Medical Answering Services—Extravagance or Necessity?

Medical practices across the United States today are under constant pressure to deliver quality service in every single user interaction. And with almost 80 percent of the communication happening over the phone, it logically starts with ensuring that all calls are attended to in the best possible manner.

But hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical institutions are also commercial enterprises. They need to manage overhead and operational costs like any other business to be able to provide competitive services that users can afford. Hiring staff according to the highest foreseeable call volume means prohibitive salary costs, while not doing so means the possibility of missing calls and impacting customer experiences.

This is where medical answering services have a critical role to play.

Off-loading your entire or specific (day overflow or after hours) call volume to a specialized service provider can ensure better management of your callers at a fraction of the cost it would take to do it internally. It also ensures that your very qualified team can then dedicate themselves to serving existing customers without closing the door on new business.

But while all vendor services are important, an answering service is literally an extension of your brand, being the first point of contact for many. Be sure to select services focused on the medical niche so that callers receive relevant, knowledgeable responses. It is simply not possible for a person to manage a pizza chain’s orders in one call and credibly help with CPR procedures in the next. It may also be worthwhile to ensure complete conformance to prevalent data security norms as per HIPAA and other guidelines relevant to your practice.

For more information on how to get started, contact us at sales@thedrsanswer.com.