Nowadays, the operations in the healthcare sector are running at a fast pace. The medical industry is concerned about patient care. However, there are many administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, handling billing issues, answering insurance questions, and caring for a patient’s administrative needs. Most healthcare providers are overwhelmed with many administrative jobs.
Availing healthcare call centre services, specifically designed for medical practices can ease administration tasks in one of the best ways. The main strength or the key feature of a healthcare call centre is its service which has the ability to smooth out all the hassles and troubles of modern medical practices to enhance both the medical practice and patients’ satisfaction.
However, not all call centres are created equal, and locating the right partner requires knowing what distinguishing qualities make great providers stand out from the pack below are the five qualities to look for when seeking a healthcare call centre support partner:
5 Best Qualities to Look for in a Healthcare Call Center Partner
First and foremost, a great healthcare call centre requires tender, knowledgeable care from agents genuinely committed to helping patients often, challenges can arise when patients with legitimate health concerns present symptoms outside the scope of the provider’s established protocols.
Let’s understand in detail about features and qualities of a best healthcare call center.
1. Comprehensive Knowledge of Healthcare and Medical Terminology
The first and foremost deal-breaker when choosing a partner to help with healthcare call centre support is whether or not they have experience in the healthcare space. Healthcare is complicated, regulated, jargon-heavy, and contains a certain amount of ‘medicalese’ which requires an understanding from the provider. Using a call centre that doesn’t have experience in the space can lead to misinformation shared with a patient, a miscommunication over a prescription plan, or a botched time slot for a doctor’s appointment.
A good healthcare call centre would have trained staff in medical coding, insurance verification, medical terminologies, and even the software used in healthcare practice, namely EHR and PMS.
Why it Matters:
- Correct answers: if a patient on the other end of the phone queue has a billing question, or wishes to know if a particular treatment is covered by insurance, ‘adequate’ won’t do. If a caller centre agent lacks knowledge of the healthcare lexicon or the arcana of the billing system, incomplete answers may lead to frustrated patients, not to mention frustrated healthcare providers.
- Quicker Resolution: An agent who’s well-versed in the workings of a product can handle inquiries faster, reducing back-and-forth and resolving issues more efficiently. In turn, this results in a better experience for the patient.
2. HIPAA Compliance and Data Security
Of course, one of the huge basic principles of medicine is keeping a person’s medical information private. HIPAA is clear about rules for handling patient data, and a call centre will be held accountable for violating those rules – which would mean massive fines, lawsuits and tarnished reputation.
These include detailed tracking of how particular data has been accessed by whom, strong policies for data protection, and physical or automated methods to prevent individuals or pieces of equipment from transmitting private patient information outside of a given network. Make certain that your healthcare call centre support partner has systems to protect against security breaches in HIPAA terms and other applicable data security standards.
Why it Matters:
- Trust and Safety: Healthcare providers receive patient information that is sensitive in nature; call centres must maintain data confidentiality and not mishandle that information, or patients will go elsewhere to seek care.
- Regulatory Compliance: Violations of HIPAA carry penalties of between $100 and $50,000 per violation, depending on the severity of the violation. A healthcare call centre partner needs to make sure that they comply with all regulatory requirements to mitigate the risk for the provider.
3. 24/7 Availability and Multichannel Support
Given that healthcare operates around the clock, your call centre support partner must keep those same business hours. Whether it’s a question about a medication, scheduling a visit or follow-up call, or simply a question on how to pay a bill, your patients’ needs often arise after hours. In fact, having a healthcare call centre that operates 24×7 will ensure that your patients never have their questions or an appointment go unanswered.
Furthermore, a first-class call centre that offers healthcare support is equipped to support multiple channels. Today’s consumers embrace communication through varied channels such as email, live chat, text messaging, and mobile apps. They expect their physicians and facilities to offer the same. Being health conscious nowadays, I am always up to date about primary and major diseases. A top-notch healthcare call centre should offer multichannel support.
Why it Matters:
- Enhanced patient satisfaction: Allowing patients the option to reach support multiple ways – whether via telephone, email or live chat – demonstrates a dedication to accessibility and can result in stronger patient satisfaction and retention.
- Flexibility for Providers: Using multichannel support means that every patient demographic is covered, including patients who are more likely to click instead of call. For example, if a call centre can be accessed only via phone, younger patients or tech-savvy patients could be effectively lost to distant practice call centres or outsourced call centres.
4. Scalability and Customization
As your healthcare practice grows, so will the volume of patient questions and administrative needs. Your new healthcare call centre support partner should be scalable, and able to modify its headcount or services up or down based on your healthcare organisation’s needs. For example, a large hospital network might have a greater need for higher-touch support. Or maybe you prefer something more streamlined. And, perhaps most important, one call-centre solution does not fit all. If your patients have distinctive needs, and your healthcare organisation has highly specific processes and a unique vision, your call centre partner needs to be able to customise their approach.
Whether you need an appointment-scheduling partner after regular hours or someone to add capacity to a specific billing function where you had an exceptionally high number of enquiries last month, you need a call centre partner who is an extension of you. It needs to be wholeheartedly aligned with your brand principles, working within your protocols, and responding to the unique issues your organisation faces.
Why it Matters:
- Scalability: Whether your practice is growing or the provider is offering new services, it’s important, especially in the context of clinical patient care, to find a partner that can scale your business so that you don’t experience any disruption in patient care or administrative workflows.
- Tailored services: A call centre that offers scripting, workflows and service packages that you can customise to a finer degree of detail will serve the specific needs of your practice better than one that offers only generic solutions.
5. Strong Communication and Reporting Systems
Effective communication on all levels – key performance indicators, customer satisfaction, monthly patient numbers – are vital in successful partnerships and healthcare call centre support is no exception. Your call centre should be able to keep you informed of their performance, what patients think of them, and the outcome of conversations with your patients. This may come in the form of detailed reports or key performance indicators (KPIs) with metrics like average call handling time, resolution rates, etc.
Next to reporting, consider whether your call centre provides you with an open, transparent communication line with your staff: is there an issue that needs to be escalated for swift action? Have they noticed emerging trends in patients’ enquiries that need to be part of your larger service management? Good communication forms the bricks to solidify your partnership.
Why it Matters:
- Performance Tracking: Reporting regularly from the call centre will let you know if the centre is doing more towards helping patients be satisfied with their service, bringing down the wait times or helping with billings. The data collected will assist you in making decisions on the best way to optimise the venture.
- Coordination with Your Practice: Open communication between the call centre and your practice helps to align both teams, ensuring they are in step with the values of your practice and providing the best possible service to your patients.
Get A Best Call Center Services For Your Healthcare Practices
While choosing the right partner may seem like a daunting task, finding the right mix of compatibility and expertise in a healthcare call centre support partner can dramatically impact your practice’s success. Whether it is adherence to HIPAA regulations or the ability to provide uninterrupted 24/7 call center support to your patients via phone, email and live chat, the attributes you value in a partner will dictate how effectively your practice runs, and to what degree your patients are satisfied.
A niche healthcare call centre that can absorb needed data security as well provide knowledgeable staff and deliver a customized, scalable approach will help to alleviate these administrative burdens but also can improve patient care and satisfaction as the industry continues to change.
A focus on these top 5 qualities demonstrated knowledge of a holistic range of healthcare topics, HIPAA compliance, being available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, being scalable, and a great ability to communicate effectively with others – will ensure you find the right partner who can support your call centre when you need it most in order to grow your practice to the levels and success you desire and strive for.
