Your front desk staff members are probably responsible for keeping the schedule and alerting the nurses that the patients have arrived, yet they spend half the time on the phone answering calls or making calls to remind patients about upcoming appointments. The result? The waiting room gets backed up. Lunch time gets delayed or shortened, and the end of the work day drags out. Meanwhile, patients on the phone have been experiencing long wait times, and some of them became frustrated and hung up.
Sound familiar? This is a classic operations management problem experienced by many medical offices. By choosing smart voice services, your medical office can avoid bottlenecks and offer better patient care.
Good Patient Portals Improve Caller Satisfaction
A good patient portal allows your patients to navigate your office phone system efficiently, successfully and independently. Through the patient portal, patients are able to reach the extension that they need without being fielded by your front desk employee. Patients who wish to confirm an appointment, change an appointment, speak to a doctor or inquire about a prescription refill are all able to do so without requiring help from your employee at the front desk, thus freeing your staff to handle patients sitting in your waiting room. This keeps your patients moving through the office, lessening wait times and increasing the number of patients that your medical office can see in one day.
After-Hours Medical Concierge Services Prevent a Morning Phone Rush
Medical concierge services, which are sometimes offered in-house by voice service providers, are staffed by HIPAA trained phone professionals. Medical concierge services work in tandem with your patient portal, helping to field incoming calls. After hours, medical concierge services can take messages from patients to be delivered to the doctor right away in the morning when the office opens.
Since many patients feel reluctant to leave messages about their medical problems over voicemail, medical concierge services can give patients the satisfaction of speaking with a live person after hours, which prevents a rush of callers first thing in the morning when the offices open.
Automated Voice Reminders Free Up Staff
Automated voice reminders about upcoming appointments prevent no-shows throughout the day while freeing up your front desk staff, who would otherwise have to make those calls personally. Automated voice reminders also allow patients to confirm or cancel appointments with the push of a button.
These integrated and comprehensive voice solutions can effectively improve your patient relationships and patient satisfaction, while also increasing the efficiency of your office. To find out more, contact a voice service provider with a reputation for excellence at Phone Masters Ltd.
Share