The medical practice is a great business to be in. However, it can be very competitive also. Yet, some doctors have many more patients than others and for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons may have to do with the way calls are handled. A doctors answering service can make or break a practice and here is why.
It’s late at night on a Saturday and 55 year old James P is trying to call his doctor’s office. James is not feeling well. He has mild chest pains, and is not sure what the problem is. When he calls the office he gets a recording telling him to contact the emergency room of the hospital, but there is a problem. James doesn’t know if it is an emergency or not. What can he do?
Linda M was recently prescribed a new medication by her doctor. After a couple of days, she is feeling dizzy and nauseated and it has been getting worse. The symptoms are not mentioned with the medical information she received from the pharmacy and she needs to talk to her doctor. Linda calls the office but cannot speak to anyone who can help her. In fact, there has been a power failure at the office and the answering system is inoperable.
It Can Happen to You
These problems can happen and they can occur when the doctors answering service is not designed for the practice, or if it malfunctions. When patients experience these kinds of problems with medical professionals they may seek out other doctors. Also, some patients may say nothing about it and just never show up again. When this happens, doctors lose valuable business and they have no idea why.
How Can These Problems be Avoided?
In the first scenario James needed to talk to a medical professional about a possible emergency. With the right doctors answering service in place, his call should have been forwarded to his doctor within a few seconds time. How is this possible?
A virtual phone system has the ability to filter or separate urgent calls from non urgent ones. All James had to do was choose the right option on the menu. Before long, he could talk to his doctor and find out if he should go to the emergency room of the local hospital or not.
Linda’s problem could be avoided with a virtual answering system. A power failure only affects local equipment and virtual equipment is in the cloud and not on the premises. This type of doctors answering service is not very expensive and easy to use.
