To put it bluntly, let me just start off by saying that being a medical doctor is not your typical 9-5 schedule. Especially when the patient in question has an emergency, they are least concerned about your availability or the time of the day/night. Remember those late-night calls that everyone despises? They always happen when you hate the most, like when you are trying to sleep or when it is the only time you are with your family for dinner.
But what guarantee is there that you will lose your patience and turn into a monster over the course of providing care to patients? A solution to your questions, all of them, the saviors of the medical world – physician answering services. The goal of these physician answering services is to improve your life, keep your patients pleased, and decrease the amount of time your night is interrupted. Let’s break it down.
The Midnight Call Dilemma
It’s 2 AM in the morning and I’m struggling with the decision to attend to the call my mobile is flashing. There is an anxious individual on the other side who explains a few symptoms and my mind is all over the place trying to remember why I signed up for this as I settle down to assist the patient.
But imagine if it was somebody else other than me who had to attend that call. A trained individual who has the necessary skills to speak to the patients as well as deal with the possible crises. This is where professional answering services come into the picture. They do more than just pick up the phone; they know how to get the job done.
The Art of Human Connection
They aren’t robotic device agents who attend your call and reply with scripted lines, rather students who have a deep understanding of the medical terms and the relation the patients and doctors share. If I were to call and explain that my temperature is at an all-time high and a person picks my call only to say ‘Press 1 for billing,’ it wouldn’t help. Instead, I would prefer a human who could calm me and assure that I’m being aided professionally.
This ties into the point I’m trying to make because answering services are about much more than just meshing relaying information. The chances of forming a bond of trust with the patients are further amplified if the telephone conversation is done by an answering service which operates through a kind voice.
Setting Boundaries: Preservation of Your Personal Time
Going through years of training in medical school and residency only to end up being some sort of a ‘24/7 switchboard’ is not something that you thought you signed up for, right? Late nights often become very blurred. True emergency situations require an accurate system of triaging calls and shifting the non-essential ones to answering services.
The ability to receive summary calls on what happened through the night instead of feasting on voice messages from a myriad of ‘I believe I have a hangnail’ to ‘I have a crisis around my finger’ is what saves time enough to avoid burnout.
The Provider’s Voice
Patients regularly complain how the issue of being in a waiting room seeing either static or hearing a repetitious voicemail is most infuriating for them. They need to be acknowledged even if the problem at hand is only slightly important. Such answering services help mitigate the problem for patients looking for excessive reassurance while physicians are in dire need of undisturbed sleep.
Patients with complex fears like being reprimanded for reaching out are relieved knowing such concerns are addressed through staff enabling patients. Equally, a patient that is calm is unlikely to scramble for the emergency room for small reasons.
The Bigger Picture: Patient Care That Never Stops
Answering services don’t substitute you. Rather, they augment your ability to respond to tasks that need care. They are the compromise of being always on a standby and leaving patients on their own during after hours. They make sure that medical practice does not fold up when the doctors leave the practice after attending to their patients.
They also especially emphasize to patients that their wellbeing is an important issue when the concern arises at the most unfortunate times. Patients who are satisfied with the after hours service experience are much more likely to remain with your services.
Final Thoughts
It is always better to take actions before the calamity strikes. Make sure to avoid burn-outs by getting help from professional answering services. This is the 21st century and we are all living a fast life. However, it is not very nice if we have to stop living the life that we fight so hard for at the end of the day. So, make use of the technology that is available to you because they were prepared to make your life easier. There is nothing unethical or wrong about it.
