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How do you rate with your patients on the phone? Can a caller schedule an appointment easily? Are doctors readily accessible by phone? Are emergency calls processed quickly? Are other calls returned in a timely fashion? If you haven't evaluated your practice's phone service recently, it may be time you did. Patients tend to judge the efficiency of a practice by how well its phones are managed. Patients who have difficulty making appointments, contacting a doctor or obtaining care for an urgent problem are more likely to change practices. It may be disappointing, but “what keeps patients coming back to the same practice is the quality of service, not the quality of care,” says Susan Keane Baker, a practice management consultant and author of Managing Patient Expectations: The Art of Finding and Keeping Loyal Patients. KEY POINTS:
Recently, we asked members of FPM's Board of Editors and Panel of Consultants to share tips for handling patients' calls. Here are some of their best insights. 1. Test your current systemGood telephone management begins with a needs assessment. Before you can set performance standards and implement protocols, you must understand the demands on your system. How many calls does your office receive each day? What are the peak hours for incoming calls? How many calls are you losing because lines are tied up? If you have relatively sophisticated equipment, you may be able to program your telephone system to produce usage reports. If not, ask your phone company to conduct peak-load and busy-signal tests (also known as a “busy lamp” study). This information will help you determine how many published numbers and incoming and outgoing lines you need to process your practice's volume of calls. 2. Plan how to manage the flow of callsOnce you have a sense of your call volume, investigate ways to better manage specific types of calls. One option is to maintain different telephone numbers for calls from physicians and certain services, such as billing, insurance processing and prescription refills (see “Minimizing the hassles of prescription refills”). If you do maintain separate numbers for billing and insurance, include this information on your statements and in your practice's brochure and newsletter. Another option is to direct calls from patients with nonurgent messages for doctors into voice mail. If your staff is overwhelmed by a flood of calls at certain times of the day, encourage patients to contact your office during nonpeak hours. Print this time frame on appointment cards and other practice materials, including patient education handouts (e.g., “For nonurgent matters, we encourage you to call between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m., when we can give you faster service”). Also, dedicate one or more lines for outgoing calls to reduce the likelihood that patients calling in will get busy signals. Keep in mind, however, that adding lines and new phone numbers for certain services won't lead to more efficient patient communication if your switchboard hours are too limited. “Accessibility is key to promoting satisfied patients,” says Maxine Pollack, MA, president of MSP Associates, a practice management consulting firm in Pepper Pike, Ohio, and author of Manage It Right. “Keep the phone lines open when patients are able to call, such as during lunch time and before and after normal work hours.” Minimizing the hassles of prescription refillsMany practices have dedicated phone lines for prescription refill requests; some channel these calls directly from an automated attendant into voice mail. J. Landy Damsey, MBA, MHS, president of Damsey & Associates in Norfolk, Va., offers a different approach. “Educate patients to call the pharmacy, not the physician's office, regarding prescriptions,” he recommends. “Advise each pharmacy to fax all prescription requests to a special fax located at the nurses' station” (one used only for this purpose). Then, every hour or two, a nurse can talk with physicians between patient visits and obtain authorizations. According to Damsey, practices that send pharmacies a letter about their intention to handle prescriptions this way after a certain date (at least 30 days after the letter) have had an excellent response. “To further refine the process, provide the pharmacies with a turn-around form designed by the practice but initiated by the pharmacy,” advises Damsey. The pharmacy faxes the form to request a refill, and the nurse returns it to the pharmacy with approval, denial or other instructions from the physician. 3. Put yourself in the patient's shoesWith the help of several volunteers, check out how your patients' calls are handled. How efficient is the switchboard operator or receptionist in answering, screening and directing the calls of patients seeking appointments, requesting insurance information, needing referrals or demanding to speak to a doctor? Let staff know that you plan to test the system periodically by asking volunteers to make test calls, then meet with the staff after each test to discuss your findings. If you have an automated attendant, try calling it yourself. Listen carefully to its instructions. Press the buttons for the various options to find out how quickly patients get the information they need. Are the options sufficient — or overwhelming? How does the system handle emergencies? (See “Making your automated phone system user-friendly.”) If voice mail is among the system's options, test it. What type of greeting does a patient hear? Does the greeting include what to do if the caller has an emergency? Does the system allow time to record a lengthy message? Is the quality of the recording high enough to ensure that the caller's message can be understood? Finally, don't overlook your answering service. Does it handle calls professionally? Check to see how quickly and accurately the service relays information to the physician on call. Making your automated phone system user-friendly“I couldn't figure out what to do, so I hung up.” “I don't want to listen to a recording. Why can't I talk to a real person?” Do these patient observations sound familiar? To avoid these and other complaints about your automated attendant, take the following steps:
4. Set performance standards and implement protocols“It is extremely important for a staff member who receives a patient's call to sound like he or she is interested in the patient's concerns and to see that they are addressed,” says Robert Gillette, MD, a semi-retired family physician in Poland, Ohio. “It has been my experience that most patients are reasonable if they feel that the person they are talking with is genuinely trying to be helpful.” Pollack agrees: “The first person a caller comes in contact with can immediately set the tone for the practice.” So how do you convey a warm and caring atmosphere over the phone? Here are some suggestions:
Telephone etiquetteDo you want to make a good impression with patients calling your office? Then work with your staff to implement these tips:
5. Fine-tune your staff's phone skillsHaving well-trained personnel is the key to an effective and efficient phone operation. “It takes a different set of skills and knowledge to respond to a patient's medical needs (appointments, prescription refills, etc.) versus a patient's billing or insurance questions,” says J. Phillip Macon, president of J.P. Macon & Company in Jackson, Miss. Training opportunities are available in a variety of formats, from workbooks to consultant-led workshops in your office to audiocassette and videotape presentations. For example, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) offers a videotape titled Telephone Talk (for more information, contact MGMA's book division at 303-397-7888). 6. Be a good role modelEvaluating your current system, implementing protocols and improving basic phone skills go a long way toward cultivating a patient-friendly phone service. But, ultimately, your attitude about patient communication sets the tone for your staff. “I had the good fortune to grow up watching a physician father who saw most of his patients as friends, people he was happy to see and talk with,” says Gillette. “It still can be like that, the government and the managed care plans notwithstanding — and it should be.” When offering assistance to a patient by telephone medical assistants must?1) Hang up first. 2) Keep talking with the caller, even if the reason for the call has been handled. 3) Politely but firmly explain that the physician needs your assistance. 4) Explain to the caller that another patient needs your assistance.
Which of the following telephone greetings is acceptable for a medical office?Medical Skills and Services. How often should you check on a telephone patient who has been placed on hold?If you take the time to ask your caller to hold, be sure to listen to the response. After placing your caller on hold, check back periodically (between 30-45 seconds). Give them the option to continue to hold if it will take longer to find information OR offer to call them back.
How should you properly answer a telephone call in a medical office?Answering the Telephone Professionally
Proper etiquette suggests that medical office administrative assistants should identify the facility and then their own name when answering a call. Next, the medical office administrative assistant should identify the caller's name in order to refer back to it if needed.
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