Doctor Answering Services are turning out to be Superheroes of the Medical World

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The medical field is all about sweating, being in a hurry, and totally getting involved with the laid down protocols. There are patients who require assistance, want help, and wish to have reassurance from the medical staff. However, these attributes are more than often not available at the right times. The doctors have an ocean of things to manage such as treating patients and addressing medical documents. They barely get so much time as to be able to receive limitless calls. This is where patient answering service providers come in and take care of a vital space owing to the fact that every call is important.   

 

Despite most people not being aware of a doctor answering service, their role is immensely crucial in the medical practice field. Let us delve in and have a more insightful view of how patient answering service providers work. Let’s see why they are referred to as the silent army of our society.  

 

A Communication Bridge Connecting Doctors and Patients  

 

Let’s say you are a patient, and it’s night time, and you have a question. However, you have no idea if your question can wait till morning or not. In such a scenario, you start looking up the contacts of your doctor with expectations of listening to silence. It can also be an automatic answering machine instead of actually having a conversation with an individual.  

 

This is the core of a doctor answering service – helping patients communicate their concerns to their doctors even at odd hours.

 

When close contact is most needed, it not only sends messages to the users but also calms them down.   

 

What These Services Actually Do Besides The Basics 

 

To begin with addressing the question, it is fair to say that answering services only attend the calls and take the necessary messages but, this isn’t their entire job.  

 

  1. Picking up Calls Past Five PM: Sometimes, past 5 pm calls do not wait until the doctor is free. Such calls are filtered and answered by the relevant practitioner or the doctor on duty.  

 

  1. Call Evaluation and Re-routing: Some organizations have trained their employees to detect numerous cases of call standardization. Is it an order for a simple refill or a life-threatening situation? They know where to rank the order of the calls and which ones to send.  

 

  1. Dividing the Work: These services take over the usual questions and non-critical calls. This allows the doctors and their teams to dedicate more hours to their work.    

 

  1. It gives a humane touch to technologies: Nowadays, although machines are largely preferred, patients would rather talk with real representatives. These services embody human traits such as care that no machine possesses.   

 

How They Make A Difference For Patients  

 

When patients understand that there is another person on the call to assist them, it certainly puts their minds at ease.

 

It’s not only a matter of worry; it matters to know that you are understood. It can be an anxious mother whose child has a fever and is looking for answers. It can also be a senior citizen who gets confused with how to use the medicines. However, a doctor answering service gives all patients a sense of reliability and trust.  

 

And those times when a patient thinks twice before even calling the doctor, we’d like to mention them too. In many cases, the simple fact that there is an answering service, enables patients to pick up the phone to ask questions. It gets easier knowing that their issues will be given required recognition.  

 

A Day in the Life of an Answering Service

 

Let me set the scene for you. It is a Monday night and the phone calls start coming in.  

 

– First Call: An angry parent calls in because their toddler has developed a rash. The answering service soothes them, takes the details, and relays the message to the paediatrician on-call.  

 

– Second Call: Patients make the threat of calling the office because of some confusion regarding the instructions provided to them after surgery. The rest of the service helps ensure that the surgeon’s assistant is available to take the query without meaning to.  

 

– Third Call: There is an order that a pharmacy needs to cross check a prescription. Through the service, instead of waiting until the next day, they get the assistance that they need.  

 

Hundreds of patients and dozens of healthcare specialists calmly, quietly and efficiently without any hassle would have been managed by the end of the shift.  

 

The Impact on Doctors

 

Doctors might not say it or voice it out loudly for the world to hear, but they are very appreciative of these services.

 

It’s inevitable that physicians get tired. It’s impossible for a doctor to work day and night without feeling exhausted. This means that patients are bound to miss out on some calls as they will not be able to attend to them. 

 

This is why physicians use the answering service. It allows them to manage their schedules in a healthy and balanced way. This to provide care to their patients in the future.