A common complaint in the healthcare industry is patients who say it is often difficult to reach their doctor, especially after-hours; or they can’t get in touch with their doctor when they’re in the hospital, especially after they’ve made their once-a-day call. And many medical practices don’t call the patient’s primary care physician when calls come in after hours, on weekend or holidays; rather, the calls get routed to the on-call physician. And then, how long are you supposed to wait for a return call? And when you do get the on-call physician, they may be reluctant to provide the same treatment instructions or prescribe a medication, even a refill, because they don’t know the patient like the patient’s own doctor does.
It’s a simple fact, that there are plenty of times calls fall through the cracks, resulting in an upset patient. It’s a real problem, and yet, those call centers are supposed to be the backbone of effective, efficient communication within medical centers, hospitals, and medical facilities, including for patients.
How Do You Fix the Problem?
The key to improving communication in hospitals is to bring together all the different entities so they can operate almost as one, seamlessly. That’s where medical call center software comes in.
By utilizing hospital call center software, call center staff can access anything they need from one simple, state-of-the-art, yet easy-to-use console. Agents working on the console side of the center are able to access patient information and send a private, secure message to the provider asking if they would like to answer questions or whether they’re available to take the patient’s call. Because the process is seamless patients don’t know they’re talking to a third party, and agents can see when the messages to doctors are received, read and when they’ve replied to the patient.
Benefits of Call Center Software
First and foremost, patients have better experiences, which leads to improved patient retention and increased loyalty. You can’t measure those things in money. What you can measure in dollars and cents is the other benefits, such as a reduction cancellation and lost patients; you can also optimize your revenue and cash flow by the improved patient registration process and billing information; and you can even rest easy knowing the software is helping to ensure compliance with prescriptions, and operating policies and procedures.
Some medical call center software even provides patients with access to immediate help by accessing a nurse triage call center. Through this means nurses will access the level of care needed, offer advice, and even give directions to the site that best fits the situation.