By Arnab Dey
The healthcare industry is about time and services. As a doctor, you need enough time to take care of your patients, while patients must be attended to on time depending on their conditions.
Meanwhile, the services you offer as a medical facility determine how your patients gauge your performance, so your facility’s reputation depends on it.
For instance, if the calls made to your facility are answered on time and the patients don’t wait long to be attended to, they’re more likely to speak highly of the facility and its staff and vice versa.
Unfortunately, patients wait hours to reach the doctor in most cases, especially during emergencies. This leaves patients devastated even if they only have questions regarding their appointment or prescription refilling.
However, all these scenarios can be mitigated by a virtual receptionist. A virtual receptionist from reputable agencies such as My Mountain Mover takes care of most administrative tasks like booking appointments, answering queries, and sending appointment reminders to patients, among other things.
With a virtual receptionist, the doctor doesn’t have to worry about the services received by their patients, allowing them time to concentrate on more pressing matters.
Here Are Some Ways To Virtual Receptionists Can Improve Your Medical Practice :
1. Answering And Making Phone Calls
It’s estimated that 82% of callers want a person answering their calls. When it comes to the medical field, the numbers might even be higher, given that most callers are likely to be patients calling to get professional help. Thankfully, a virtual receptionist is always ready to answer your patients’ calls with a friendly and compassionate voice that makes the patients feel loved and attended well.
They answer the phone immediately and in real-time, so the patients don’t have to wait for their call to be picked up or leave a voicemail message.
Besides answering the phone calls and attending to your patients, a virtual receptionist also makes calls to remind patients of their appointments. With such services, no patient can miss their next appointment as the receptionist reminds them once the dates are nearer. As a result, your medical practice is likely to be highly regarded.
2. Refilling Patient Prescription
Sometimes, a patient may need to refill their prescription in a different facility or local pharmacy. Hence, they need their doctor’s go-ahead signal to do this.
Because doctors are busy saving lives or attending to other patients, reaching them can be challenging. Fortunately, here’s where a virtual receptionist comes in.
Once a pharmacist or a health practitioner calls them regarding the prescription refilling, all they need is to confirm whether your refill is due and give permission to do so. They’re always available when needed, and the patients don’t need to go to the facility to get help if the doctor is out of reach.
3. Enhances Customer Service
Virtual receptionists are trained to handle customer service and inquiries better. These services can range from answering emergency calls and FAQs like the opening and closing hours, location, the best time to see the doctor, and other questions.
Moreover, if some questions are beyond their capability to answer or require a professional answer, they direct the call to someone else in a better position to answer it. This ensures that the patient gets professional services whenever required.
4. Insurance Verification
Verifying medical insurance of existing and new patients isn’t a walk in the park. The process requires time and patience. If you’re often busy, it can be a time-consuming task for you and the patients. Luckily, virtual receptionists are ready to work on it in no time, reducing in-house staff for other activities.
5. Round-The-Clock Assistance
Regardless of the time, your patients can receive the much-needed help from your virtual receptionist. Unlike in-house receptionists, virtual receptionists don’t take days or nights off. Therefore, your patients will have someone to answer their queries 24/7, 365 days a year.
How Do You Know You Need A Virtual Receptionist For Your Medical Practice?
Sometimes, it can be challenging to know whether or not you need a virtual receptionist. However, their services might be the better solution if you experience the following:
- Your facility finds it difficult to answer each incoming call
- The available staff have to speak to patients personally and answer calls
- Your voicemail box is always full
- You lack time to answer each voicemail
- It takes a while before someone answers the patients’ calls
- You’re considering hiring an in-house team member to deal with incoming calls
Benefits Of A Virtual Receptionist:
Aside from improving your medical practice, a virtual receptionist brings the following benefits to the table:
1. Saves Time And Money
A virtual receptionist answers live phone calls, saving money that could have been used to hire an in-house team member for the same task. Additionally, you might pay the available in-house employees extra cash for answering calls, especially if that isn’t included in their job description.
Besides paying extra money, you suffer time wastage because these individuals should be dealing with their designated tasks. Luckily, a virtual receptionist ensures all calls are answered on time without anyone leaving their station to attend to phone calls.
2. Emergency Response Coverage
Medical coverage is a 24-hour thing, so it’s essential to have some mechanisms to ensure any emergency is responded to as soon as possible to save lives, which might include a virtual receptionist.
3. More Language Options
Health facilities deal with people from all walks of life, so they receive calls from patients speaking different languages. In such cases, it’s essential to communicate with these individuals in a language they can understand to ensure you’re on the same page.
Sadly, an in-house receptionist who speaks several languages might be hard to come by, and if you find one, they’ll need to be paid handsomely. Nevertheless, it’s easy to find a virtual receptionist services provider where you can get a bilingual virtual receptionist at a fair price.
Conclusion
Regardless of the size of your health facility, you can benefit a lot from a virtual receptionist. While these receptionists won’t work in-house, they’re highly accurate in what they do. They ensure that each patient is attended to immediately and receives high-class services.
For example, when your patients call the facility for inquiries, a virtual receptionist will be on standby to answer the calls with a friendly voice, regardless of the time. Thanks to such services, your patients feel satisfied and in the right place while you, as a doctor or a health practitioner, concentrate on saving lives and other vital activities.
Read Also:
