Hospice and home healthcare workers deal with families in emotional crises and care for people in the last stages of their lives. They do various things, such as administering medications, educating family members, providing company, and documenting vital signs. Managing a home healthcare and hospice service has several challenges. It is of utmost importance that hospice and home healthcare workers are as resourced as possible. Hiring a medical office answering service can help boost the quality of patient services in many ways.
If you’re looking for a knowledgeable and compassionate answering service for hospice and home healthcare, you have come to the right place. We will discuss how a medical office answering service can help improve the quality of services you offer your patients. Keep reading to learn more.
Challenges Facing Hospice and Home Healthcare Workers
The hospice and home healthcare industry presents enormous challenges to all who work within it. Generally, running a home healthcare or hospice service is not a walk in the park. Here are some of the primary challenges in the industry.
Limited Resources
Hospice and home healthcare workers often face limited resources. This may include insufficient funding, equipment, and staff. While home care providers play a bigger role in offering essential services to patients, they cannot do it all independently. They need support from schedulers, physicians, medical supply providers, and nurses.
Supporting all employees can be challenging on a limited budget. Outsourcing a compassionate medical office answering service can help hospice and home healthcare providers save on office staff costs. They will not have to hire and train extra staff to handle calls.
Burnout
Hospice and home healthcare workers caring for patients and their families can become emotionally drained. Imagine one of your patients with a medical emergency is trying to reach you, but all your lines are busy. Not answering their calls at such times could mean the difference between life and death. No home healthcare worker will want their patients to go through such pain.
However, it is important that hospice employees and home healthcare workers are not overworked, as it can lead to burnout and compassion fatigue. Hiring a medical office answering service can help avoid this.
How a Medical Office Answering Service Can Help
One of the most stressful moments for any family is when they realize a loved one needs hospice care. During this period, concerns and questions will need to be addressed promptly and with competence. A medical office answering service can help clear up call backlogs and ensure patients are offered satisfactory services.
Here are additional ways a medical office answering service can help a hospice and home healthcare company.
Improved Patient and Family Experience
It is not easy for families to accept that their loved ones require around-clock care. Calls to a hospice or home healthcare facility are not easy either. Presenting a professional image helps to relieve or soothe the issues members of the family have regarding the extent of love they and their loved ones will get during their time of need.
A medical office answering service is not just a fancy answering machine. They hire individuals who are knowledgeable about the hospice and home healthcare services provided. These professionals can answer most questions with concern and sensitivity. They may also take the necessary steps to reach the hospice and home healthcare providers if they cannot handle some concerns.
A kind, knowledgeable, and compassionate medical office answering service can impart a sense of comfort to the relatives of the patient as well as confidence in the abilities of the home health care or hospice service. The hospice office will build its professional reputation because all calls will be answered professionally and promptly.
Increased Efficiency
If the hospice and home healthcare workers are busy attending phone calls, fewer people will be left to perform other tasks. Hiring a medical office answering service will decrease the workload since a professional answering service receptionist will be handling all phone calls. This way, the hospice and home healthcare providers will focus on fulfilling other responsibilities.
With the help of a medical office answering service, healthcare providers will be able to ensure they are meeting their clients’ medical needs. Since the workload will decrease, they will work more efficiently. Increased efficiency means increased productivity, boosting the bottom line of the hospice and home healthcare facility.
Better Communication
With the unpredictability of hospice and home healthcare, knowing when a client needs you can be difficult. In hospice care, medical emergencies often happen when least expected. With a 24/7 medical answering service, hospice and home healthcare providers will never have to worry about missing phone calls from patients or family members.
The answering service receptionists will be available to answer all phone calls during overflows or after hours. This will improve communication and keep clients and families connected. Medical office answering service employees are trained to handle calls from clients with efficiency. They can get to the point of the call while maintaining empathy for the caller.
Sometimes, the call may require quickly contacting a nurse or doctor. Hospice and home healthcare providers can work with answering services to determine when it is time to contact a healthcare provider.
Cost Savings
Additional full-time staffing can be quite the expense. You will need a bigger budget to employ and train receptionists to answer client calls. Hiring a medical office answering service can help hospices and home healthcare providers reduce administrative and operational expenses.
With an answering service, hospice and home healthcare offices will pay only for the service rather than the cost of employing staff to answer phone calls with a lot of idle time in between. This can enable them to allocate funds for other things, such as equipment upgrades and hiring more people to work with patient care.
Reduced Missed Appointments
A medical office answering service can help to reduce missed appointments. Since there is always someone on the phone to answer, patients and their families can manage appointments more efficiently.
The answering service will always be available to cancel, change, or make an appointment. Families in need of hospice and home healthcare services often need to make appointments at odd hours. Without a medical office answering service, patients and their families may be restricted from making appointments during office hours.
Technological Excellence
In every business, technology is advancing rapidly. While the top priority in the hospice and home healthcare industry is the patients, keeping up with technological advancements to offer them better services can be time-consuming and expensive.
With an answering service provider, hospice and home healthcare providers will not have to worry about keeping up with communication technology. The answering service or live receptionists should work with the latest technology in communications guaranteeing quality care. quick answers, and great communication for patients, their families, and the hospice workers.
Conclusion
A medical office answering service has many benefits to hospice and home healthcare providers. It enhances improved communication, efficiency, and patient and family experience. Besides, answering services help hospice offices to reduce missed appointments and save on costs.
When choosing a medical office answering service, you should look for customer reviews. Likewise, be sure to ask the company questions to find out whether they have experience working with hospice providers and if their operators are trained for medical settings. The answering service should also be HIPAA compliant.
If you want the first contact with your hospice to be a knowledgeable, kind, and compassionate person, consider partnering with a medical office answering service. Contact our team with any questions you may have about our services, and we’ll be happy to walk you through our qualifications and process.
