How Virtual Receptionists Can Assist Your Medical Practice
Are managing medical management tasks difficult at your medical practice? If so, try implementing a virtual receptionist to assist with the management of these assignments, and ensure they are completed more efficiently. While the on-site medical staff has the capability to manage these duties, errors are often made during the execution process, and having an additional set of eyes to check over the work can help eliminate this problem.
Your staff already must care for the practice’s patients, so trying to manage the office management responsibilities at the same time is virtually impossible. Scheduling appointments and sending reminders are among the most tedious tasks at a medical office. For this reason, a receptionist must always be available to answer these calls, it is impossible for the staff to dedicate their time to taking care of the patients.
Virtual receptionists are faster and more reliable than the staff at your medical practice because these receptionists are trained to handle multiple medical management duties at once. The majority of your patients cannot wait on the phone indefinitely to schedule either first-time or follow-up appointments due to work-related responsibilities. Since a virtual receptionist can handle several calls at the same time, patients are able to quickly schedule their appointments without the long hold time. Also, this service can send appointment reminders to patients providing the details of their upcoming scheduled visit, which helps reduce the frequency and number of no-shows.
Reliable virtual receptionists use interactive software that communicates with patients in their native language with a pleasant tone. This type of software can be set up to send confirmation messages after the appointment is scheduled. Generally, patients receive these appointment reminders one to two days ahead of the scheduled appointment date. These calls remind the patients of the time and date of their appointments, enabling them to show up on time, and reducing the chance they will forget about the appointment. Patients have the option to reply for confirmation of their appointment, or cancellation once the call provides them with the appointment reminder.
Should the patient choose to cancel the appointment, the virtual receptionist’s service will provide the newly vacated slot to any patient on the practice cancellation list.
