Time and money: effects of no-shows at a family practice residency clinic

This study shows the seriousness of no-shows in any medical practice. Therefore, you cannot afford to take it for granted. You need to set up a good patient appointment reminder system to help your patients and your business. Most of the patient no-shows are as a result of the patients forgeting about their appoinments for one reason or another.

The secret here is the word good. There are very many reminder services in the market, and not all of them will suit your purposes. So, what constitutes a good reminder program?

The reminder software you are using helps you to get in touch with your patients in the best way possible. This means that it needs to have a way of reaching all types of people, hence it should get in touch with the patients in a variety of ways, including:

Telephone

Telephone is a very good way of getting in touch with many people. An automated telephone reminder is especially suitable for the elderly who do not often use the newer modes of communication.

You will cater to the needs of the patients who prefer using the telephone. However, you can still miss some people since not all people have installed an answering system in case they are away.

Email

Many people use email nowadays, which makes it a convenient way of reaching them. There are some people who use email as their main mode of communication.

If your reminder software uses email alone, however, you will not serve every person well. In addition, the prevalence of spam mail has resulted in spam filters that can inadvertently send your reminders to the spam folders.

Text message

Apart from the fact that very many people use cell phones, text messages have the added advantage that you will reach your patients wherever they are. This is an especially good choice for busy individuals who travel often.

However, the patients have to pay for the text messages.

Your patient reminder service should therefore include all these options. Preventing just one no-show in a month suffices to cover your subscription.

There’s nothing to prove that humans are prone to make errors. Using online patient medical management software, the erroneous events in arranging patients’ appointments at health care center can be kept at bay. More and more health care providers now opt for online appointment schedule system as it reduces the paperwork and provides patient reminder services as an additional feature.

The patient reminder service makes calls to patients and informs them about their forthcoming visits to the clinic. Also, a doctor can tailor patient reminder service according to his/her expertise. Specially designed patient appointment scheduler is also powered by the feature wherein the doctor can switch it to medical answering system that picks up patients’ calls and answers them without presenting ‘busy’ tone.

Online patient appointment scheduler is an online system that fixes patients’ appointment without any overlapping in time. Also, it synchronizes appointments with Google Calendar that can be accessible on handheld devices such as Blackberry, Smartphone and iPhone. The healthcare provider can alter, change or reschedule the appointments according to his/her routine.

Online appointment scheduler can also be used as prepaid appointment scheduler wherein patients can pay consultation fees in advance. Such feature can reduce the chances of ‘no-show’ patients, which is one of the biggest causes for revenue loss.

Patient reminder system that can work as medical answering system that provides 24/7 service and in this way, the health care center is accessible all day potentially increasing the number of patients.

1. The most important thing you need in medical software is it should be HIPAA compliant that assures the security of patients’ information.
2. Medical management system must have unique features that enables the system to work on multiple tasks such as it can be used as medical answering system and can also be switched on to patient reminder system as and when required.
3. The system of medical answering should also have features such as setting for multilingual options wherein patients can interact in their own languages such as French, Chinese, and Spanish etc. Furthermore, the system can be tailored according to doctor’s expertise.
4. Online appointment scheduler should be accessible anywhere, anytime. For this, the feature of Google Calendar Synchronization is very useful. It sets up patients’ appointments with calendar and sends it across handheld devices such as Blackberry, Smartphone and Iphone. A two-way synchronization enables the health care provider to reschedule or alter appointments.

The best feature of online appointment scheduler is prepaid appointment scheduling. The major factor that contributes to medical center’s revenue loss is a ‘no-show’ patient. The patients do not appear for the appointment provided on phone and that makes the clinic to suffer. Prepaid patient appointment scheduler is system by which the patients are to pay for the consultation, in advance. This ensures patients’ presence at the time allotted and lessens the chances of revenue loss.

Medical answering service can be used where high call volum from patients are expected. An event such as free medical camp requires robust system that can tackle many calls at a time, which is quite a difficult task for medical front office executives. Medical answering service can answer calls at a time without getting the caller a busy tone. This way, the accessibility of health care center is increased and expected footfalls to the center increase.

You usually do not have computer with Internet connection when you are away from your health center, Neither can you drive with medical front office executive the way you want. Of course, there are some hotspots where you can simply plug on your notebook, but it is unrelaistic to carrying these devices and open your notenook anywhere, anytime when patient calls.

All thanks to medical software technology that enables you not only to alter or reschedule online patient appointments but can also work on multiple tasks that your center always required.

Online patient scheduler is a system that takes and fixes up patient appointments without any human interference. Furthermore, the system synchronizes appointments with Google Calendar and sends it to Microsoft Outlook and handheld devices such as iPhone, Blackberry and Smartphone. You can simply view the appointments and reschedule it according to your plan. The system can also be tuned into prepaid online appointment scheduler that patients can use by paying consultation fees in advance. This tackles an issue of no-show patient, one of the most bothering things that contribute to loss of revenue.

Medical professionals can tailor online appointment scheduler according to their expertise and can also use them as medical virtual receptionist. The system comes with feature of multilingual option setting which, patients speaking French, English, and Spanish etc can communicate in a better way. A virtual receptionist is very useful when medical center is expected to have flood of calls from patients during event such as free medical camp.

The virtual receptionist can make automated patient reminder for you, The software can call patients and inform them about their forthcoming visits to medical center and can also be used to advise patients about their regimen and diet as prescribed by the doctor.

Due to its multiple uses, the all-in-one online medical appointment scheduler, virtual receprionist has become more and more popular. This is looked as one of the most efficient tools in managing medical office smoothly.

Online patient appointment scheduler with an additional feature of synchronization enables you to access schedule on your handheld device. This is because web based appointment scheduler can directly fit appointments into Google Calendar that is accessible using iPhone, Smartphone and Blackberry from anywhere. The system would display appointments whenever you want to view, alter or reschedule.

Google calendar Services includes… 

• Regular scheduled events
• Public and shared Google calendar
• Audible alert reminder
• Tasks from MS Outlook
• Notifications and event particulars
• Various calendars

A two-way online appointment scheduler allows you to manage patients’ appointments especially when your plan has changed and your availability at health care center has to be notified. Furthermore, you can also set a timer so that the calendar would synchronize with handheld devices.

Specially designed patient online appointment scheduler allows user to view a complete list of compatible devices while signing up. Various software applications are also available to upgrade the number of personal information management software and also applications on desktop that the user want to synchronize.

The use of web based patient appointment scheduler has become a hot-cake as it not only smoothens managing patients’ appointments but can also be used as medical answering system and patient reminder wherein the system automatically answers calls and makes calls to patients informing about their forthcoming visits to clinic. Online appointment scheduler can also be tailored according to physician’s expertise and can be used as prepaid scheduler where patients can pay for the consultation in advance before appearing to clinic. No-show patients can easily taken care by prepaid scheduler preventing revenue loss.

Whether you travel frequently or you run short of the manpower, online appointment scheduler is the best tool available on the market to run your clinic errorless and smoothly.

The system that can fix up patient appointments can also be used as virtual receptionist that can answer patients’ calls in a friendly way. Furthermore, doctors can feed their own answers according to their expertise. Additional features include its multilingual support that can be set as French, Spanish, and English etc. –this kind of support is useful in interacting with foreign patients.

Online patient appointment scheduler is proven to be very useful tool for physicians and surgeons who frequently travel as the system helps them to get schedule on their handheld devices. This is because the scheduler synchronizes the appointments with Google Calendar, which is accessible on handheld devices such as iPhone, Smartphone and Blackberry. Furthermore, online appointment scheduler can have prepaid appointment facility that helps in tackling no-show patients, one of the reasons for revenue loss for any clinic.

Office automation using online appointment scheduler can serve you as medical answering system too! Patient reminder is a special feature of the system to call and remind patients about their forthcoming visits to clinic and also regimens suggested by experts. Automated medical answering can take over the job of human medical front desk reducing the chances of errors and apathy.

In event such as medical camp, the center expects hundreds of calls from patients and it becomes unmanageable tasks by staff to answer each of them. Fixing answering system can tackle patients’ calls and the best feature of this software is let many patients call at a time, no patient would get busy boring tone that otherwise annoy patients.

Keeping online appointment scheduler as you manager is the best deal you can ever have for better and smoother health center management.

Are you looking for a patient reminder services and you are not sure about your choices? Let us look out for all the availabilities, their pros and cons to learn which one is best suitable for you.

You have many systems that inform the patients about their forthcoming consultations or visits to the clinic. Phone reminder, Email reminder, Text Message reminder are few of the most popular ways to notify the patients about their due visits. Patient reminder service is very important for doctors to tackle no-show patients and prevent revenue loss.

Though Internet is quite a popular tool to reach people, unfortunately, not all patients (especially elderly and those who are not well versed with Internet) are reachable through emails. Undoubtedly, email reminder is quite reliable and generally delivered on time (provided, the sender is not directed toward spam or rejected list) but this is not possible for all patients.

Another patient reminder option is calling them directly. Manually calling by health care desk receptionist may have some punctuality issues but patient reminder service through software or specially designed system is comparatively reliable. Again, the drawback of this system is if patients do not pick up the call or they do not have mail box that receives and stores the message, patient reminder service through telephone goes in vain.

Cellular phone or mobile phone has become an integral part of our lives and hence, text message reminder service is quite a popular tool to notify patients. Text message service is not only reliable but it comes with great facility that patients can set their reminder delivery time (for instance, an hour before due appointment or visit to the center). The issue with this type of patient reminding service is patients with text message facilities on their handsets can only receive this. Also, unlike other patient reminding service, the text message is to be paid by the user –i.e. the patient.

All-in-all, every reminder service has its own pros and cons and that is why, it is always advisable for doctors to set the combination of all three for ensuring fruitful results. This is because; any patient would fit in any of those criteria and will receive the notification by any means.

The revolution in internet technology has reached its leaps and bounds. Medical management can be made easier with the help of system called as online appointment scheduler. In addition, this system is multipurpose and can be used for other important tasks too.

Online appointment scheduling helps in managing appointments of the patients and added feature of pre-paid appointment ensures checking no-shows patients. In this way, the revenue loss can be saved and the time of appointment can be allotted to genuine customers. Automated office powered by online appointment planner is easier to manage and maintain. Online appointment scheduler can also be used as virtual receptionist that would not miss incoming calls at clinic. In addition, no patient would get a busy tone at any given time due to latest technology used in system.

When your scheduler can be used as virtual front desk receptionist, it can be set into patient reminder service. The system would automatically call patients and inform them about their forthcoming appointments and visits to clinic. This way, they are kept up-to-date and doctors can also set system as per their expertise. The system comes with multilingual option as to tackle foreign patients smoothly.

There are many health care centers in US and Canada using online appointment scheduler, which is accessible 24/7 for better service. For the doctors who travel frequently, online appointment scheduler proves to be the best manager and teller since it synchronizes patients’ appointments with Google calendar and sends it on handheld devices such as iPhone, Smartphone and Blackberry. A doctor, outside his/her clinic or town, can alter or modify the appointment and manage it as per schedule. This saves times and there are less chances of human error.

The system uses no emotion or brain and hence, unlike human medical receptionists, this multipurpose software does not take any decision based on emotion or intention. Depandable, friendly and low business cost are three of the important factors you should look for a system like this for medical office automation.

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.

I was invited by my doctor friend who had just installed virtual receptionist i.e. a system that works on a multiple tasks like automated patient reminding, answering patients’ calls and fixing online appointments. I was bit surprised when he said that this is possible and you do not need to pay anything for installing as the installation for online scheduler cum patient reminder service is absolutely free. Furthermore, this 24/7 medical office automated assistant is designed to be HIPPA compliant that come with strict security and privacy protections.

I understood that appointment reminder cum answering system comes with a lot of benefits that is much required for a smooth medical management. Right from appointment reminder to making medical follow up calls to the patients after doctor’s appointment and fixing up appointments online to answering patients’ calls; everything is possible by installing medical software that works as virtual medical assistant.

Unlike human medical assistant, sitting as front office executive, the online scheduler system does not keep your potential customers busy on the call whenever they dial the health care center. The best benefit among all for automated patient reminder service is it works round the clock without any interruption and hence, the customers can contact the health center anytime they want. In this way, the clinic or the center is accessible all the day and this, in turn, may increase the sales and revenue. The good thing is even during after-hours; answering machine takes care of all the calls come.

In this world of cutthroat competition, when the growth is dependent on the availability, quality of service and hospitality, installing medical management software will certainly prove as a wise step.

Your practice has probably grown since then and keeping track of your patients and their appointments is becoming more of a challenge for both your patients and especially for your medical receptionist. You can help ease the burden on your front desk receptionist and the rest of your medical staff by investing in an email reminder or telephone reminder. A telephone or email reminder will remind patients of their appointment either online or via a telephone call according to your preference.

The success of your reminder service will directly affect the success of your practice. Deciding on which type of appointment reminder service will suit you best will be influenced by your practice and your patients. Check your patients’ personal records for their contact information. If most of them have email addresses then an email reminder would be suitable. If most of your patients do not have email addresses then a telephone reminder would be more logical.

You ought to consider the type of practice you are running and the type of people you receive as patients. If majority of your patients are elderly or from poor neighborhoods, an email reminder may not reach as many of your patients as you would like. Even if these patients had email addresses they would not spend much time surfing as they either cannot afford to or do not know how to. An email reminder would be suitable in a practice where the patients have access to the Internet and check their emails regularly.

Doctors should also consider the preference of their patients. Some patients will be irritated by receiving telephone calls reminding them of appointments at regular intervals. Such patients would much rather have an email reminder sent to their email addresses. Others would prefer to be alerted via telephone as they are probably prone to forgetting about their appointments easily. This is especially true for elderly patients.

Both a telephone and email reminder are only 90% effective. No doctor can be assured 100% of the successful delivery of all reminders on either service. A telephone reminder may not be delivered as the patient may not answer the telephone. An email reminder may not be read as the patient may fail to check his or her email in good time.

It is therefore advisable for a doctor to invest in both a telephone and email reminder. It may seem expensive in the beginning but the returns will be well worth it. Both services are inexpensive to maintain and working together will guarantee you a more successful delivery. Your patients can even choose the reminder service they prefer.

In fact the all-in-one virtual receptionist and scheduling software were designed with features that serve this healthcare service sector. An example is that in a chiropractor’s office, spa and massage service center, patients or clients who seek treatment in these areas usually require recurrent or multiple follow up treatments. Recurrent appointment feature in the virtual receptionist and online scheduler saves user’s time and is therefore very much appreciated.

Chiropractors, masseuses or spa managers can set their own schedule. The scheduling software allows you to customize your appointments. You will therefore be able to easily define the appointments to your specific service, location, time and son on.

If your business have been plagued by appointment no-shows by clients, the solution is available. The appointment reminder software can be set to remind you of scheduled appointments either online or on your phone. With the inclusion of the Google calendar sync in the online appointment scheduler you are in no danger of forgetting or double booking your appointments. Google sync allows access to Google calendar. You will be able to synchronize your private and professional appointments and set online and mobile phone reminders for them.

Your virtual receptionist can also be your marketing tool. Patients and clients appreciate being called back for follow up appointments or being reminded about appointments for further treatment. The patient appointment reminder will automatically call back your patients and clients and alert them about upcoming appointments or the need to arrange for follow up appointments. Clients who may have forgotten to book appointments or not have made up their minds to book follow up appointments may do so as a result of the reminder.

The virtual receptionist will also be a relief to not only your staff but also your patients. The online appointment scheduler allows for self-service patient appointment scheduling. Your patients will not have to come all the way to your office just to book an appointment. With the self-service patient appointment scheduling service, your patients and clients can book appointments in the comfort of their own living rooms at any time of the day or night. The process is simple and involves no paperwork. Your clients and staff will enjoy a decongested reception and your staff will be able to assist the clients in the reception better. A reduction in paperwork will mean better organization in the practice and more time to deal with emergencies and other matters that may require attention from your staff.

Is it really better, for patient or for medical office, if a reminder call is made by staff (or more “personal”) than automated system?

Let’s face it. We all live busy lives, and none of us have too much extra time for small talk. The last time my doctor’s office called me to remind me of an upcoming appointment the receptionist began with, “Hi, how are you feeling?” It was a very nice sentiment – but one in which my busy day, I don’t have time to be engaged in. I was very nice, but a call that should’ve taken 10 seconds, ended up taking 3 minutes. And, really- who wants to waste anytime let alone speaking to a receptionist at your doctor’s office?

Vice versa, I am pretty sure there are receptionists that get caught into an undesired long conversation by patients bring up issues that are beyond their control. “Can you tell doctor that I still have this pain over…”. “How comes the medicine I took is not working…”.

It got me to thinking – wouldn’t that a receptionist’s time be better served talking to patients in person at the office and not bantering over the phone? And, wouldn’t it make more sense for the receptionist to be doing something more productive for the practice?
And, that’s where the idea of the automated reminder service comes in.

A reminder service automatically calls patients and reminds them of their appointments. With the virtual system in place, the call is made on time and is quick and easy. Patients like it because you’re not taking up their valuable time. And, there is a hidden benefit for the medical practice as well.

The hidden benefit is by using a reminder service – you are actually cutting your cost and increasing revenue. Why? First of all, you are turning potential “no-shows” into returning patients. The more patients you can maintain in your practice, the more your revenue increases. In addition, this frees up your live receptionist to do more important business around the office. For example, because the automatic reminder service is handling reminding patients about their appointments, the receptionist can focus on attracting new patients. Attracting new patients is something an automated system may not do – but reminding current patients of their appointments is absolutely something the virtual service can and will do effectively. And, when no-shows at your medical practice go down and customer satisfaction goes up because of the automated reminders – you have struck gold!

And all of this, without perhaps alienating your patients by unnecessary small talk or – even worse – by being put on hold during the appointment reminder process. The automated reminder cuts down on many different things that could adversely affect the patient’s experience.

And, there is one more thing to keep in mind as well. An automated appointment reminder system can be programmed to do many different things. Calling and reminding patients of their appointments is just one small aspect. Imagine programming the system to speak in the language the patient speaks – automatically! Or, imagine the automated reminder system calling to remind patients about prescription refills or other necessary items that could impact their health? There are many different uses for the virtual reminder system – all of which help bring in more patients and help keep your current patients satisfied. And, when your patients are happy, the practice is happy because chances are those patients are telling their friends what a wonderful office experience they had!

Online an All-in-One virtual office assistant offers numerous features that will certainly elevate your practice into the 21st century as far as your telecommunications are concerned; At a fraction of the live agent cost, you can expect an virtual receptionist to performe most of your medical front desk tasks. To name a few; making patient reminder call, dispatch emergency call and believe or not, talking to patients in natural language and set appointment for them. 

There are vendors of software designed specifically for the medical community and as you are upgrading to an online medical office assistant service you should investigate other forms of technology to improve upon office organization and performance. If ever there were a business practice that lived up to the motto “time is money” it would be the medical field. Better use of time through technology means your staff will be operating at peak performance.

There is no better time to take the final step into a computer literate environment for your office then when you are in the process of introducing a virtual receptionist. Your staff will be excited by the new technology and if they are even somewhat literate with computers and certain software applications such as windows OS’s or other basic programs, they will adjust to new software applications you introduce at once with your remote reception service.

Once you start to investigate various technologies for your medical practice, someone within the office should be responsible for keeping up to date with these programs and upgrades. They would act as your in-house IT go to person if there were operation questions, quick fixes required etc. It might even be prudent to send one of your trusted employees or even yourself for classroom training to become current with new technology and Internet based software applications in general.

The thing about computer technology and becoming accomplished with it is it takes a basic understanding of how computers work and some fundamentals of software applications – web based and off the shelf. The more you work with it the more comfortable you will become. Before you know it, your staff will not only be enjoying their lightened workload due to the new virtual medical office assistant online but they will also develop into skilful medical software virtuosos!

One method businesses are using to enhance their survival is through cutting costs by reducing the number of staff requiring insurance cover and other benefits. Apart from downsizing, automation is the other way of cutting costs. Since the deleterious effects of the global economic downturn have affected all manner of businesses medical practices also have had to find ways of surviving. An example is investing in a virtual receptionist.

A medical receptionist has come in handy to help the practices retain and attract new clients. With the services of a medical office front office receptionist patients can call any time of day or night and book an appointment. In addition, they do not have to wait for long for their call to go through. In case of an emergency they can reach the right person without any delays. This endears them to the practice and thus increasing referrals. The number of patient no-shows has declined as the appointment reminder sends reminders to patients with appointments well before the appointment day.

Customer satisfaction more than ever before has become a major ingredient for the success of any business. Use of the virtual answering service has freed the hands of the staff working at medical practices enabling them to dedicate more time to more important tasks like medical billing and ensuring that clients are well served. This has been possible because the mundane tasks can now be done very effectively by the medical office receptionist. This is a sure way of beating the competition that is being witnessed currently in the business world as every body tries to prevent their businesses from going under. It is a sure way of ‘killing’ the proverbial two birds with one stone. Ensuring customer satisfaction while not necessarily hiring more staff and hence spending less in the long run.

As we look forward to a better economy (hoping it happens soon) in the coming days especially with the new economic rescue package by the Obama administration it pays to ensure that your business does not ‘die out’ completely. Use all means possible to ‘hibernate’ your medical practice until when better days come. Automation wherever possible is a sure way of doing that. It will help you cut operating costs to their bare minimum and hence increasing your bottom line. This could be the reason why the neighboring medical practice seems not to be suffering from the effects of the financial slump.

Give your practice all that important new lease of life and see it pull through the recession. It could make the difference between life and death. This cost effective solution will bring you the turn around you have been looking for all along.  Invest in appointment reminder software today and enjoy the benefits!

Unfortunately almost all the sectors are affected; from the ones offering basic commodities to the luxurious services sectors. The medical profession also has had a fair share of its woes. People making appointments are on the decline as more people try to postpone or put off completely that appointment with the doctor that does not seem so necessary. For others the appointment is very necessary but the worries that characterize many lives today make them forget this important meeting with their doctor.

Sounds strange? Well, it should not as it has been shown through research that when you are worrying about something a lot you may forget some other important matters. People need a reminder service especially when many pressing matters are going through their minds.

As a doctor you may have noted that you are losing a lot of revenue from patient no-shows. Don’t watch as you business goes under especially when you know that your patient could be missing appointments out of forgetfulness. Invest in a reminder software or telephone reminder service. With this you can help both your practice and your patients.

You can even get a multilingual appointment reminder to cater for all your patients. Less will miss their appointments out of forgetfulness as they worry about other pressing matters.

Online appointment reminder software does not requires installation on your computer and it sends reminders automatically to all the patients that have an appointment with you at a certain date. The reminder software works in such away that the patient is well informed in good time that there is an upcoming appointment with the doctor. It helps the patient schedule things well in advance to avoid last minute rush. As the day nears the patient will still be reminded of the nearing appointment.

Your live receptionist can (although it is not necessary) physically call the patient to remind him of an appointment when it is due in a few hours, say under 24 hours. By doing this your staff will be freed from repetitive and sometimes boring duties. The phone reminder will do that as your staff engages in other more important matters that the soft ware can not carry out. Thus ensuring a more efficient practice and more satisfied patients!

Take advantage of this excellent reminder software today. See your practice maneuver through these difficult times but ensuring you reduce on the number of patients who don’t show up. Let the patient appointment reminder remind your clients to do business with you! Who would not want such kind of staff?

Many patients seeking to arrange appointments with their physicians undergo similar experiences. Medical practices are normally very busy places. As an increased number of people discover the importance of keeping track of their health, the traffic to medical practices continues to grow steadily. Many people in today’s society recognize the importance of regular check ups for themselves as well as their families. This means booming business for your practice. It also means that your staff may be stretched in order to deliver the right services to your patients.

The telephone is usually the first contact a patient has with a medical practice. Many patients judge your medical practice based on how they were handled when they called to make an appointment. People like to feel appreciated and important. If your practice has a constant flow of patients, your staff maybe unable to keep track of patients waiting in the lobby as well as the constantly ringing phone. The pressures of the job may even get to them to the point that they may not attend to the patients and callers as well as they are supposed to.

So what can you do about this? Hire a virtual medical office receptionist.

With the services of a virtual medical receptionist at your disposal, you can be sure that your callers will receive the best service available. Your patients will no longer get a busy tone when they call you. They will also not be put on hold as the receptionist attends to another client. Patients will receive full attention from the pleasant sounding 24/7 back up receptionist as they set appointments for visits at the practice. All the patient has to do is give an appropriate date and time for their visit and have it confirmed by the remote receptionist service.

A doctor office receptionist works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Patients can make appointments any time of the day or night and even when your practice is closed or when there is no one available to attend to the phone. Patients can call to make appointments anytime with the confidence of being attended to.

Virtual medical office receptionists not only schedule appointments, they also remind patients of their appointments. The virtual receptionist makes phone calls to patients with upcoming appointments to remind them.

First impressions account for a lot in a medical practice. It is important to make a good impression on your patients when they make their first contact with your practice over the phone as they book their appointments. Medical office assistants can help you increase the traffic to your medical practice as well as repeat visits because your callers will receive the attention they require from your receptionist. With a doctor office receptionist working for you, you will no longer receive complaints from disgruntled callers.

We know that technology in a medical practice equals more efficiency and better productivity. Look at how incorporation of electronic medical records can change the way a practice operates, both big and small. Perhaps you are thinking that you do not have enough money to invest in an EMR, or you do have an EMR and don’t see the need to incorporate any other process flow changes into your practice. Let me tell you about some other medical practice management tools that can be a tremendous resource and asset and can easily be incorporated into your practice.

Virtual Receptionist

Initially this concept sounded so out of synch with how I envision a medical receptionist. My first impression of a great medical receptionist is one who remembers patients’ names and shows up on time to open the office and greet each one with a smile. This person would also require little on the job training and orientation. And most importantly, they would be efficient at what they do and be able to multitask and jump in where needed. However, the more I thought though of what my actual experiences are with medical receptionists I realized that I am used to high turnover in this position and lower job satisfaction whether it’s due to being overwhelmed, receiving little pay, or dealing with sick and sometimes difficult patients. A virtual receptionist is a cost effective way to consistently have high standards of care delivered. What it cannot provide in face to face interaction, is certainly made up in its efficiency and ability to be a value add to any practice.

Automated On-Call System

A virtual on-call system really sells itself. Imagine not being bothered at various times of the evening or night because you were incorrectly contacted by your on-call service? Think about the struggles you sometimes face with finding a service that is affordable and has the ability to triage urgent from non-urgent calls and transmit names, numbers and chief complaints accurately. An automated system does all of this for you in addition to scheduling appointments for those complaints that are not urgent. This has tremendous benefits for the front office staff of a practice.

Automated Patient Reminder System

Another concept that I immediately took to was the idea of an automated patient reminder system. This system can call patients and remind them of an upcoming appointment. Incorporating the process of visit reminders into your practice can cut down on no-show rates and frees your front office staff up to do other more importantly things. All of this at a fraction of the cost that you would expect given the return in value.

For some of us including me, getting pulled into this new technologic era has come with some hesitancy and reluctance. But, the more that I explore and find out how these cost effective advances can be combined with medical practice efficiencies that increase a bottom line and also contribute to good patient care then I am more of a believer.