.

The virtual medical receptionist is a rather new tool for medical practice management and some practitioners fear that patients will not want to be assisted by a machine and would rather have the assistance of a real person. This is not entirely true. Patients will appreciate the efficiency and ease of scheduling appointments online from anywhere and at anytime. The virtual medical receptionist is also designed to sound as human like as possible.

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Finally, the solution to the ‘new patient curse’

Martin Wright May 3rd, 2009

Paperwork, loads and loads of paperwork! That’s what goes through the mind of many doctors in private practice without a virtual medical office receptionist when a new patient walks in the door. Of course there is the initial excitement of your practice growing but then the reality sinks in a short time after that.

There is a routine common to every new patient visiting a privately owned medical practice for the first time. The paperwork and the processing involved is time consuming and can be cumbersome for both patients and medical staff. Patients have to fill forms that allow the release of information, insurance forms, forms about their medical history and HIPAA agreements. If your practice is receiving a steady flow of new patients and you would like this trend to continue, do not let the paperwork overwhelm you and your staff. It’s time to let technology work in your favor.

A virtual medical office receptionist will ease the burden of paperwork for both your patients and your staff. Your patients will especially enjoy the convenience of scheduling their own appointments with the help of a medical assistant online. What’s more they can do this from the comfort of their homes as opposed to spending several hours in a medical reception.

A remote receptionist service allows new patients to enter their insurance information and other medical history into a HIPAA compliant website. This virtual receptionist saves you the cumbersome task of having to cross check the new patient’s health insurance to ensure that it can be accepted at your practice. A virtual medical office receptionist will do the cross checking of the new patient’s insurance as well as ensure that the HMO that covers the patient approves you as a physician. When the patient is sure that their visit will be covered by their health insurance they can go ahead and schedule an appointment.

Your remote receptionist service will also act as a backup receptionist. In any busy medical practice a front desk receptionist is required to attend to patients waiting in the lounge as well as answer phone calls. This can be cumbersome and your medical office assistant may not be able to work efficiently enough. A virtual medical office assistant can greatly ease this burden. When your regular receptionist is busy attending to the needs of patients waiting in the lounge, the backup receptionist can answer any incoming phone calls. This remote receptionist service can assist both old and new patients in scheduling appointments. The virtual receptionist will forward any calls that are of a more complex nature. Your regular receptionist will also be spared the burden of having to assist new patients in filling out bulky forms, processing and filling them.

Remote receptionist services are also 24/7 backup receptionists. Patients can call any time of the day to schedule appointments or log in online to do the same.

Many doctors reading this may be tempted to shrug off the idea of a virtual medical office assistant as an unnecessary luxury. It is a necessity to those who want their practice to run efficiently. Once you give the virtual receptionist a try you will be left wondering how you ever got by without it in the first place.

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