Managing After-Hours Medical Answering Services for the Holidays: Tips for Clinics, Physicians’ Offices and Providers (11/19)

The holiday season presents many difficulties for clinics, physicians’ offices, and healthcare providers managing after-hours medical answering services. With staff on vacation and patient needs still requiring attention, balancing personal time with professional needs becomes complicated. 

Common pitfalls, like non-urgent messages sent to on-call staff, incorrect call handling, or misdirected messages, can disrupt workflows and impact patient care. Plus, poor reporting and analytics make it harder to track and manage after-hours performance, potentially driving up costs. To avoid these issues and keep patient care seamless, it’s crucial to adopt effective strategies that maintain service quality without overwhelming your team during the holidays.

Holiday Medical Answering Services: Anticipating Increased Demand

The holiday season often brings a surge in patient needs and after-hours calls due to increased travel, family gatherings, and the popularity of seasonal illnesses. This uptick in activity can overwhelm staff, making it essential to anticipate and prepare for the added demand. Reviewing call data from previous years can help forecast trends, allowing providers to adjust staffing levels and call-handling protocols accordingly. 

If historical call data isn’t available, consider implementing technologies like AVA (Automated Voice Assistant). AVA not only captures consistent, accurate data and insights but also streamlines the after-hours experience for both patients and providers, eliminating wait times and reducing unnecessary call volume for this and future holiday seasons. 

Optimizing Holiday Medical Answering Services with Smart Technology

Data plays a critical role in optimizing after-hours coverage during the holidays. By understanding the types of calls that typically come in, management can strategically deploy staff to handle patient needs more efficiently. AVA offers a smart solution for routing incoming calls based on urgency, type, and patient needs. Fully customizable, AVA ensures that each call is recorded or transcribed and forwarded to the appropriate provider, ensuring patients receive timely care without delays. 

With no hold times, unlimited capacity, and support for over 100 languages, AVA can escalate calls based on urgency, clinical needs, or patient type by sending text or email alerts, providing automatic follow-ups, and offering on-demand backup. Secure access to messages or transcriptions allows your team to act quickly. For calls that require human interaction, such as post-operative care, AVA can seamlessly transfer patients to live on-call staff, a medical answering service, or even nurse triage, ensuring the highest level of care.

Automating Communication Protocols

With advanced medical answering services, automating your communication protocols with a tool like AVA provides a “set it and forget it” solution during the busy holiday season. AVA’s flexible, custom escalation protocols allow only the most urgent patient calls to reach you, eliminating unnecessary disruptions. With HIPAA-secure links texted directly to your phone, you can listen to patient voicemails without needing app logins, and there’s an optional pin for added security. 

AVA also offers a masked number callback feature, giving you privacy while reaching out to patients. You can easily add notes or adjust call urgency, and all actions are documented within the portal. Setup is fast and easy, with real-time adjustments possible from your phone, allowing you to manage after-hours communication efficiently, no matter where you are.

Supporting Staff & Preventing Burnout

Managing after-hours calls efficiently during the holidays is essential for protecting staff well-being and preventing burnout. Non-urgent calls can be addressed the following business day through robust email reporting, allowing on-call hours to be less disruptive so staff can enjoy their holidays. Data and call analytics offer increased visibility into call details and call type patterns, as well as easy access to call recordings and transcriptions, helping you track workload and streamline processes. AVA helps your team maintain a balanced workflow during the holiday season.

As Dr. Arthur Magun from Columbia University notes, “AVA has been a game changer for managing after-hours calls in my practice. It’s easy to use and very cost-effective. My patients can reach me directly, and I have the flexibility to escalate messages and prioritize based on urgency. Plus, hearing my patients’ voices helps me understand their concerns better and prepare for our follow-up calls!”

Efficient Care: Holiday Medical Answering Services with CareXM’s AVA

CareXM’s AVA is not just a tool; it’s a strategic asset. Incorporating AVA into your communication workflow helps you achieve unparalleled efficiency and patient satisfaction. Our HIPAA-compliant platform seamlessly integrates with your existing processes, easily adapts to your needs, and works as a primary or backup call answering system. 

With our Automated Voice Assistant, you can advance your care coordination strategy by:

• Reducing Operational Costs–By automating routine call management tasks, AVA reduces the volume of incoming calls that require human intervention, freeing up your staff to focus on more critical tasks and lowering operational expenses. 
• 24/7 Medical Answering Services–Our platform ensures your patients receive immediate assistance at any time of day or night. This round-the-clock availability is crucial in maintaining high levels of patient satisfaction and operational efficiency.
• Complete Telehealth Integration–AVA integrates with your existing telehealth services, providing comprehensive remote care and seamless communication. This keeps your telehealth operations running smoothly by handling administrative tasks for you.

Our clients have experienced significant improvements in operational efficiency, patient satisfaction, and cost reduction. With customizable features and a robust support system, AVA is designed to meet the unique needs of healthcare providers.

Need After-Hours Medical Answering During the Holidays? Call CareXM Today!

Although managing after-hours medical answering during the holidays can come with its own challenges, finding a balance is essential to allow seamless patient care and maintain the efficiency of your practice. CareXM offers innovative medical answering solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of healthcare providers, with nearly 40 years of experience exclusively serving this sector. 

Whether you are a small physician group, a large hospital, or a busy medical clinic, CareXM’s TeleMed provides customizable medical answering services designed to exceed your expectations. Our highly skilled operators are available around the clock, ready to support your practice whenever needed. Don’t let missed calls and overwhelmed staff disrupt your care—choose CareXM’s TeleMed today for a reliable and efficient solution.