Healthcare call centers serve a specific purpose. They act as lifelines to improve the health of individuals and assist them in navigating the health system. They are essential in the provision of a positive patient experience.
Emotional connections, trust, relationship-building, and empathy are prioritized in healthcare call centers. Through timely outreach, helpful agents, and relevant resources, medical call centers help individuals take control of their health.
Call center services route patient calls and messages to an off-site operator, who screens the call before routing it to your practice. This has significant implications for raising employee efficiency and, interestingly, patient satisfaction.
Importance of Medical Call Center Services
The medical field has its own set of communication issues. Communication breakdowns between providers and patients can have a direct impact on patient experience and treatment outcomes. Here are a few ways medical call center solutions can assist in their resolution.
- They are HIPAA Compliant
A major concern you may have about outsourcing call reception to medical call centers is if they follow the HIPAA privacy law. Of course, you should be concerned about the privacy of your patients!
HIPAA laws are rules that aid in safeguarding medical history and other private details of patients. HIPAA privacy rule alters how you respond to customer calls, store their information, and converse critical data. Also, HIPAA rules require that customer data in your call center must be encrypted and secured.
A HIPAA-compliant medical call center will make sure that information is released over the phone with extreme caution. Due to the privacy law in healthcare, they’ll determine whether the person on the other end is, in fact, the patient.
Although HIPAA rules are complex, operators employed by healthcare call centers are trained to comply. When communicating with patients, they can adhere to security protocols.
- They Help Reduce Patient Calls
Healthcare services with a wide patient base have an unending number of calls during office hours. Many times, this can tie up phone lines and leave frustrated patients on hold for extended periods of time. Medical call centers solve this issue. They ease staff and patient grievances by filtering calls and answering simple questions.
Operators determine if a patient’s complaint is urgent or not so urgent. If the call isn’t for an urgent matter, the operator takes a message and forwards it to your practice for later review.
You can also provide a script to the call center. With this, they can provide simple answers like office hours and practice addresses. This saves your staff time spent on the phone with patients for basic tasks.
- It Saves You the Time and Cost of Infrastructure Upgrade
It takes a lot to upgrade to a new communication system in order to respond to calls in a manner that meets patient expectations. It frequently necessitates the installation of software and hardware. That is both costly and time-consuming.
Luckily, healthcare providers can gain access to the most up-to-date communication tools by utilizing a call center solution. You won’t have to worry about the initial investment or the operational costs that come with equipment servicing.
- Eliminate Extra Staffing Costs
By complementing front-office employees, medical call centers enable you to eliminate all staffing costs. You will spend more by hiring a staff devoted solely to answering phones and taking messages. However, the task can be outsourced to a call center.
Instead of paying a receptionist’s salary, you only pay a monthly fee for the call center’s services. However, keep in mind that call centers typically offer different price points. Pricing depends on the services you select. So select the ones that provide the best value to your practice.
- Reduce After-hours Calls
The time a health challenge will come up cannot be predicted. A patient who needs medical attention after office hours will definitely put a call through. Going through messages the next day can take hours for organizations that receive a high volume of after-hours calls.
Medical call centers are typically open round the clock. So patients can always speak with a live agent. Call center operators serve as receptionists. They’ll take messages and route them to the appropriate staff member or physician. This eliminates the need for any staff member to listen to, document, or direct messages, allowing them to focus on other tasks.
- Eliminate Language Barrier
Depending on where you practice, there may be a sizable minority population who do not speak English as a first language. If no staff is bilingual, there may be a phone disconnect. Language barriers can result in errors such as scheduling patients for the wrong type of exam.
A bilingual medical call center can assist your practice in overcoming language barriers. Messages are translated and delivered to your office, making life easier for both you and your patients, healthcare call center services.
- Outstanding Customer Service
Patients nowadays expect a certain level of quality service from their health practitioners. Patients expect services on par with leading consumer brands.
With a medical call center, you can have access to expert agents in customer service by using a call center solution. Simultaneously, you can ensure that the interactions are accurate, polite, and professional.
- Increase Patient Retention
Patient satisfaction is critical to sustaining long-term growth through patient retention and referrals. In order to increase retention rates, a call center proactively understands patients’ expectations.
Also, surveys healthcare call centers can use surveys to collect patient feedback. They ensure optimal reporting performance with the feedback gotten.
- Offer Omnichannel Support
With omnichannel support, patients can be able to receive assistance via their desired communication channels. Channels of communication can be
- Phone
- Video chat
- SMS,
- Live chat
- Social media.
An omnichannel medical call center is capable of delivering consistent messaging across multiple platforms. They can keep a 360-degree patient profile in a centralized location that is revised in real-time and available to all agents. It also enables patients to seamlessly switch platforms, even while in the middle of a conversation.
Conclusion
Healthcare call centers are also known as medical call centers. They enable institutions such as doctor’s offices, health centers, and medical facilities to outsource patient phone calls. This helps to reduce workload and improve efficiency.
A healthcare call center company is used by many hospitals in the United States to improve patient engagement and satisfaction. With a medical call center, you can reduce hold time, and increase patient retention rates.
