Updated on April 7, 2024 by Jordan McGlone
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Hiring the right medical virtual receptionist requires understanding your operation needs and what an organization can offer. Using virtual medical receptionists has become increasingly popular. The industry for virtual medical receptionists is revolutionizing healthcare and engagement to date.
The medical virtual receptionist market is poised to reach 3990.8 million by 2028, with a very rapid growth rate of 27.9%. It’s no wonder this solution offers more flexibility while providing lower overhead costs.
Just like any other hiring task, you need to understand what you need and how you will achieve these with the help of a virtual assistant. Considering these, you can find a third-party organization offering multiple solutions simultaneously.
Find out the critical steps to take when hiring a medical virtual receptionist and the critical factors you should look into when hiring.
Key Takeaways
1. A medical virtual receptionist acts as a virtual assistant to healthcare providers and takes on the role of administrative worker.
2. Hiring medical virtual receptionists involves thorough research of options, listing the needed operations, verifying HIPAA compliance, and determining integration capabilities.
3. PatientCalls offers HIPAA-compliant medical answering services for healthcare providers. Our team specializes in working in the healthcare industry.
What Is a Medical Virtual Receptionist?
A medical virtual receptionist is a remote healthcare assistant with the same features as an in-house receptionist. A virtual receptionist is often associated with third-party services and aims to help healthcare providers bear administrative loads.
Medical virtual receptionists are virtual assistants with common knowledge about healthcare facilities’ services to provide and handle patient information. Some of the typical jobs that a virtual receptionist provides include the following:
- Appointment scheduling and confirmations
- Answer incoming calls
- Insurance verification
- Gathering personal health information
- Call handling
- Answering patient inquiries
- Prescription refill requests
- Bills and payments
Hiring a virtual medical receptionist is a form of medical outsourcing. Virtual medical assistants can use software applications to help them manage their tasks more efficiently. This service can help healthcare providers expand their services and streamline their operations faster.
Virtual receptionists offer an unprecedented amount of flexibility over in-house recruits. They can take on various jobs and assist with heavy workloads.
How to Hire a Medical Virtual Receptionist?
Hiring medical virtual assistants is almost similar to finding an in-house assistant. The big difference is that a virtual assistant requires knowledge about leveraging technology and creating a seamless transition of duties through remote work.
Your hiring process must adapt accordingly to this type of setup. As such, use the following steps on how to hire a virtual medical receptionist properly:
Identify your requirements
Like any other recruitment process, you need to know what you seek. Which services do you need help with? List your requirements and ideal skill set to make the recruitment process faster.
Research about options
There are several virtual assistant services available in the market. You need someone who specializes in helping a healthcare office and has extensive knowledge of regulations like HIPAA. While other services can help you with administrative tasks, it helps that the virtual assistant you get has background or at least surface knowledge of what your organization does.
Request for credentials and referrals
Contact colleagues, fellow healthcare professionals, and industry networks for recommendations on reputable virtual receptionist providers. Once you have candidates, whether individuals or entire service organizations, you can ask for credentials or read through testimonials to verify their credibility.
Interview candidates
When using third-party services, it is important to know the extent of services the organization can provide. Typically, you would want an organization that can handle a wider range of services. Set up a meeting with their representative to understand their services better.
Evaluate integration capabilities and technological proficiency
Virtual assistants heavily rely on technology. Most third-party services accommodate integration with software applications. This is an edge that they have over hiring an individual. Most of the time, you can get application access along with their services. The more integration capabilities they have, the better.
Determine the level of understanding of security and compliance
Verify that the virtual receptionist solution complies with healthcare industry regulations like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). Data security and patient privacy should be prioritized to safeguard sensitive information.
Pilot implementation
After selecting a service provider, consider allotting a pilot program wherein you will measure the efficiency and benefits of bringing their services into your operations. This step will allow you to understand better if the third-party medical services are able to provide your needs.
Monitor performance
Set up measurable goals that will help you assess the performance of a third-party virtual assistant. This can help you identify key areas for improvement.
When choosing a virtual medical assistant, it would be more beneficial if they have a clear background of your services. PatientCalls specializes in providing third-party medical answering services. On top of that, our company is fully HIPAA compliant.
Our team of expert customer service assistants can help you take care of initial patient screening, appointment scheduling, insurance claims processing, and a whole lot more administrative tasks.
What Factors Should You Consider When Hiring a Virtual Medical Receptionist?
Virtual assistant organizations offer a wide range of specializations. You need one that is tailor-fit for the healthcare industry and can create a seamless transition of your in-house reception services to remote work.
In addition to choosing based on their specialization, there are other factors that you must consider.
We’ve listed some of the most critical factors that you must look out for when hiring a virtual medical receptionist:
- Functionality and features. First, check the list of services that an individual applicant or a service organization offers. This will help you determine which offers more services that fit your requirements.
- Flexibility. One point of using a virtual medical assistant is to have more flexible use of time. That is, virtual assistants must be able to answer calls during after hours to accommodate patients at all times.
- Integration with existing systems. Ensure that the virtual receptionist integrates smoothly with your electronic health record (EHR) system, practice management software, appointment scheduling tools, and other essential platforms. Seamless integration streamlines workflows minimizes data entry errors, and enhances efficiency.
- Compliance and security levels. Since the receptionist will be handling sensitive information, the level of security is critical. Seek proof of compliance and require a detailed layout of how the organization intends to protect patient health information.
- Customer service proficiency. A good virtual medical assistant has perfect communication skills. This skill is required for talking with patients who may be in distress. This is also essential when addressing disputes over bills or insurance claims. Receptionists must be able to de-escalate heated situations effectively.
- Proficiency in handling medical-related tasks. The receptionist must at least be able to understand basic knowledge and terminologies when it comes to dealing with patients and their information. This will help your team seamlessly circulate information while reducing potential errors. This will also help you ensure that the receptionist knows how to follow healthcare regulations.
These are just some key factors you need to consider when hiring a medical virtual receptionist. Having these skillsets and features can help ensure error and hassle-free transitions. These can also allow healthcare providers to focus on their work while handing administrative tasks to third-party services.
Why Should You Hire a Medical Virtual Receptionist?
Hiring a medical virtual receptionist opens more possibilities for your healthcare institution. It can help improve efficiency, productivity, patient experience, and customer confidence.
Virtual receptionists offer more flexibility, allowing your organization to accommodate patients who want to schedule an appointment during off-hours. It ensures that patients can access services and information conveniently, leading to greater satisfaction and accessibility.
Virtual medical receptionist services also offer greater versatility as a remote worker can take on more diverse jobs if needed. You can also scale their jobs up or down as needed.
In addition, you can also optimize the use of technological integration, as virtual medical receptionists are often built to accommodate such advancements.
With a virtual receptionist handling routine administrative tasks, like answering phone calls or documenting patient information, staff members can focus on their core responsibilities, such as providing patient care, conducting administrative duties that require human judgment, and engaging in professional development. This leads to increased productivity and job satisfaction among staff members.
Get the Best Medical Virtual Receptionist Service from PatientCalls
PatientCalls specializes in providing third-party medical answering services. For healthcare organizations looking to expand their operations without the enormous overhead cost and much-needed training sessions, PatientCalls is here for you.
Our team of expert customer service agents is trained to handle medical-related calls and document patient issues for healthcare professionals while handling information confidentially.
Expand your operations and integrate with effective and efficient advanced solutions with the help of PatientCalls. We can provide you with the expertise and skills needed to transition your front-line operations seamlessly into our virtual medical answering service.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
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