Manually Calling Patients? There’s a Better Way
The life of a busy medical office often comes down to daily juggling different tasks, and the front office jobs often heavily involve the telephone. When office staff is consumed with answering incoming calls, scheduling appointments, and sending out reminders, the patients at the office might feel neglected. Those offices that tried using automated systems have found them impersonal and confusing, especially to older patients. Fortunately, there is a better way and some surprising news.
Keeping in-house staff to call patients manually could be costing your practice more than having a professional medical answering service. Here are several ways those manual calls could be counter-productive.
Time
One of the most precious resources your staff has is time. While at the office, patients want nothing more than to get your undivided attention.
Manually calling for appointment reminders takes time away from other functions. If someone in your office is ever absent, you will feel the strain of resources. Getting behind in those calls means someone has to work late to complete the task or not do it at all. When reminder calls don’t get made, your no-show rate could go up, which ends up costing you money.
Money
Speaking of money, manually calling patients is costing your practice in several ways. First, while keeping everything in-house might seems like the most cost-effective option, it isn’t necessarily the case.
Let’s say you have a staff member that spends 2.5 hours a day making reminder calls for 20 days a month, at $15 an hour. This means you’re losing $7,200 per year in productivity to manual phone calls. How many different tasks could have been completed in that time?
Remember, you are also paying employment taxes and benefits to this person, which accounts for overhead. However, if you use a medical answering service for appointment reminders, you are only paying for the made calls, with no additional overhead costs.
Staff Satisfaction
Let’s face it: sitting in front of a telephone, working your way down a list of patients, and spending 50 hours a month doing it doesn’t sound like fun. So your employees will be much happier to take care of patients instead, which will result in higher patient satisfaction scores.
Manual calling is an unpopular task at best. However, if reminders are not placed, your office’s no-show rate can go up, affecting your scheduling efficiency and your practice’s bottom line.
While most medical offices still believe that manual phone calls are the best choice, the evidence proves otherwise. Answering365’s medical answering service can take this unpopular and unprofitable task off of your hands. This is only one of the many services we provide to satisfied customers. Contact us to learn more about our medical answering services or to schedule a free consultation.
