How to Choose a Healthcare Answering Service: A Comprehensive Checklist for Medical Practices

Increasing patient volumes, staffing shortages, and a rising number of people experiencing chronic disease have put significant pressure on medical practices. Operational efficiencies and higher-than-normal cancellations and no-shows make it challenging, at best, to manage visits and retain adequate communication.

One of the solutions that healthcare professionals are turning to is an answering service. However, choosing a medical answering service can be a challenging task. After all, they represent your practice, support your patients, and are responsible for securing personal patient data. It’s a big responsibility that has a significant impact on your practice.

Here’s how to ensure you partner with an answering service you can trust.

The Challenge of Patient Communication

When you call a company, you can often tell when you receive a third-party answering service. Many sound robotic, like they’re reading a script instead of actively listening. It’s the last impression you want to give your potential and current patients.

You want those who call your practice to feel like they’ve reached one of your team members. You want a caring and empathetic person who can build trust and ensure your patients feel heard. You want someone who can assess the urgency and determine the appropriate response, whether scheduling an appointment or transferring the person to your on-call provider.

Can you get this type of service from an answering service? By selectively choosing a medical answering service with the following criteria, you have a much better chance of being highly satisfied with the outcome.

Foundational Must-Haves: The Non-Negotiable Criteria

HIPAA Compliance and Security Protocols

One of your top considerations when choosing a medical answering service should be the protection of your patients’ personal data. To that end, many look for HIPAA-compliant organizations that are committed to implementing advanced security protocols.

At notifyMD®, we go further than HIPAA compliance, becoming the first answering service to earn HITRUST certification. This certification signifies that we’ve been vetted and proven to utilize best-in-class security controls and risk management standards from HIPAA, NIST, ISO, and PCI. We also recently earned the SOC 2® Type 2 Certification, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to safeguarding sensitive patient information.

24/7 Live Agent Availability

Providing access to a live person 24/7 gives your patients peace of mind. For some practices, our virtual receptionists provide the necessary skills, from scheduling appointments and directing urgent calls to responding to inquiries and taking messages.

Other practices require nurse triage services, and the skills of a registered nurse trained in Schmitt-Thompson protocols. Their training and experience ensure accurate evaluations, directing patients to the right level of care when needed. This service may include providing instructions for at-home care, referring them to an emergency room, or scheduling an appointment.

Advanced Call Management

Efficient call management is critical when it comes to caring for patients. When every call is answered by a knowledgeable, caring professional, your patients feel valued, and their trust in you and your practice continues to grow.

Advanced call management includes follow-up reminders, scheduling, patient surveys, and accessing health records.

Specialized Medical Expertise

There are a tremendous number of call centers in the world, but many are not qualified to work in the medical field. Staff in a healthcare answering service must understand medical terminology and the unique protocols that comprise a practice. A cookie-cutter approach won’t work when someone’s health and well-being are at stake.

At notifyMD®, we’ve been serving the healthcare industry for over 30 years. Not only are our virtual receptionists well-trained in this sector, but they also specialize in various physician specialties, including cardiology, gastroenterology, dermatology, dentistry, and many more.

Key Features that Enhance Your Practice

The following features help streamline operations, ensure optimum patient communication and satisfaction, and improve patient outcomes.

Seamless Appointment Management

When choosing a medical answering service, make sure the virtual receptionists are trained in scheduling, rescheduling, and canceling appointments. You want someone who feels like an extension of your team, answering every call in a professional and empathetic manner that represents your practice in its best light.

HIPAA-compliant patient outreach services provide appointment reminders, reducing cancellations and no-shows. The result is a filled schedule and patients who share their positive experience with others.

Intelligent Call Triage and Routing

24/7 access to a registered nurse provides you, your patients, and your staff with unrivaled peace of mind. Knowing your patients have the professional support they need 24/7 ensures their urgent calls get routed to the correct department or emergency care. This support allows you to enjoy time relaxing with friends and family without worrying about those who have entrusted you with their care.

Virtual receptionists should also be trained in call routing based on your unique practice, ensuring all calls that require forwarding go to the appropriate department or staff member. Protocols for triaging urgent calls ensure medical emergencies are handled accurately and professionally.

Secure Messaging and Communication

The best medical answering services support medical practices in sending secure HIPAA-compliant messaging. This messaging should be encrypted with role-based permissions, strong passwords, and multi-factor authentication. This level of security ensures your patients’ digital information is protected and transmitted securely.

Confidential messaging is used to schedule appointments, send patient preparation instructions for upcoming lab tests, medication reminders, and enhanced care coordination. This form of communication leads to better patient compliance and improved workflows.

Technology Integration

Technology integration streamlines both your patients’ and staff’s experience, improving communication, maximizing productivity, and reducing costs. Ideally, medical answering service companies should sync with your practice management software. Additionally, mobile app accessibility ensures constant contact with your virtual assistant, allowing for a rapid response when needed.

The following are just a few of the many software integrations notifyMD® provides:

• TigerConnect
• Spok Communication
• NextGen Healthcare
• HaloHealth
• OnPage
• eClinicalWorks
• Athenahealth
• Epic
• GE Healthcare

Robust Reporting and Analytics

Data-driven decisions have become a basic foundational necessity in almost all successful businesses. Does your medical answering service provide 24/7 access to your account analytics? These analytics ensure you know what’s happening when a third-party is answering your phones.

These metrics include response times, call volume, and detailed diagnostic reporting. You and your staff can also monitor call answering activity in real-time.

The Financial & Technical Considerations

While you may be in the business of saving lives and helping patients improve their health-related or disease-related quality of life, a private practice is also a business that requires financial controls and technical advancements. The following represent a few of the many ways these two factors fit into the healthcare answering service model.

Understanding Pricing Models

If it’s a good fit, your medical answering service may be a long-term partner that supports your growth and expansion. For this and many other reasons, it’s important to consider contract terms and pricing. Medical answering services offer different pricing models, from per-minute to per-call models.

At notifyMD®, we offer four tiers based on usage, ensuring just the right amount of support when you need it. These plans range from 100 receptionist minutes per month to 500 minutes per month. We also provide customized plans directly suited to your unique practice and needs.

Technology Integration with Your EHR/EMR

To streamline operations and workflows, it’s essential to partner with a medical answering service that integrates seamlessly with your existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) or Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. This integration ensures the best possible patient care, a trail of information you can count on, and data consistency.

Scalability for Growth

As your practice grows and your needs change, working with a medical answering service that offers numerous services can help you with other challenges and overcome hurdles as they arise. When choosing a medical answering service, consider their offerings outside the scope of answering phones. In addition to answering and directing phone calls, these services may include:

• Patient Outreach
• Secure Messaging
• Nurse Triage Services
• Switchboard Services
• Healthcare Appointment Scheduling
• And More

The Final Step: Vetting and Making a Decision

Choosing the best medical answering service for your practice involves determining your needs and then making sure they can fulfill them. Some questions and answers to consider:

• Do they offer 24/7 service every day of the year? Are they available for overflow support at a moment’s notice?
• Are they committed to providing their services solely to healthcare professionals, and do they specialize in your medical specialty?
• Do they provide the highest level of patient data protection, such as HITRUST certification?
• Do they offer the services that your practice specifically needs, such as appointment scheduling and patient reminders, emergency call routing, taking messages, and nurse triage support?

Request a Demo or Trial Period

A demo or free trial will give you direct experience with how a medical answering service works and the benefits it can bring to your patients and your staff. If you feel any pressure or undermining sales tactics, it’s a sure sign they are not the partner you’re seeking.

Check References and Reviews

Always ask for references from healthcare clients that align with your practice and values. Prominent medical answering services will also include testimonials on their websites. Today, online reviews are easily accessible and provide a trove of information regarding your potential selection.

Making the Right Choice for Your Patients

At notifyMD®, our decades of experience and U.S.-based, well-trained staff make us the preferred medical answering service for many leading healthcare providers. Just a few of the many companies we support with patient communication include Ascension, Mount Sinai, Dignity Health, and HCA Healthcare.

To learn more about our services or to experience a free trial, contact notifyMD® today.