In today’s fast-paced healthcare industry, the efficient management of patient appointments, inquiries and administrative tasks is critical to delivering high quality care. There are more patients calling outside of office hours, and medical practices need to think about how they can be more available for these callers during untraditional opening times. In this article, we discuss how a medical virtual receptionist can help tackle this exact issue.
What is a virtual medical receptionist?
A virtual medical receptionist works in exactly the same way as an in-house receptionist, but is simply offered by an outsourced provider. They answer any incoming calls for your business, book appointments, drop inquiries straight into your CRM system, and give your customers the impression that they work for you, if that’s your preference. The service can be tailored to your exact requirements, whether that means a virtual receptionist taking all calls during business hours, over the weekend or even 24/7.
How is a virtual medical receptionist different from a traditional receptionist?
A virtual medical receptionist and a traditional receptionist differ in many ways. The main one being that a virtual medical receptionist is based remotely and is provided by an outsourced company who specially train agents in delivering excellent customer service. Traditionally, a receptionist works 9-5 and is there to provide excellent in-person service. On the other hand, a virtual medical receptionist is available 24/7, and can answer your calls, respond to chats on your website, make outbound calls and complete admin tasks, all while working virtually. A medical virtual receptionist differs from a traditional receptionist as they are trained in HIPAA compliance and the importance of implementing this. This is the culture that health organizations must implement into their business to protect the privacy, security and integrity of protected health information.
What are the benefits to hiring a virtual medical receptionist?
There are many benefits of hiring a virtual medical receptionist, but here’s just a few of them:
- 24/7 availability
Medical virtual receptionists are available around the clock, ensuring patients can inquire about their health and book appointments whenever they need.
- Patient scheduling
A virtual receptionist can schedule, rearrange and cancel appointments for your patients – all which can be inputted straight into your CRM system.
- Cost-effective
By outsourcing to a medical virtual receptionist you can decrease your costs significantly compared to hiring full-time employees. You pay for the service you need and have the option to scale up/down as needed.
What to consider when hiring a virtual medical receptionist?
When hiring a virtual receptionist for a medical office, there are a few things you need to consider to ensure you’ll provide excellent service to your patients. Some include:
- When do you want your calls answered (e.g. during business hours, over weekends or even 24/7)
- Do you want calls forwarding to you? Or just messages taken and sent to you?
- How do you want your messages sent to you (e.g. by email, SMS or dropped into your CRM system)?
- Does the receptionist need to be HIPAA-trained and compliant?
- Do you want the receptionist to follow a custom call script?
- Does the receptionist have to have specialized knowledge?
Why VoiceNation?
With our tailored answering services for medical practices and our commitment to delivering outstanding customer service, VoiceNation leads the market. Don’t wait any longer, give your customers the first-class service they deserve. Contact us today to learn more about our pricing options.