What happens when a patient, or potential new patient, calls your clinic and no one is available to answer the phone right away? Perhaps the call will go to voice mail or ring endlessly? If you run a clinic, such as a Dental or a Chiropractic practice, having a live call answering service to lean on is a smart way to handle incoming phone calls.
How Does a Live Call Answering Service Work?
When calls are made to your main office line, instead of the phone in your front office ringing, the call is re-routed or forwarded, and the phone at Midwest Answer rings, right here in Quincy, Illinois. You control when your office staff takes calls and when we answer your calls, allowing you to optimize your office staffs time and productivity.
Professionally trained operators, based in the US and serving nationwide customers, are always available for after-hours, overflow or any other calls you’re unable to, or don’t want to answer. These services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year.
Answering service operators follow pre-set protocols, created by you, as if they’re an on-site front-desk receptionist of your own, ready to maintain operational continuity. Live call answering operators are able to:
- Answer calls
- Take messages
- Screen & Forward calls
- Identify leads
Just because you or your staff is unable to answer the phone, doesn’t mean patient care should stop. From your patient’s perspective, they’ll feel like they’re talking to one of your staff members, representing your clinic with factual information, provided by you.
How Can Live Answering Services Help Your Clinic?
A live call answering service will save you time, increase efficiency and improve productivity.
Every clinic’s front desk staff has a multitude of tasks such as providing exceptional customer service to patients in-clinic, administrative office duties and plenty more. Sometimes, this can mean phone calls are missed or hold times last longer than they should. That scenario can turn into a bad experience for the patient and can easily drive them to another care provider across the street. Just one missed call means missed opportunity, or worse, leaving a patient unattended to.
Live call answering services ensure that every call is answered and that all your patient’s needs are met. Having the support of an answering service allows your practice to concentrate on and excel in the actual services you provide. This helps improve operational efficiencies so you can focus on providing the best care possible to more patients.
What’s the Minimum Threshold of Call Volume Needed?
Live call answering can be an asset to any size practice and add real, measurable value.
For smaller clinics, a live call answering service can bridge any gaps with staffing in-house receptionists. In the case of larger or multi-location practices, the service can alleviate heavy call volumes to improve patient satisfaction and maintain operational continuity.
What About HIPPA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, is a set of procedures to protect Patient Health Information (PHI). HIPAA protections are taken very seriously by the government, and any failure to comply can result in severe consequences.
All healthcare practices that handle sensitive medical information, including over a phone call, either themselves or through a call handling service, are required to comply with HIPAA regulations, regardless of size or practice type. That’s why Midwest Answer maintains full HIPAA compliance for all medical clients.
HIPAA compliance isn’t just an added feature, it’s required by law. That’s why Midwest Answer provides comprehensive training to all telephone operators on the team.
Operators on the Midwest Answer team receive comprehensive training to maintain HIPAA compliance and protect your patient’s rights.
Get Started Now!
Do you still have more questions about how live call answering works?
Would you like to give us a test drive?
Give Midwest Answer a call today!
Midwest Answer provides telephone answering and virtual receptionist services. For nearly 50 years we’ve handled calls for a variety of business sectors, 24/7/365. From call volumes of just a few per week to thousands per day. And entirely within US-based call centers. With simple, flat-rate monthly pricing that doesn’t include contracts or hidden fees.
