I would like to welcome you in exploring PatientCalls’ online resources. Our team understands the time-consuming task of searching for your new medical answering service provider, therefore, we ask to keep the following statement in mind during your vetting process.

PatientCalls separates itself from the competition by evolving away from the old stigma of “just being the answering service” and morphs into becoming a trusted HIPAA business associate and expert service provider to all covered entities due to three unique reasons.

First, and foremost, have you taken notice that on many occasions our answers and reactions in conversation are dependent upon our physical identification of the other person? Or notice any difference in our tone when conversing with someone face to face versus emailing or texting?

Virtual types of communicating, such as, SMSing, texting, and emailing have become a necessity within today’s business environment and studies have shown that communicating by these methods heightens our expectancy of rapid responses, beneficially enhances our time productivity, but consequently increases stress and aggression and decreases compassion between interacting parties.

PatientCalls acknowledges the necessity, as well as the pros and cons, of virtual communications and our team maintains a responsive, accurate, candid, and sincere demeanor at all times. This is imperative when considering these overlooked facts:

1. In most cases, we assume the responsibility of providing preliminary patient care by processing your patients’ calls 67% of each weekday and 100% on weekends.

2. Chosen time periods in which your organization utilizes PatientCalls creates a higher probability that we will handle a greater percentage of patient care emergencies than your front office.

Secondly; we educate by presenting simplistic and accurate methodologies that promote trust and confidence, both being prerequisites for solidifying potential business relationships. PatientCalls dilutes the complexity of HIPAA guidelines by presenting simple facts and solutions answering your immediate and general questions. For example, we discuss general HIPAA definitions, such as covered entities and business associates and provide a visual flow diagram illustrating the relationship between such entities as it pertains to securing electronic transmissions of patient information (ePHI). In addition, we create a graphical competitor’s checklist tool for auditing your current answering service provider and PatientCalls.

Lastly, PatientCalls develops and offers common sense HIPAA secure solutions that are cost-effective and logistically efficient. Due to the vast expansion of the smartphone and tablet, the security of patient information is paramount when considering more than 50% of all breaches are due to the theft or loss of storage devices. And because smartphones have been assimilated into the daily workplace, PatientCalls acted responsibly to secure patient information delivered to smartphones and tablets by developing and offering PatientNOTE, our free SMS solution. In addition, now that Google and Microsoft are committed to HIPAA compliance, our team took the initiative to integrate with Gmail, Office 365, and various other third-party HIPAA secure products, such as, OnPage and Tiger Text. PatientCalls is now able to offer the most secure solutions of any medical answering service provider serving as a valuable asset for any medical organization, private practice, hospital, hospice, homecare agency, visiting nurse, and various healthcare networks.

In reference to our HIPAA responsibility of mandating secure solutions, I would like to disclose an occurrence originating from our initial and internal HIPAA risk mitigation analysis. The legacy alphanumeric paging network is unequivocally considered un-secure due to lack of encryption and password protection in transmitting electronic information. PatientCalls immediately contacted those covered entities utilizing this antiquated technology to implement an alternative secure solution that was met with resistance. Unfortunately, some customers refused to shelve alphanumeric pagers, which presented PatientCalls with no option other than to forcibly terminate those customers from our service and to notify the covered entities of their possible breach points.

Hopefully, our resolve to terminate customer relationships based upon non-compliant actions promotes confidence for your organization in acknowledging PatientCalls’ integrity in maintaining our HIPAA compliance. And if you are currently utilizing legacy alphanumeric pagers, texting, and emailing, please be sure to audit your process as required by HIPAA regulations and feel free to contact the PatientCalls team if you need guidance.

In closing, PatientCalls takes the responsibility of becoming your HIPAA=compliant medical answering service and business associate very seriously. We will mitigate our collective risk and support your organization with the utmost care, quality, accuracy, and professionalism.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I am truly excited about our mutual opportunity to work together in the near future.

Best wishes in your quest of HIPAA compliance,

Sincerely,

Vince Mcglone

Vince McGlone
Director, PatientCalls

HIPAA Compliance Officer

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