The DRS Answer

What does a doctor with a growing dental practice look for?

Obviously a friendly, competent, and professional call center that will assist him/her 24 x 7 x 365.

Like any other doctor, a dentist too requires patient call management services.

They need someone to answer incoming calls to maintain the continuity between their clinics and patients.

As one Maryland based dentist rightly pointed out, “I need assistance to schedule or reschedule appointments round the clock. Moreover, I also require help to remind patients of their upcoming appointments”.

The dentist is right on the mark. Doctors know that losing even one patient a month can mean hundreds of dollars of lost revenue per year.

Here are a few things a good dental office answering service offers.

Proper intake procedures

It is important that the call agent must garner patients’

information and also answer questions prior to their visit.

These can include:

  • Insurance and referral details

  • Answering billing and payment queries

  • A firsthand knowledge of the doctor’s specialty

Responding to emergencies

The quality of a doctor’s practice is often judged by the way he/she handles emergencies.

Respectful service and reliability is absolutely essential while screening calls. Based on the information provided by the patient, the dental office answering service can even provide direct hotlines.

Appointment scheduling

The answering service by coordinating or interfacing with the doctor’s online calendar application can reschedule or cancel appointments. Moreover, by providing outbound call reminder service, the answering service vendor significantly contributes to the doctors’ efficiencies.

With a plethora of answering services available in the market, it is not easy to select an appropriate one.

“I choose one that is customizable”, says a dental practitioner. “Ideally, a service must offer several plans depending on your call volume”.

Many doctors with smaller practices go for an economy package with a pay-as-you-use plan.

HIPAA Compliance

In a medical practice, security is a feature that can never be compromised. A healthcare answering service must be fully HIPAA compliant so that they are able to provide an adequate level of security to the communications while handling patient data.

At the end of the day, a doctor’s patient must get a feeling that he/she cares.

As a first step, the answering service must make sure all after-hours calls are handled promptly and professionally.

Importantly, for dental professionals, the answering services must be able to customize the profession’s unique needs.