Dr. Sarah is a pediatrician who prides herself on delivering personalized attention to the families who visit her office. From the time she started her practice, she made a promise to herself that she would never get so busy that she couldn’t take the time to answer a patient’s question, or listen to a concern.

In fact, one of the main reasons Dr. Sarah became a pediatrician was because she’d spent many hours throughout her childhood in doctors’ offices due to a chronic childhood illness. She recalled the ringing phones, the full waiting rooms, the busyness, and long waits, and she didn’t want that to be her patients’ experience.

As her practice grew over the first few years, she continued to value this level of service and instructed her growing staff to go slow and stay present with each family that entrusted their children to her practice’s care. She even instructed her front office receptionists to not let any call go unanswered, if possible, and to return any unanswered call within an hour.

While her intentions were noble, Dr. Sarah began to realize they were not realistic. Yes, she and her nurses could be attentive to each young patient and the parents while they were in the exam rooms. However, the front desk receptionists couldn’t keep up with the incoming calls while also attending to the families in the waiting room. Besides answering calls, they also needed to check the patients in, update insurance information, answer questions, and manage paperwork.  

Dr. Sarah began to see the effects on the practice’s operations. She noticed an increase in no-show appointments, even among the most loyal families. When she called a couple of those families to see why they missed an appointment, she learned that they had called to reschedule but had been put on hold for too long. They hung up thinking they’d call back another time, and just hadn’t followed through with that yet.

One mother even asked Dr. Sarah if she thought her practice was becoming too busy to keep up with her usual client base, which made Dr. Sarah realize she needed to make a change.

Another pediatrician she’d gone through residency with told her that she’d hired a live answering service to manage her practice’s calls and that her patients were much happier because of it. When Dr. Sarah asked if the level of personal attention for her patients was compromised by a receptionist from an answering service managing the calls, her colleague told her that quite the opposite had been the case.

With the live answering service, all calls are answered promptly, even after hours, on weekends, and holidays. Current and prospective patients no longer have to wait on hold for long periods or call back, since they’re attended to by friendly call agents who’ve been trained to answer questions based on the practice’s policies and procedures. In fact, callers aren’t even aware they’re speaking with someone who’s not actually sitting in the front office of her practice.

An added benefit is that her in-house receptionists are now able to more fully attend to the families who walk in the door for appointments. “Contrary to what you think,” Dr. Sarah’s colleague told her, “a live answering service actually helps you deliver better personal attention for your patients, around the clock, 24/7.”

Dr. Sarah took her colleague’s advice and hired a live local service that specializes in medical call answering. She felt peace of mind knowing that the call agents were HIPAA certified and that they had her patients’ best interest and care in mind.

With a live answering service on her side, Dr. Sarah and her staff are once again happy to be delivering old-fashioned personalized patient care.

Voice Link of Columbus, Inc. was created specifically for doctors and physicians nearly 3 decades ago. Our founder, JoAnn Fussell, has a medical background and knew all too well how desperately doctors needed a quality live answering service when she started Voice Link.

Voice link offers nearly 30 years of experience in medical answering services and provides live answering services that exceed your expectations. Day or night, outsourcing your practice’s calls will ensure that your patients are attended to with compassionate attention, 24/7, 365 days a year. Request information online or call us at (800) 262-2799 for a free consultation.