There are many considerations that are to be made when considering a physician answering service. It would be helpful to pinpoint and elucidate the three most important factors to consider when choosing and shopping for a medical answering service.
The first factor is price. Not simply the price however. The entire quoted package must be taken into consideration. What is covered? What’s the duration of the contract? How long is the pricing in effect. What are the details? And another thing to be certain of r3egarding the cost is the call volume. How many calls do you estimate will be made in a given month? Examine past phone records to get an idea on the call volume expected. Try to gage this call volume correctly. It will save headaches in the long run. Another thing to watch out for is the pricing model. Is it per call or per minute? In general most clients consider a per call cost model easier to monitor. Your medical practice may be different. Pick the pricing model that will be easiest for your practice to track and monitor. Don’t underestimate the call time either. That’s a common mistake that get’s made.
A second area of consideration when choosing a physician answering service is the service itself, namely the people answering the calls. This may be a tough thing to gage. It may be possible to call the service as a patient if you are up for engaging in a bit of detective work. This type of research may be worth it. You really do want to have a good feeling of the service philosophy and techniques of the medical answering service you are considering. Of course you can simply evaluate the service provided by the sales representatives you talk to when doing your questioning. Anyone you talk to, sales rep, account manager, etc really is representing the answering service and no doubt is a good indicator of the type of service your patients will receive.
Another major consideration when choosing you doctor answering service is the capability of the service. How up to date is the service. How up to date is the technology? Is call answering automated? Will patients be expected to navigate through an endless series of “press 1 to do this, press 2 for that” directions? Patients in need will likely be quite annoyed by this. This is something to consider. Is the service integrated with the internet? Can patients send emails? Are only calls allowed. Are doctors expected to answer emails? Can the service handle most of the emails? Is a web enabled answering service something your practice is set up to handle and take advantage of? Is you patient base able to take advantage of a fully modernized physicians answering service?
Finding and choosing the right answering service for your medical facility is a major decision. With so many considerations that are in the table it may be confusing at times. Focusing on these three major areas may help you focus and find the right medical answering service that fits your practice and style.
Will the medical answering service industry move online? Surveys conducted indicate that 95 percent of medical patients would like to communicate via email with their physicians. However, a much smaller percentage of doctors feel likewise. Doctors are reluctant communicate via email with their patients. Obviously many patients hope physicians will take advantage of web technology to facilitate patient communications, but physicians may still be slow to adopt these new methods. As the internet grows and becomes more ubiquitous, this trend will only continue. People are accustomed to using the Internet for customer service etc. They track package shipments, pay bills, order merchandise, and do numerous other tasks without the participation of a customer service representative on the telephone. More than ninety percent of individuals with Internet access would rather communicate with their physician by email but, only 15 percent of physicians would prefer email. Medical answering services may be slow to adapt to new technologies but many call centers have been reclassified as “contact centers” as they utilize new communication technologies.
A number of organizations are now providing email communication availability to doctors and medical professionals. Understanding the growth and accessibility of this technology is imperative for the survival of any industry. These updated providers will undeniably grow and this movement has the potential to devastate the medical answering service industry as it exists today.
These new generation companies are well structured and well financed. Many of them even have the support of pharmaceutical industry and immense electronic medical records suppliers. One such company is Medem. They are even endorsed by the American Medical Association. For those providing medical answering services, this certainly must be of great concern.
Admittedly, these new type of “medical contact centers” have the noteworthy advantages of quick access and financial resources but many don’t wholly recognize the operational dynamics of the health care call center industry and players: the patients, and the medical practices. Many companies actually aim to charge the patients to use their services! It seems ridiculous to expect patients to move to a paid model just for the luxury of using email. They would almost certainly just place a phone call instead. Unless medical answering services became so inept and hold times so outrageous. In the U.S. we have what many deem is the top health care system on the planet, but access can be tough. These modern players are addressing patient access and attacking existing doctor answering services head on.
Most of these companies are reliant on the physician to be the main contact point for the patient. So if the patient’s call results in a doctor requiring an office visit of the patient, the physician ends up asking the patient to call the staff to schedule an appointment. The physician becomes a de facto secretary in a sense for the actual secretary or assistant. Obviously having physicians answer phones is not an option, yet these newer companies feel medical professionals will want to respond to all email messages.
However, there are some workable web-based self-service models. These are currently outside of the medical field. Some package delivery firms have successfully offered clients an easy to use arrangement. Customers can supplant live phone in customer service with internet based service. This process saves many millions of dollars yearly in reduced labor costs. In order for medical telephone answering companies to survive and hopefully thrive in the age of managed care and world wide web, they must adopt successful modern online strategies and take advantage of their industry experience before they are left behind.