Archive for the tag 'after-hours answering service'

Online Doctor Appointment Scheduler –A Layperson’s Guide

Dr. Maulik December 16th, 2009

Online patient appointment scheduler is software that fixes up patients’ appointments with health care provider by patient self-service. Other than patient login to doctor’s scheduler to book appointment, they can also make call to the system and ask for appointments, the system, in the voice of an virtual receptionist,  automatically arranges the schedule without bothering medical staff at counter. A top class online appointment scheduler usually has multiple funxtions.  For instance, it can be used as front desk standby receptionist that pickup a business call when doctor’s staff is too busy.

Such virtual assistant or virtual receptionist can speak to your patients in a very professional way. Also, health care providers can also use them as patient reminder software. i.e. the calls can be made to patients from the automated system about their forthcoming appointments or any schedule with health care center.  Automated reminder call has been proven effiective in slash patient no-shows and increase practice revenu.

More and more health care providers are now opting for automated office that has online patient appointment scheduler for better medical management. 24/7 customer service support makes the clinic more accessible and famous among other competitors. Another benefit of getting office automated with online patient appointment planner is it can synchronize the schedules with Google calendar, which make your schedule accessible on handheld devices such as Blackberry, SmartPhone and iPhone. For health care providers who travel frequently, this system has proved itself as perfect tool for manage your schedule away from office and computer.

Other benefits that come with patient reminder system include customization. A doctor can tailor the system as per his or her medical specialty. Also, the system comes with multilingual options such as French, English, and Spanish for better communication with foreign patients.

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Managing Medical Center made easy using Online Appointment System

Dr. Maulik November 10th, 2009

If you are a busy doctor or a health care provider and feel it difficult to tackle all the management at your center, here is a way! You can simply let your health care center go automated, using online appointment scheduler. With all advancement in medical technology, installing the system that can work as virtual receptionist has proven to be a very useful tool to boost the sales and generate revenues.

Medical office assisting system is an automated software plan that can schedule the patients’ appointments with doctors and also call them all for the follow ups. Also, the system can be fed with tailored answers and feedbacks those can be played as and when required. Designed as a 24/7 front desk helpers to the doctors, automated medical receptionist can perform multiple tasks that would never keep patients busy and will run a smooth medical management all day, all night!

Medical answering service helps patients being in touch with medical reception anytime they want. On the other hand, when you are away from the clinic or health care center, you can access all the important information. The medical management automated system can automatically synchronize the appointments information onto the Google Calendar that enables you to manage the schedules from your handheld devices such as iPhone, BlackBerry and SmartPhone. You can also check the appointments on the cellular phones using a single-word-command SMS or text message. All this is possible by installing online medical scheduler.

Telephone appointment reminder can also be used as answering machine that comes with multiple language options (like French, Spanish, and English etc) for a better conversation with your foreign customers, the patients. More and more health care providers are now installing virtual office assistant system that comes with HIPPA compliance that follow very strict security and privacy protection measurements. The system is quite easy to operate and is very useful especially when you have a shared practice (multiple doctor scheduling option).

Medical answering system is proved to be a very helpful tool for health care practitioners who cannot afford more staff for all different tasks. They can save money by installing online appointment scheduler that can also make reminder calls and keeps patients up dated.

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Phone Answering Service – How It Could Save Your Medical Practice

Martin Wright January 19th, 2009

Hospitals all over the US are reeling from effects of an economy in chaos and financial markets experiencing some of their worst times in 70 years. There is a tremendous increase in the number of uninsured patients visiting hospitals. Many hospitals are thus on the brink of collapsing while others are being closed down daily. As many employers work on how to scale back on health coverage and as the State looks for ways of cutting health care programs the people are left with no option but to off important but elective care like colonoscopies. With this kind of a scenario private medical practice is also taking a body blow. No practitioner can afford to lose clients and practices are looking for ways of attracting new ones. A lot needs to be done though, to achieve this. The kind of service that clients get will determine whether the practice retains or loses the client.

A good phone answering service is a sure way of ensuring that your clients are always happy. A friendly 24/7 medical answering service makes the patients feel well cared for and believe they are getting value for their money. As the competition for the few clients continues a efficient and friendly front desk phone answering service could be the critical thing you need to help your practice pull through this recession.

By investing in an after-hours answering service you make it possible for your clients to get attention when you are out of the office. A good phone answering service will also help your staff concentrate on other more important issues that will improve customer satisfaction and ultimately enhance retention. During these challenging economic times it is important to make sure that your clients are not kept for long waiting for their calls to go through. A good doctor answering service will give your practice the edge you need to beat your competitors. As more businesses close down you need to change the way you do things and ensure increased efficiency to enhance customer satisfaction.

The cost of investing in a live answering service is incomparable to the earnings you stand to gain from this one time investment. In addition, there is no need to worry about maintenance fees and your office will remain ‘open’ 24 hours a day 7 days a week! You could easily see your client list double within a few months through referrals and increased retention. A physician answering service is all you need to weather this recession. Get one today and you will always be glad you made this decision!

As the world eagerly awaits the swearing in of the 44th American president, it is no doubt that the new White House occupant has his job well cut out for him. With the effects of the economic downturn being felt not only here in the US but in many other areas in the world, governments are doing everything in their capacity to cushion their economies. Big businesses like Citigroup and SsangYong in Asia continue to register huge losses and file for bankruptcy as the business arena gets trickier. The medical practice will certainly be
affected!

Take good care of your business and have a recession-proof year at your practice!

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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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LOOKING FOR PHYSICIAN ANSWERING SERVICE? READ THIS FIRST

Martin Wright December 2nd, 2008


It is now official that the US is in a recession. It started almost a year ago and the effects have been felt far and wide. Big companies continue to downsize while the not so big ones are looking for ways of remaining afloat in these treacherous economic times. The medical profession has not been spared either and practitioners are desperate for ways of retaining their clients as they endeavor to attract new ones. With the profession growing every new day the competition keeps on increasing. It takes experience, professionalism and apt customer care skills to maintain a loyal client base. Things like a good phone answering service may seem minor but if poorly handled its effects may be disastrous.

During peak hours clients may try to call and fail to get through because the line is busy. To avert the negative effects that this brings to your business, invest in a reliable physician answering service. A good physician answering service will handle all the incoming calls with outstanding efficiency. It can handle many calls at the same time thus reducing the inconveniences of clients having to wait on the line.

In addition, good physician answering service can prioritize calls and have the urgent ones get to you without delay. This makes your services very reliable and patients will trust you to always deliver especially when they need you most. A 24/7 doctor answering service guarantees your clients attention any time of day or night at an affordable cost.

With the prevailing economic times, investing in a virtual answering machine will save your business in terms of operating costs because the service does not require any maintenance. As far as productivity is concerned, a physician answering service performs way better than a human answering service because it does not get tired. The service does not ‘sleep on the job’ and there is no need to supervise how it is working unlike with humans. This will free and save you a lot of time.

An automated doctor answering service relieves your staff of tiresome and boring tasks and enables them to engage in other more important activities. By investing in this service you will offer more personalized attention to your clients and thus building their loyalty. The clients will feel appreciated and will find no need of looking for alternative services. Well, you may ask, ‘but, I can get the same from a human answering service by hiring more staff?’

A live answering service can do but at a higher cost. Human beings cannot handle many tasks at once. Thus, your clients will have to hold on the line in case there are many incoming calls at the same time. Human beings can also be unpredictable and their reactions are influenced by the external factors around them. As much as they may try mistakes are inevitable and with the ongoing credit crunch some mistakes can prove to be very costly both now and in the distant future.

So, try out something new this time round. Find for yourself how an automated answering service can completely turn around your medical profession. As other businesses count their losses be smart and see your clientele grow. That’s one sure way of beating the credit crisis!

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Call answering service preferred by dental patients

Neil Kokemuller December 2nd, 2008

For many people, dealing with irritable receptionists, being left on hold, or wasting time trying to schedule a dental appointment is more stressful and painful than anything that could happen in a dental chair. Dental care, though obviously important and necessary, is something that many people do not often look forward to. In order to make the overall experience more inviting and less overwhelming, dental providers need to make the process of scheduling appointments and getting assistance less of a burden. The virtual answering service is a big help in making this happen.

A virtual call answering service can help dental providers, their staffs, and patients alike. Personalized customer service is still important to most people. In an ideal scenario, a person calling a dentist office would have his or her call immediately picked up, answered, and the issue resolved. Unfortunately, humans are managing the front desk process and are therefore prone to human limitations and emotions. Good receptionists can still become overwhelmed with in-clinic patients, phone calls, and completing laborious insurance paperwork. Plus, a human can typically only handle one telephone call at a time. This means that if one receptionist is running a front desk, one caller is going to be responded to at a time.

So, what do dental patients prefer understanding the ideal scenario described above is not always feasible. Most people would suggest that an efficient response to their needs is a close substitute to personalized attention in certain circumstances. A large number of calls to a dental practice relate to appointment scheduling or questions. A virtual call answering service can respond better in many cases to the need for efficiency. Whereas humans have limitations, a top call answering service is an excellent multi-tasker. It can typically handle multiple phone calls at once and assist callers with routine tasks such as scheduling appointments.

A 24/7 medical answering service also supports the need of many dental providers to offer an after-hours answering service. For many, paying a live agent to respond to after-hours phone calls is not cost-effective. However, a virtual answering service that requires a moderate up front cost and little to no ongoing maintenance makes perfect sense as a solution to help schedule appointments and meet other needs in an after-hours dental office scenario.

Surprisingly to some patients, a virtual answering service is also more often the more efficient method for getting immediate transfer to a provider in an emergency. Dental practices may not often deal with emergencies, but tooth pains and urgent dental care does happen after hours at times. Sometimes, people simply cannot wait until the next day or next appointment time to get their problems resolved. Whereas people can be tires or irritable in assisting with emergency care calls, a virtual answering service is… well… a machine. The 24/7 medical answering service is a great support for patients of any dental practice as it helps as a backup receptionist by day, and as an after-hours answering service by night.

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