As the luck would have it, there are many software tools that help in managing the medical center effectively. Nevertheless, choosing the best one is the key to success. Typical online patient appointment scheduling system would have several features that you require in a day-to-day health center management. The system not only helps in management and generating revenues but surprisingly some of the features save the clinic from financial loss. Let us learn how this tool is helpful in automating medical office…

Online Doctor Appointment Scheduler

ODAS works as medical virtual receptionist wherein it fixes the appointments as sought by the patients. Simply put, the patients can directly log into the system and book their appointments. A two-way Google Sync feature would directly send the data to web that is accessible using iPhone like hand-held devices. You, being the health care provider, can manage and reschedule the patients’ appointments according to you plan.

Patient Reminder

Reminding patients could be a challenging task, especially when the number of patients is significant. The human medical desk receptionist may forget to have a follow up and inform the patients about their due visits, body tests or any important information to be conveyed. ODAS can also work as patient reminder system that can do things for sure!

Medical Answering System

During some events, where great flow of patients is expected (such as free medical camp), answering the phone calls throughout the day becomes difficult task for human medical receptionist. Online patient appointment system can do this job in quite a better way. It can answer any number of calls (no matter one or more patients calling at a time) without getting tired!

You can take clinic management as duck takes to water since medical answering cum online patient appointment system comes with multiple features such as multiple languages (setting different languages to communicate foreign patients) and prepaid appointment (that saves revenue loss because of no-show cause patients) etc.

It is in our nature to gravitate towards things that cost us nothing. Free things or services make us feel good because we are not spending anything on them. But do you really want your medical practice to rely on something that is not reliable and pose some liability risk? Think about it for a second. Why would a service provider offer their products and services for free? What’s the catch? This is something that you should definitely ask yourself when you have to make that decision between a free or regular online scheduler.

You may come across free online scheduler services on the Internet. Some may be – at a push – quite reliable and serve their purpose, but most likely they will fall short on your expectations. However, be aware that even the reliable one still poses some risk for your medical practice. As a way to generate their revenues, free service providers usually sell your data freely. We’re talking about confidential information of your patients; their names, phone numbers, addresses, email, and even medical history. This serious violation of patient privacy could land your medical practice in hot water when the case is brought to the court of law.  When the news spread out, you can just imagine the negative effect it will have on your medical practice and how your loyal patients would react to it.

Instead of looking for a free scheduler to cut business cost, why not look for something that pays itself? What about get an online scheduler that use email, telephone and mobile text message reminder to cut down your appointment no-show?

Such scheduler will pays you handsomely as its monthly fee is usually the cost of  ONE no-show; all it takes to pay itself is to cut  one missed appointment per month!

A great online scheduler service doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. However, given the many benefits that the service has – you will wonder why it doesn’t cost more. A good scheduler can provide the flexibility for your patients to make, change or cancel their appointments by themselves – at anytime of the day or night. A reliable online scheduler will have a reminder service feature that can send out reminders for your patients about their appointments through different means; from email, phone service to text messages and more. Ultimately, online scheduler can make your medical practice runs more effectively and efficiently.

As my friend explained, online patient appointment scheduler –also known as online doctor appointment scheduling system is the best tool to schedule patients’ appointments without involving human medical front office executive. In other words, web based online appointment system serves as virtual receptionist that serves all sort of duties without any hassles.

The features I liked about the system is its capability to send the entire data/content to Google Calendar using Google Synchronization mode. The data can be accessed using handheld devices such as Blackberry, iPhone and Smartphone –no matter where we are! A two-way synchronization is advanced feature that allows us to modify or reschedule the appointments without giving instructions to the medical front office executives at our clinics.

A doctor can use online doctor appointment scheduler as medical answering system wherein it answers patients’ calls without getting them boring busy tone. Also, it can answer more than one patient at a time! What else we require during big events such as free medical camp where the center is flooded with patients calls?

As I read about online doctor appointment scheduler cum medical answering system, I came to know that we can also use the system as patient reminder! The system can automatically call patients and remind them about their forthcoming visits to the health care center for body tests, follow ups etc. Furthermore, the system can be set as per doctor’s expertise. A multilingual option is very useful tackling foreigners as patients as the system can work in different languages such as French, Chinese and Spanish.

Certainly, I would like to use this wonderful system that serves as virtual medical receptionists. Why to opt for more staff when you have an all-in-one medical office helper?

Medical virtual receptionist is far better than human medical front office executives as the former does not get tired or does not take decision driven by emotions! Also, it can get you 24/7 service without any hassles. The system with medical answering service comes with multilingual options wherein the health care provider can set languages (French, English (default), and Chinese etc) for better communication with foreigners as patients. Also, the system can be tuned and used as per doctor’s expertise.

When it comes to multitasking at medical office, specially designed medical answering system wins the race! It can be used as patient reminder tool wherein it can automatically call patients and inform them about their due visits to the center for various reasons such as body tests, follow-ups etc. Also, the patients can be reminded about their dietary plan and any regimen as suggested by doctors.

The best part of medical answering cum patient reminder system is its capability to serve as medical virtual front desk manager. It can book patients appointments without any human front desk staff’s interference. Called as online patient appointment scheduler, the system allows patients to book their appointments online (using web) from anywhere, anytime! Advanced online doctor appointment scheduling system can synchronize with Google Calendar that sends the entire schedule of patients to Google account automatically. You, as a user, can access the schedule from handheld devices such as Smartphone, iPhone or Blackberry. Furthermore, a two-way Google Calendar Synchronization allows you to reschedule the appointments without communicating with receptionist or staff at health care center. This feature of medical answering system is very useful for the medical practitioners who frequently travel out of their town.

All the benefits apart, medical answering cum online patient appointment scheduler can reduce the chances of loss of revenue to the center because of no-show cause patients (the ones who booked their appointments but never turned or turned late wasting needy patients’ time). An option called Prepaid patient scheduler asks for the consultation fees in advance and hence, patients are very likely to arrive on time.

Using patient reminder cum medical answering service is like hiring perfect manager for medical management.

Online doctor appointment scheduler comes with advanced features such as it can directly synchronize patients’ appointments to Google Calendar and send it across handheld devices such as iPhone, Blackberry and Smartphone. Furthermore, unique feature such as a two-way synchronization enables you to reschedule or to postpone the appointment from your phone.

Automated system for patient appointment scheduling can be used as patient reminder, as it can call patients automatically. Reminding patients about their forthcoming visits, tests and consultations is one of the most important features you should have to build harmonious relationship.

With betterment and advancement of technology, new features are being added to different patient appointment schedulers. For instance, a new type of patient appointment scheduler can also be used as medical answering service patients. Medical answering service is very useful when the health care center is expected to have plenty of calls from patients on occasion such as free medical camp.

Other features include multilingual option where you can set the system with different languages including French, Chinese and English (as a default). This way, you can better the communication with foreigners who come as patients. Also, the user can set the messages as per his or her expertise. The uniqueness of medical answering service is it does answer to all the callers (no matter, more than one caller calling at a time) with soft and friendly voice and it does not give boring busy tone that otherwise frustrate the patient.

Using online patient appointment schedule helps in managing medical office without having more people in staff. This way, you can use precious human hours in other more important task such as medicl billing or taking care of your patients.

Advanced online patient appointment scheduling system comes with a two-way Google synchronization that allows you to reschedule, cancel or postpone the appointment as per your planning. Also, prepaid mode of appointment scheduling system enables patients to pay the consultation fees in advance as to prevent the revenue loss due to no-show cause patients.

Online medical appointment scheduler comes with very useful features. For instance, it can work as virtual medical receptionist where it calls the patients automatically and informs them about their forthcoming visits, tests to be carried out and the regimen as suggested by their doctors. This way, they are kept up-to-date and they do not miss the appointments at given time.

Also, some health care providers use appointment scheduling software as medical answering system. This automatically picks up the calls of patients and gets them what they want. The system comes with multilingual options as you can set it in different languages including Spanish and French. The voice tuned in the system is lovely and friendly. In addition, you can also set the system as per your expertise and if you want, you can tailor your own messages and use it as and when needed. Answering system proves to be very useful in event such as medical camp where lots of patients’ calls are supposed to hit the front desk telephones.

The management of medical office is complex and never simple. This is because the whole staff including you deals with patients and their lives. Any apathy or loosely managed patient may suffer from unwanted consequences and top of that, you lose patient, revenue and most importantly the reputation. Mismanaged health care center, no doubt, soon gets shut down irrespective of doctor’s perfection on his or her field.

As the luck would have it, you can now find a improvement for all the hassles you face managing medical center. Online appointment scheduler can wisely manage all the tasks at your clinic without any assistance. In this way, you can save manpower and also reduce your expenses in paying off the salaries to extra staff you require.

Some unique features of online appointment scheduling system includes…

1. Advanced doctor appointment scheduler comes with feature of synchronizing with Google Calendar. This sends data to handheld devices such as Smartphone, iPhone and Blackberry. A two-way synchronization enables you to reschedule or even cancel the appointment according to your plan for coming days.
2. A feature called prepaid appointment scheduling allows patients to book their appointments by paying the fees of consultation in advance. In this way, no-show cause patients who do not turn at given time can be reduced. The revenue loss is prevented and you see patients who are serious about their schedule and actually need consultation.
3. It can also be used as medical answering system. It automatically picks up the patients’ calls and answers them politely, in a lovely friendly voice. Some advance systems have multilingual (multiple language) options such as French, English, Spanish and Chinese. This helps in tackling foreigners as patients.
4. Medical answering system can also be set as patient reminding service. This automatically calls patients and informs them about their forthcoming appointments, any body tests to be carried out etc. Also, the health care provider can set his/her own messages according to their expertise and requirement.

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.

There are many vendors that provide system that works as virtual receptionist. The system works wonderfully especially when you have good flow of customers and the staff finds it difficult to handle.  

The system allows patients to book their appointments online reducing the chances of negligence, which is quite common with human medical front desk.  In addition, such system can be used in several ways –online patient appointment scheduler can also be used as patient reminder service that calls patients informing them about their forthcoming appointments or health care center visits. A doctor can tailor such system according to his/her expertise.

The role of online appointment scheduler in medical practice management is essential, as said by hundreds of thousands of physicians and surgeons using the system successfully. More and more health care providers are now opting for an automation of hospitals and clinics to avoid human errors that otherwise affect their business. The biggest benefit of such office automation is the system checks out for no-show patients since prepaid online patient appointment system assures customer to be there at given time and date. Also, such system can also work as backup receptionist and can work for 24/7.

Many doctors use online appointment scheduler cum patient reminder as their medical answering system, especially when they have events where the flow of patient is enormous such as medical camp held at center. Nevertheless, specially designed systems are just above simple recorded monologue answering machines and that is why, the system that is interactive and has friendly voice is in demand. Such system also has option to choose the language such as French, English, and Spanish etc. This is very useful in communicating foreign patients who prefer to be interacted in their language.

A back-up receptionist will make sure that your patients get desired attention when your staff or you are not available to answer their calls.

You must keep in mind some points while choosing your answering machine.

Friendly voice

Most patients will hang up on hearing a cold answering machine with an unclear voice. So, when you choose your virtual receptionist, make sure that you choose one who is pleasant to here and can provide the caller with a human touch even in the absence of one.

Interactive

If your answering machine needs to take the place of a ‘virtual receptionist’ then it has to be interactive. Most answering machines just have a recorded monologue. You can go for a Patient reminder service which comes clubbed with an answering machine with the capability of voice detection so that the calls can be redirected to required lines by the responses of the caller, without him having to press different numeric keys.

Handling Multiple Calls

A good backup service will have the ability to handle multiple calls at a time so that your patients are never put on hold! Due to such an efficient service it can have an advantage over the live receptionist. The emergency calls will be transferred speedily and without human error. Moreover, a backup receptionist should be one which can work for you 24/7 without fatigue. This will help you tremendously in slashing your patient no-shows so that you can get most out of your business.

Dependability

If you choose to set up an automated office, you should make sure that the system is reliable and error free. You should not need to spend money on its maintenance again and again. A virtual receptionist must be able to do its job consistently so that you are stress-free and can be sure that no patient call is missed. An automated medical answering service and an appointment manager will not only accomplish the job of your front desk receptionist with ease but will also be able to remind the patients of their fixed appointments via e-mail, SMS, or follow-up calls. Important tasks such as patient care and medical billing can keep your staff busy while your virtual receptionist takes care of your appointments!

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!

To leave hassles behind, doctors now bank on the system that does patient reminder calls automatically. The system helps in keeping the record of patients and calls them back about their feedback or regimen. The good thing about such system is it can also be used for multi-purpose for a smooth medical clinic management. For instance, the system can be fed with different answers and can also be used as answering machine to tackle patients’ calls. The beauty of such answering machine is the callers are never kept on hold and will never get a busy call. They are answered separately but precisely.

Professional patient call answering machine can also be used as online appointment scheduler that helps patients to fix up an appointment with a doctor or health care provider. They can also fix up an appointment for routine checkup. All they have to do is dial the number or simply approach the health care center through internet and fix up the appointment.

Patient reminder call system comes with many benefits. The first among all is it has an option of multiple languages and hence it is quite easier to tackle the patients from other countries, the foreigners. Foreigners can have the choice of languages such as French, Spanish and English etc. They fell homely and there is always a better communication. Patient reminding online system can also be tailored into 24/7 standby receptionists answering calls to the patients without any failure. Professional way to answer the patients’ calls is one of the best things that build the rapport of the health care provider and the clinic or healthcare center.

Another benefit of online virtual medical receptionists is it can synchronize the appointment information with Google Calendar and hence can be managed using handheld devices such as iPhone, SmartPhone and Blackberry. The appointments can be checked through cellular phone using single-word command SMS or plain text message.

24/7 answering machine is nothing but a system that picks up the calls and answers what is appropriate. Especially in the field of health care management, it has become a mandatory tool. The health care providers can simply install automated online scheduler that works as virtual receptionists and performs multiple tasks. However, many doctors and health experts feel being in dilemma that is it worth installing a 24/7 answering machine cum patient reminder system?

To understand this, let us look at some important points that make online medical management system a must have thing:-

• Since the system is automated, the doctors do not have to depend on human medical assistance. There are no excuses about the apathies as before.
• The health care center is accessible even during off-hours (that is after the office timings)
• It is a 24/7 online medical assistant and hence, more reliable than the humans
• The customers never get a busy call and are answered instantly
• Online appointment scheduler comes with foreign language settings for a better communication with foreign patients
• Medical clinic management is smooth and free from hurries and worries, doctors can simply install and take rest
• The system can synchronize appointment information directly on Google Calendar so it is accessible on handheld devices such as iPhone, BlackBerry and SmartPhone.

Automated online patient scheduler can also remind patients about their forthcoming appointments and visits to the clinic. The best part about automated answering system is the doctor can feed the answers as per his or her requirements. The answers can be played or tailored according to the wish. Also, doctors can feed their specialization and manually manage the system as per their expertise.

Turning office automated using online answering and online patient reminding service is certainly worth for a better service and growth. In a long-run, doctors can cut the cost of recruiting numbers of virtual receptionists as the system itself can perform multiple tasks.

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!

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.

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.