Archive for the tag '24/7 medical answering service'

Online Appointment Scheduler Can Lessen the Burden of Doctors

Dr. Maulik February 9th, 2010

There are doctors for the patients suffering from various health diseases but then what about doctors? Doctors too are human beings and are often so stressed out in life! Their medical practice no doubt major source of the stress.

The survey says the medical professionals who own health care centers, frequently get frustrated due to apathies by staff in tackling patients or by trivial things such as arranging (or re-arranging) their appointments. Furthermore, doctor’s office cannot look after every patient’s reminder and regimens. On the other hand, medical front desk receptionist may fail milti-tasking and may have to bear words from the doctors.

To overcoming all above mentioned issues, the technology brings us the best way to manage medical services. Office automation using virtual receptionist that can literally multi-tasking is currently in boom! Specially designed medical office virtual assistant can serve as front desk receptionist as well patient reminder service –making daily automated call to patient reminding them about their forthcoming appointments or visits to health centers. Also, the system comes with multilingual option (English, French, and Spanish etc) for better communication with patients whose native language is not English.

This all-in-one virtual receptionist can be further utilized as online appointment scheduler. Also, prepaid appointment system can save a financial loss due to no-show patient issues. Online appointment scheduler can synchronize appointments with Google Calendar and send to handheld devices such as iPhone and Blackberry. This makes it a must-have for medical professionals who travel or away from office frequently. A scheduler that synchronize with Google allows them to manage their patient appointment without access to computer.

An all-in-one virtual receptionist should be the best helper that is capable of finally relieve the burden of doctors as they can rely on the system that never gets tired even after working for 24/7. Virtual receptionist comes with lovely voice that is clearly audible. No matter how many patients call at a time, no one of them would get busy boring tones that otherwise annoy them. As such a virtual receptionist is connected to doctor’s office via different type of call forwarding, it take over a business call while the office line os busy, no-answer, etc, this wonderful system proves itself as a backup receptionist in a true sense

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Automate Your Office with a Doctor Appointment Scheduler

Dr. Maulik January 13th, 2010

If you are not using a doctor appointment scheduler it’s high time that you think about using a modern scheduler seriously. Medical software for online appointment schedule is playing a key role in the doctor’s clinic these days. It creates a win-win situation for both the doctors as well as patients. Doctors are now able to utilize technology to focus more on their primary functions and increase their productivity. On the other hand, patients are getting better medical care. A doctor appointment scheduler has a direct impact on the revenues as well as high level of customer loyalty.

A lot of doctors are resistant in trying out an online doctor appointment scheduler. This is primarily because of the initial costs, licensing fees as well as due to the doubts of how is it going to impact their practice. All the good doctor appointment schedulers are available in various pricing models. It does not matter whether your have a small business or a large setup, you can always be sure of finding the right pricing model that will suit your needs. Hence, there is no need to be concerned about the fees and the licensing costs. Some good online appointment schedulers requires no contract, and will offers a free one-month trial through which you can see how these software can impact your business.

There are a lot of conservative doctors who do not believe in using technology. They believe that they are better off with manually managing the appointments. But, managing appointments in this way has proven to be very inefficient. It can also not scale beyond certain limit and ultimately the service to your patients will suffer. At some point or the other technology will be needed to break those limitations.

A medical software for online appointment schedule comes with a lot of other features as well. It can initiate telephone reminder calls and email reminder message to patients before their scheduled appointments. These can substantially lower no shows. It can sync up your appointments with Google calendar and gives you access to your appointments from anywhere using your handheld devices.

At a fraction of the cost of a live agent, a state-of-art scheduler can also come with virtual receptionists that are very efficient in managing incoming calls. The virtual receptionists works 24/7 and takes calls only when your staff is either busy or the clinic is closed. It can handle multiple calls and your patients will never get your phone busy. It helps your staff to focus on the more important tasks like medical billing and patient care.

By googling around, you’ll be able to find a modern scheduler that is fit for your practice. Look for something that is very easy to use, flexible, stable and customizable. Don’t be intimidated just because it is new to you, as all you need to do is ring up for a trial version of the software and have it work with your present system.

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Patient Scheduler Online –Making appointment scheduling easier

Dr. Maulik December 26th, 2009

Advancement in medical informatics has gifted us with powerful medical office automation software. maiking the entire medical management easier than before. 

Good example of such automation is automated virtual receptionist that can book patient appointment over natural language dialog. Tuned with sweet friendly voice, a virtual medical receptionist can not only fixes up patients’ appointments without any error but it can also make automated reminder calls to patients in their preferred language through its multilingual option (such as Spanish, English and French).

If you have patients who love to surf Internet. Such system also provide doctor appointment online scheduler with user friendly modern visual design. Patient self-service scheduling is not only convenience to your patients, but also cost-saving to your medical practice.

Look for a system that can automatically sync patient appointments to Google Calendar so that you can manage business scheduling from any handheld devices such as Smartphone, iPhone and Blackberry.

If your suffer revenu loss because of patient no-shows, you can also use your virtual medical receptionist to make telephone reminder calls. Patient reminder calls can also be tailored as per health care provider’s requirements. For instance, it can be fitted with customized regimen and medical advices.

HIPPA compliant system that has strict norms about security and privacy protection, patient scheduler online is a perfect tool for smooth medical management for all health care providers.

To summarize what a modern office automation system (service) can do for you

  1. It is 24/7, serving calls with reliability and consistency. Patients can contact health care center at anytime they want
  2. Software will never gets tired as people do! There is no option for apathies and laziness in performing virtual medical assistant job. They are simply more dependable, more reliable than live agents.
  3. Automation allows your office staff  to focus their time and attention on other more important jobs. i.e. Your office should see revenu up by keeping your patients happier and by improving medical billing.
  4. Patient reminder calls can develop good relationship between customers and health care provider – cutting down no-shows as well as patient service satisfaction will be key to improved practice income.
  5. Two-way sync Google Calendar system enables health care providers to check, cancel or reschedule appointments when they are away from office.

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All-in-one online scheduler with automated virtual receptionist

Dr. Maulik December 16th, 2009

Medical practice has witnesse advancement in medical technologies and that has brought much useful software, systems and office automation that can smoothen the medical practice routine and generate more revenues.

All-in-one online scheduler with virtual receptionist is one of the most sought-after systems that help health care providers to run their clinic or health care center with efficiency. The system makes reminder calls to the patients automatically. It informs patients about their forthcoming appointments, regimens and simple follow-ups. The system can also be used as online patient self service appointment scheduler. Top class of such systems can, in addition, function as your front-desk virtual medical receptionists.

The benefits that come from such a all-in-one system are many. This is 24/7 customer service support that helps patients to access the health care centers at any time they want. In addition,  The automated system is capable of multiple calls at the same time thus will never put your patient on-hold. The reminer system can be set into other international languages such as Spanish, Chinese and French. Which will sure please your non-English speaking patients.

If you are one of those doctors who frequently away from your office and  need to view and reschedule patients appointments, you are now find a online patient appointment scheduler that synchronizes with Google Calendar. With is feature, your appointments will be accessible on handheld devices such as iPhone, Smartphone and Blackberry.

In today’s world of cutthroat competition, every bit of advantages you gain from automation will help you get ahead of your game.  It is worth your efforts to find a great all-in-one system that is both your online scheduler and virtual receptionist, the type with a lot of nice features that help you run the most efficient, friendly medical practice.

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Achieve High Level of Client Satisfaction with Doctor Appointment Scheduler Software

Dr. Maulik November 29th, 2009

The best way to survive in any business is keep your clients satisfied by providing the services to best of your abilities. Most of the medical offices are managed by people today and when there are humans involved there is always a chance of an error. Don’t you think it will be a good idea to use some kind of software that will help you manage your medical services and improve your quality of service substantially? Everybody is becoming internet savvy these days and even your clients will want to do most of the communication with you online. If you provide them a platform and let them schedule and books their appointments online it will give you that extra edge over others as well as save you a lot of money in the long run.

Medical Practice is like any other small business in that cost of business directly affect your bottom line.  If you can do better streamlining the appointment scheduling procedure then you will be able to concentrate more on your core area of expertise. It will result in high levels patient satisfaction and ultimately increase your revenues.

Medical software for online appointment schedule has many benefits associated with it such as reducing paperwork, schedules recurring appointments, provide patient reminder services, act as a virtual receptionist 24/7 and many more.

You have to be a little careful in buying an online appointment scheduler for your automated office and make sure that you get all the necessary features that should be present in such software. Typically you should look out for the following features:

  • Most importantly it should be HIPAA compliant to ensure the security of your client’s information
  • It should let you customize itself as per your medical specialty
  • If you are a little tech savvy then you should definitely look up for the feature of synchronizing your appointments with Google Calendar so that they can be accessible from handheld devices such as iPhone, BlackBerry or Smart-phone
  • It should let you check your appointments through SMS commands or text messages
  • Support for most of the important languages like English, Spanish, French and Chinese

If you get all or most of these features in your online doctor appointment scheduler software then you should conclude that you have found the right software that will cater to all your needs.

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Looking for an Affordable, Quality Phone Answering Service

Julia McEachern December 8th, 2008


When I was growing up and my parents needed to contact our family doctor after his office closed, they picked up the phone and dialed him directly. Gone are the days of that personalized after-hours service and you will now be hard pressed to find a physician who easily hands over their personal contact number to patients…just in case.

Physician offices are understaffed, underpaid from managed care organizations, and overwhelmed by the medical and social needs of the patients they serve. Many physicians feel “chained” to their practice and work long hours each day. Sickness and illness occur twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and often can not wait until the office opens. Physicians and patients alike rely on phone answering service to receive calls from patients and relay messages to the on call physician. A quality phone answering service performs this function seamlessly, integrating itself into the workflow of each physician office that it serves. Unfortunately, affordability of these services is often a prohibitive factor as well as the human error that can occur when an phone answering service is used.

Common physician complaints about live answering services include:

  1. Messages from the service are relayed to the wrong physician on call, sometimes repeatedly waking up this person throughout the night
  2. Patient names are not transcribed correctly
  3. Answering service staff are not well versed in medical terminology therefore incorrectly relaying chief complaints or presenting symptoms
  4. Calls are not triaged appropriately, with non urgent calls being lumped together with more acute calls, putting physicians more at risk for medical liability
  5. Patients and physicians are kept on hold for long periods of time
  6. Front office staff receive an influx of sick patient calls for appointments during the first hour of the practice being opened (the busiest time) from people referred from the answering service
  7. Cost of answering message service does not equal the quality of goods provided

Besides receiving after hour calls directly and never getting a break from patient care, another cost-effective option is to invest in a 24 hour, 7 day a week virtual answering service. These services cost a fraction of what traditional answering services cost minus the human error factors mentioned above. They have the ability to separate urgent from non-urgent calls and immediately connect calls without bundling them and relaying them at specific intervals. You won’t hear patients express frustration at being on hold for too long with these services because they handle multiple calls simultaneously and can even make appointments for the patient calling in. How is that for decreasing your front office burden in the morning, particularly on a Monday and improving your overall medical practice management?

Many considerations have to be put into your selection of an answering service. These include cost, efficiency, degree of worry, and the ability to care for your patients most effectively when you can not be there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week…just in case.

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The benefits of an automated virtual receptionist versus a call center live agent

Aubrey Andrews December 5th, 2008

Call center is one of the most frequently heard complaints by small business owners or medical practices these days. And one of the most frequently heard complaints about call centers is that you can never make yourself understood.

Whether the company you are trying to reach has made call center outsourcing to Scotland, or Mexico, or Bangalore, having a simple conversation such as making, checking or cancelling an appointment can sometimes become a real hard task. This is no reflection on the person on the other end of the telephone, as doubtless anyone would have the same problem if they worked for a foreign company whose customers were based abroad.

Even if the call center is based on home soil, there is the potential obstacle of regional dialects and accents confusing both caller and operator, or human factors such as the receptionist having a cold, or a sore throat that may make them less intelligible.

However, the fact remains that in the current financial climate, a centralised medical answering service is a viable and sensible way to save your practice money. So why not cut out the risk of your patients not being able to make themselves understood through an automated virtual receptionist?

A virtual medical receptionist uses Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software to speak to patients naturally, in their own language, and in a neutral accent. If you have used IVR in the past, you should know that speech-recognition technology has come a long way in the last few years in terms of the quality of IVR based self-service systems.

But perhaps one of the greatest advantages of a remote receptionist service is that it has back-up options.

If your patient calls a live agent call center and struggles to make themselves understood, they have little option but to get frustrated with the situation, slam the phone down and hope that when they try again – if indeed they do ever call again – they reach a different agent who might understand them better.

There is no such problem with a virtual receptionist, as they have a process to go through in the unlikely situation that your patient cannot make themselves understood.

On the rare occasion that the IVR software fails to communicate with a caller, perhaps when their medical complaint prevents them from speaking or hearing clearly, a virtual receptionist will firstly re-prompt the question and ask the caller to try and answer the question again.

If this fails, it will give the caller the option of entering the answer via the telephone keypad – something which in nearly all cases will solve the problem.

However, if for some reason they can still not get their message across, the patient will be immediately connected to a live staff person immediately.

There is even a backup to the backup.

Every call that is made to a virtual receptionist is detailed and recorded on the instant call log.

This log files all the details provided (name, phone number, time of and reason for call (i.e. emergency, appointment or voice-mail). Therefore if a patient is unable to be connected to live staff, someone can always call them back to resolve the situation.

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Good telephone answering service a chiropractor’s must-have

Neil Kokemuller December 2nd, 2008


Chiropractic clinics come in all shapes and sizes. There are large practices that operate with several professionals and a few office staff members. Others may have one provider and one receptionist. Some smaller practices may just have a solo provider who operates as his own receptionist, multi-tasking between providing care and answering calls. Regardless of the setup, all chiropractic clinics can benefit from the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of a high quality telephone answering service.

A virtual answering service is an automated response system that quickly and accurately handles patient phone calls ranging from appointment scheduling to transfer of emergency calls. Why would a bigger practice need a virtual answering service if they have staff people? The telephone answering service acts as a perfect backup receptionist in the even live agents are busy with a patient, on another line, completing daily reminder calls, or engrossed in other office tasks. Whereas a live receptionist can only handle one call at a time, sometimes not very efficiently, a virtual answering service could potentially book several appointments at once in a matter of moments. This frees up office staff to fulfill patient needs, complete other important tasks, and process insurance claims paperwork.

A backup receptionist is especially important in those smaller practices where one receptionist or even no receptionist is on hand. Multi-tasking in a busy small practice can be stressful for someone flying solo. Plus, taking restroom breaks, lunch breaks, and others create a need for an answering service solution. Some small town chiropractors may even opt to operate without a full time receptionist with the ability to use a virtual answering service to manage basic calls for scheduling appointments and other needs.

Another excellent reason for any chiropractic clinic to use a call answering service is for the need to offer an after-hours answering service. Again, many practices cannot afford to pay someone to answer phones 24/7. However, the moderate up front cost for a call answering service program is even more worth it if the solution can be used as the after-hours answering service. After-hours call support is important as many people attempt to schedule appointments, or may have urgent needs after business hours.

The reality is that the virtual answering service just makes sense for chiropractors concerned with driving revenue and making profit. It is much more affordable to buy a virtual answering service than it is to pay someone ongoing to perform call answering duties. The virtual answering service also does not suffer from human limitations. Stress and fatigue are common place in many medical offices as receptionists are overwhelmed and overworked.

A quality technology solution quickly manages patient calls, something that patients appreciate, does not get irritable or short with callers, and never needs a rest. Maintenance of a solution is very minimal. All of these great benefits of the call answering service should impress any chiropractor who wants to focus his or her time on patient care and not on managing stressed receptionists and dealing with poor office morale.

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