If you operate a medical business, you have a lot of expenses to consider each month. The most important business duties are taking care of your patients and not just office visits and treatment. Patients need to feel they can contact their medical professional for advice and in times of emergencies, as quickly as possible. This is why it is important to have the very best medical answering services. Here are some things to consider when you check out answering services.
Features
It is vital to choose a service with all the features you need and want. Your needs may vary according to the size of the practice and the nature of your services. For example, a laboratory which mostly takes care of drawing blood, testing, or diagnostics, will have far different needs than a family physician practice.
If there are doctors in the practice, it is important for the doctor on call to receive notice of urgent messages. In fact, the best medical answering services address this issue. For example, an urgent message or call is automatically forwarded to the proper person. In addition, more than one back up phone number will be available for emergencies. This ensures your patient emergencies are properly handled.
Top answering services also offer text messages. The doctor can receive messages via email also.
The very best medical answering services provide customizable options. In addition, they are HIPAA compliant answering services. This ensures patient information is safe and secure from outside sources, and the medical practice is not in danger of privacy invasion violations.
Price
Does the service charge you monthly or by the minute? If you have a small practice and receive very few calls each month, you may be able to get by with an inexpensive service with per minute fees. However, most practices find it hard to estimate the amount of calls they will receive and this can cause you to receive a bill which is astronomical.
Some of the best medical answering services charge a flat monthly fee. This makes it simple and easy to budget your expenses. However, be careful with services advertising ridiculously low fees (like $19.99 a month). It is not easy to provide the right kind of answering service at such a low price.
Customer Service
When you check out the best medical answering services, look for companies with top quality customer service. They provide real people with real solutions to your answering service needs.
