What is a medical answering service?

A medical answering service manages all incoming calls to your medical practice, ensuring high-quality patient care and enhancing your clinic’s reputation.

Different sectors of the medical industry, like pediatricians, pharmacies, medical clinics, physicians, hospitals, and residential care services such as hospice, can benefit from these services.

Things to look for in a medical answering service:

Physicians have long relied on medical answering services to offer after-hours support to their patients, more vital now than ever due to the rapidly evolving healthcare field.

A medical answering service understands the specific needs of physicians and their practices. When evaluating vendors for your medical office’s telephone answering service, consider these key features:

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, has been around for over two decades. However, some healthcare professionals still underestimate its importance.

HIPAA addresses various aspects relevant to physicians, their practices, and patient care. In medical answering services, protecting protected health information (PHI) is paramount.
Medical practices and their service providers must ensure the protection of PHI.

Seek a medical answering service with a nurse triage feature. While answering services don’t offer triage directly, find a provider that efficiently transfers essential information to your telephone triage provider.

Choose an answering service that schedules appointments in addition to basic support services like call screening, message taking, and transferring calls for medical advice to a nurse triage service.

While after-hours coverage is a primary function, it’s advantageous to select a provider offering 24/7 support. Even if unused during office hours, it’s reassuring to have it available when needed.

Effective management and updates to on-call duties are essential. Communicating schedules over the phone leads to communication issues and delays, so choose a service with manual schedule updates.

Companies working on medical answering services:

CMS is a respected leader in 24-hour medical phone answering services. Founded in 1967, CMS boasts over 50 years of experience, serving simple single-provider offices to complex multispecialty healthcare organizations.
With a focus on communication needs worldwide, CMS is an award-winning call center committed to excellent customer service.

Sound Telecom provides innovative solutions to improve customer service and business growth. Established in 1986, Sound Telecom offers comprehensive communications and call center programs.
Their services extend to glass repair entrepreneurs and dispatch support, alongside medical clinics. Despite having one location in Spokane, Washington, they employ agents to manage call volumes effectively.

VoiceNation is a premier live answering service, employing highly qualified USA-based operators to manage their award-winning software. Initially a virtual PBX company founded in 2002, they expanded into live answering in 2009.

Call 4 Health offers telehealth, nurse triage, and appointment scheduling services for the healthcare industry. They provide HIPAA-compliant medical answering services, including after-hours support.
Their range of remote services is ideal for practices seeking alternatives to traditional call and receptionist support, incorporating nurse triage and telemedicine solutions.

SimboConnect offers AI-driven medical answering services, capable of handling calls, prioritizing patient inquiries, and escalating them to office staff as needed. Fully HIPAA compliant, it’s available around the clock.

American Health Connection, a comprehensive outsourced healthcare call center, provides adaptable services to streamline patient engagement efforts, enhancing satisfaction and operational efficiency for facilities.
Their Patient Communication Specialists assist with scheduling and routing calls 24/7, all year round.

Patients seek efficient communication with physicians as the medical field evolves swiftly. A medical answering service facilitates effective touchpoints, enhancing the patient-provider relationship and practice operations.

MAP Communications offers 24/7/365 professional live phone answering services to diverse businesses, including medical providers. Their well-trained receptionists handle complex calls in various industries.

Signius Communications provides HIPAA-compliant, 24/7 answering services for hospitals, clinics, and dental offices, operating 12 facilities across the US as an entirely American-based service provider.

Access Point ensures that medical contact centers never miss a call, helping businesses nationwide. They offer complete HIPAA compliance, comprehensive reporting, and dedicated client managers.