How to Choose the Best Physician Answering Service

With continuous advances in the medical industry, healthcare has significantly changed in only a decade. And today, a physician medical answering service for your healthcare practice is no longer a commodity; it’s a necessity.

At your medical office, your phone line is the face and voice of your practice. As the first point of contact, it’s imperative your patient has a positive first experience with your practice. A positive first impression is key to patient communication, satisfaction, and retention.

A medical answering service has become a need for physicians. With an after-hours answering service for physicians, your practice can ensure all patient calls will be answered, regardless of the time of day (or night). Your after-hours answering service provider will take messages, manage after-hour appointments, and handle all urgent health situations. And don’t worry, the incoming calls to your practice will be answered in the exact same way as your own staff would.

Here are the key benefits of a physician answering service:

• Enhanced patient service with all patient calls answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• HIPAA-compliant
• Urgent calls can be directly transferred if needed
• Better patient communication
• Increased patient retention
• Provides your medical practice with value
• Lessens your administrative workload so you can better focus on your patients
• Increases efficiency and productivity
• Reduces costs for staff and software

You are selecting the face and voice of your medical practice, so it’s vital to choose a company that you trust to interact with your patients efficiently, seamlessly, and professionally.

When choosing a physician answering service, look for these qualities:

1. Extensively HIPAA-compliancy trained

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) refers to the laws intended to help protect patient’s privacy and personal information. HIPAA applies to all healthcare providers and organizations in the medical field. For additional information about HIPAA, read here.

It’s imperative to choose a highly trusted, HIPAA-compliant medical answering service for your physician office. In addition, choose a medical answering service that understands the healthcare industry.

At TeleMed, we are a physician answering service with a quality staff rigorously trained in HIPAA compliance. When you get started with TeleMed today, your account will have a designated TeleMed associate that has thoroughly completed strict training. This means that you can be confident your patients’ privacy will be handled professionally and with care, every time. 

2. Track record of satisfied medical clients

It’s important to look for an after-hour physician answering service that has a track record of satisfied customers and positive reviews.

Check out what TeleMed clients are saying about their medical answering service:

“We have been very satisfied with TeleMed over the past 10 years. Our providers love their user-friendly App to receive their messages and being able to return the call with the practice’s caller ID showing instead of their personal cell number. Not only do we always get the message, but they have also reduced our IT and software costs. Their approach to custom account configuration has really helped us focus on taking care of our patients.”
— Sarah T. of Denver, Co., Physician Administrator

“TeleMed has taken the ‘scare’ out of PHI and HIPAA regulations. Their team helped assess our current software and processes to create a new workflow and solution for secure messaging at our hospital. TeleMed has been running it for 2 years now, and I don’t have one complaint.”
— Steve M. of San Francisco, CA., IT Security Director

3. Understands the Needs of Physicians and Has Extensive Experience

It’s important to choose a physician answering service that thoroughly understands the rigorous needs of physicians and their healthcare practice. In addition, choose a trustworthy and experienced provider. At TeleMed, we have over 33 years of medical answering experience with professional operators that both physicians and patients can trust.

Professional Operators, You Can Trust and Depend On

Call processing must be handled quickly, accurately, and with sensitivity to the caller. TeleMed functions as the face and voice of your medical clinic when you’re not there. TeleMed provides a HIPAA compliant message delivery system, including 100% encrypted secure messaging, allowing us to send messages between devices in a format that is not readable by anyone but the intended recipient. 

Well-trained, professional operators are always available to make on-call changes, location adjustments, and account modifications. TeleMed’s technical and engineering staff is on-call around the clock to handle any type of technical emergency, so you can always depend on us.

Contact Us to Set Up Your Medical Practice’s Physician Answering Service

Have a question? Let us know! Contact us today for more information about how TeleMed can serve as the face and voice of your medical practice today.