Phone Dialer Program

Your office is closed but still hard at work, thanks to your virtual medical receptionist

Thursday, January 12, 2012 by Susan Linton

Ever wish that there were more hours in a day so that you could finish your tasks at work? Wish you had more time to communicate with patients? Virtual medical receptionists can help your practice continue to serve your patients after your human staff has gone home for the day.

Handling inbound messages when your office is closed

A virtual medical receptionist can answer the phone when no one is available, including during lunch, breaks, holidays and after hours. The virtual receptionist answers all calls courteously and promptly. When a caller leaves a message, a new message notification is relayed immediately.

The call routing and immediate new message notification features are particularly useful after hours. The on call physician will have quick access to patient messages and can triage the call personally, rather than relying on the call center operator to make such important decisions. Because the patient leaves a message, the on call physician can listen to and repeat the message, think about a response and call back. The recorded message can be saved to the patient's electronic medical record for future reference.

Sending patients outbound messages when your office is closed

Rather than burdening your staff with a long list of calls to be made, your virtual medical receptionist can be put to use by making those routine calls for your practice. Even better, the virtual receptionist tracks attempts to reach patients and the outcome of each call.

Appointment reminders

It can take your staff hours a day to make appointment reminder calls. The staff member often reaches an answering machine and leaves a message with the date and time of the appointment. When a live person is reached, confirmation and cancellations can be captured. A virtual medical receptionist can perform these identical tasks, including allowing the patient to easily confirm or cancel the appointment. The virtual medical receptionist can also call in the evening, when the practice is closed and patients are most likely to be home.

Account balance notification

When it comes to collecting account balances from patients, it can take multiple calls to reach the patient. It's frustrating for your staff to make these calls. The automated phone dialer program can deliver the same message without burdening your staff. The patient will call your practice ready to discuss his/her account.

Lab test results notification

Patients are naturally anxious about their test results and they may call your office multiple times to get their results. You can minimize these types of calls by keeping patients better informed. Tell them when they can expect the results and that they can expect a call when the results are in. The virtual medical receptionist makes it easy to deliver lab test results to patients.

Health screenings and vaccines

If your practice has the capacity to handle additional appointments, your virtual medical receptionist can call patients and suggest that they come in for recommended health screenings and vaccines. Target your existing patients for these type of messages. Your patients will appreciate the extra step you take to keep them healthy.

For additional information, please visit Webley.

Understanding the basics of automated appointment reminders

Thursday, September 15, 2011 by Webley MD

Driven by economic necessity, many physicians are seeing more patients than ever. Some are extending their hours to accommodate more patients. "According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, more than one in three primary care doctors now sees patients after hours, a figure experts say has surged among all specialties in the past 12 to 18 months."

This increase in patient load puts a greater demand on office staff as well. Over 75% of physician's practices use reminder telephone calls from their staff to remind patients about their appointment time and date. Even the smallest practice can benefit from automating appointment reminder calls.

Reminder phone calls from a phone dialer program help maintain peak patient flow. An automated appointment reminder system uses a computer software program to dial customers at a preset time before their appointment. A pre-recorded message provides a details of the appointment, including date, time and patient name. Even messages that are left on answering machines serve as effective reminders. However, the most effective reminder (i.e., the one with the lowest probability of a no show) is one where you reach your patient and your patient confirms the appointment.

Traditional communication methods have grown less effective

Many traditional patient appointment reminder techniques are no longer as effective today because lifestyles and communication preferences have changed. It's easier to reach many people on their cell phone and email than at home with a phone call.

Calling patients to remind them of upcoming appointments may take up several hours of effort. Dialing each person by hand and speaking with them, or leaving a message takes away from patients that are in the office. Using an automated phone reminder service can help to reach patients without the effort of a staff member. And the phone dialer can make calls during the evening, when the practice is closed and patients are more likely to be home.

Automated phone reminders are more efficient and more cost effective. The cost of making an automated phone call is typically 80% less than mailing a postcard and 72% less than making a manual phone call.

The same call reminder can deliver other routine messages, such as account balance notifications, lab test results, recommended health screenings, and more.

Automated phone calls have proven effective at getting the patient's attention and may offer interactive features that make it convenient for the patient to respond. This also makes it extremely easy for practices to track responses.

Robocalls to patients are on the rise

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 by Susan Linton

A growing number of patients are now receiving robocalls, automated phone calls that use a phone dialer program to deliver a pre-recorded message. There are several reasons for the recent uptick, including:

Declining revenues. Many practices have seen a drop in patient visits, a rise in no show rates, and an increase in bad debt/unpaid services. In response, some have become proactive about increasing demand for services, e.g., looking for new revenue streams like health screenings, sending reminders about overdue exams, etc.

Increased ease of broadcast messaging. At the same time that revenues have been falling, many practices are digitizing patient health records. This transition from paper to electronic records makes it much easier for practices to use robocalls. For example, some practice management systems have integrated billing and appointment reminder features. It can be easy for practices that do not have a PMS with integrated appointment reminders or billing to quickly send broadcast messages. Typically the practice only needs to generate a file with patients to be called and transmit that file to the telephone reminder service. This process can take just a few minutes.

Effectiveness of robocalls. Many practices are finding that robocalls are effective, driving wider adoption. While some patients may find automated calls annoying, a practice can help increase acceptance of robocalls by informing patients of what to expect and choosing a quality reminder call service.

Robocalls are not all the same and they need not sound robotic. Some services use prerecorded messages read by professional voice talent and recorded in a studio setting. You can probably save money by using a service that uses text to speech technology but these calls will sound "more robotic" but this technology continues to improve.

For additional information, visit Webley.

Targeting at risk populations: Older Hispanics and vaccines

Thursday, May 5, 2011 by Susan Linton

A recent study of over 240,000 Medicare beneficiaries found that Hispanics 65 and older were less likely to receive recommended immunizations for both pneumococcal disease and influenza than non-Hispanic whites and the differences were greater in "linguistically isolated areas." In linguistically isolated areas, a high percentage of Hispanics preferentially spoke Spanish.

The authors of the study suggest that this disparity could be addressed by making an effort to educate the Hispanic population in high-risk areas about the importance of vaccines.

Automated patient notification systems make it easy to reach target populations with tailored messages. For example, such a phone dialer program could be used to call Hispanic households and play a pre-recorded message, in Spanish, regarding the importance of particular vaccines. It's also helpful to have educational materials, in Spanish, at your practice and on your practice website. And you may want to partner with your local public health department and local pharmacists.

* Haviland A, et al. "Immunization disparities by Hispanic ethnicity and language preference," Arch Intern Med 2011; 171: 158-165.

Why your practice should consider automated patient notifications

Thursday, March 17, 2011 by Webley MD

A typical medical practice is an extremely busy place. The staff spends much of their time on the phone with patients for various reasons and it's often a challenge to keep up with appointment reminder calls, lab test results notifications, billing/account balance calls, etc. Some of these calls are routine and therefore can be efficiently handled by a quality automated notification system at a cost and time savings for the practice. Automated patient reminder calls are becoming commonplace for multiple reasons, the key ones being cost and time savings and improved communications technology.

Today's high quality patient reminder calls are often indistinguishable from manual calls for the patient receiving the call. These calls can be more effective as well as they can be made during the evening and over the weekend, when the patient is more likely to be home. And they are easily tracked. The practice can be assured that the patient reminder calls will be made.

No practice can survive long with a constant stream of no show appointments. While your office might give out patient reminder cards, sometimes those don't help with patient no shows. This is especially true when the appointment is 3-6 months out; there are just too many chances that the appointment reminder card will be lost or get buried underneath something. Even with reminder cards, it's important to call the patient a day or two before the appointment.

A phone dialer program can send the patient a personalized reminder with the date and time of their appointment. It can also give the patient any other information they might need for their visit. And it may be able to automatically capture the patient's response, including appointment confirmations and appointment cancellations. The same program may be able to help with other types of notifications as well, including account balance notifications, lab test results notifications, immunizations and more.

An automated reminder service is easy, affordable and best of all, allows you to communicate more effectively with your patients so that they receive timely reminders.

Automating your appointment reminders is as easy as 1-2-3

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 by Webley MD

The typical medical practice is extremely inefficient when it comes to reminding patients of upcoming appointments. Using the front office staff to make reminder calls is expensive and not the most effective way to make reminder calls. Calls are limited to office hours and many times the staff member reaches an answering machine. There will be days when the reminder calls are overlooked or the staff simply doesn't have time to make the calls.

Using an automated appointment reminders system is a powerful way to improve the performance and efficiency of appointment reminders. While a list of appointment reminder calls would take your receptionist hours to complete, telephone dialer software calls the list in minutes.

It's difficult for a practice to understand the impact of automated reminders without signing up for an appointment reminders service. It's also difficult for practices to judge which automated appointment reminder services are easy to learn and use.

We'll use Webley MD's automated appointment reminders service as an example of how easy an automated appointment reminder system can be to use.

Step 1: Configuration

Some phone dialer vendors require you to install software on your office computers and possibly buy equipment. Webley MD Reminders is a software on demand service and it's accessible by any computer that is connected to the Internet. There is no software installation step. However, the service is customizable to the practice's needs, so step 1 involves determining the needs of the practice and configuring the service to meet those needs. Some options include capturing appointment confirmations, sending email and voice reminders, and offering reminders in other languages. The only technical know-how needed is the know-how every practice already possesses.

Step 2: Send Appointment Information

Practices don't have to adjust a wide range of settings in order for appointment reminders to go out. All that's needed is the patient appointment information. Once the appointment information is received, the service automatically generates personalized appointment reminders.

Step 3: Make calls

It will take just a few minutes for the automated appointment reminder service to make all the appointment reminder calls and send out email reminders. The system is able to track the outcome of each attempt to reach a patient and it records the outcome. Practices can easily monitor the results of each day's campaigns by viewing detailed reports.

Steps 2 and 3 are repeated every day. It's as easy as that.

Low rate of whooping cough vaccinations endangers U.S. population

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 by Susan Linton

In light of recent outbreaks of whooping cough (also known as pertussis), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults receive the whooping cough vaccine. Adult vaccinations protect the adults who receive them but they also reduce the chances of passing whooping cough to those most at risk, infants. Whooping cough can be life-threatening to infants.

The CDC says the best protection is to get the tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine. Tdap was first introduced in 2005. It's estimated that in 2008, only 5.9% of U.S. adults received the Tdap vaccine.

Unfortunately, many practices are unable to contact their patients quickly and economically. And many adults are likely unaware of the importance of getting the Tdap vaccine. Calling each adult patient to explain the need for the vaccine is unrealistic. Postcards are expensive and not all that effective.

Broadcast voice messaging technology allows practices to quickly and effectively reach any number of patients, for just a few cents per call. Because the telephone dialer program does most of the work, using this technology helps the front desk accomplish more in less time. Phone reminder software can be used for a variety of patient messages, including appointment reminders, account balance notifications, lab test results, and more.

The virtual medical receptionist that calls your patients for you

Thursday, October 28, 2010 by Susan Linton

Busy practices may find that they simply don't have enough time to keep on top of important patient communications. A virtual medical receptionist is designed to alleviate this situation and improve patient-practice communication. Rather than burdening your staff with a long list of calls to be made, your virtual medical receptionist can be put to use by making those routine calls for your practice. Even better, the virtual receptionist tracks attempts to reach patients and the outcome of each call.

Appointment reminders
Most appointment reminder calls are routine. The caller often reaches an answering machine and leaves a message with the date and time of the appointment. When a live person is reached, confirmation and cancellations can be captured. A virtual medical receptionist can perform these identical tasks, including allowing the patient to confirm or cancel the appointment. The virtual medical receptionist can also call in the evening, when the practice is closed and patients are most likely to be home.

Account balance notification
Are mailed payment due reminders not working for your practice? When it comes to collecting account balances from patient

s, it can take multiple calls to reach the patient. It's frustrating for your staff to make these calls. The automated phone dialer program can deliver the same message without burdening your staff.

Lab test results notification
Patients are naturally anxious about their test results and they may call your office multiple times to get their results. You can minimize these types of calls by keeping patients better informed. Tell them when they can expect the results and that they can expect a call when the results are in. The virtual medical receptionist makes it easy to deliver lab test results to patients.

Health screenings and vaccines
If your practice has the capacity to handle additional appointments, your virtual medical receptionist can call patients and suggest that they come in for recommended health screenings and vaccines. Target your existing patients for these type of messages. Your patients will appreciate the extra step you take to keep them healthy.

How automation puts you back in control of your practice

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 by Webley MD

Every practice has hectic days when the staff just can't get everything done. Those are the days when the staff leaves stressed out or even feeling guilty that there wasn't enough time for them to do everything, like make all of those appointment reminder calls. Your appointment reminder calls are too important to be overlooked.

With an automated appointment reminder service, you can ensure that your appointment reminders get done every day, on time, and without fail. With a phone dialer program, a computer not only dials the phone number, but it gives the message to the patient as well. This highly reliable service can send personalized voice and email messages and track patient responses. Clear, professional sounding voice messages are delivered every single time. Or you can also send email reminders with ease. By taking over this routine task for your staff, they'll have time for other important tasks, like assisting patients.

With reliable appointment reminders going out to your patients, you'll know you're doing what you can to control your no show rates and bring your patients in.

Want even more control? An automated answering service can replace your live answering service and still offer advanced call management features such as call routing, call screening and new message notification. With an automated medical answering service, you can manage your own on-call status without waiting for the call center to make those changes. You can check your messages whenever you want to, rather than wait for someone to send you the message.

For more information, visit Webley.

"Hire" a virtual receptionist for a helping hand around the office

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 by Webley MD

For your medical office to run smoothly, it takes a lot of hard work, organization, and multi-tasking from some very talented people. Yet no matter how your office staff excels at their jobs, they could probably still use some extra help.

The solution is to "hire" a virtual office receptionist, a on-demand software application that simplifies your office routines and saves you money every day. She's not Rosie from The Jetsons, so she can't serve coffee, but she can help with the tasks that need the most labor and require unusual working hours: appointment reminder calls and the after hours call coverage.

Here are three ways that a virtual office receptionist can benefit your practice:

1. She takes over time-consuming appointment reminders

Your receptionist probably spends countless hours on the phone making routine phone calls. The virtual office receptionist is not just an automatic phone dialer, she leaves messages and tracks responses too. Plus, she can email patients. Snazzy, eh?

2. She takes care of patients after hours

Providing after hours care for your patients can be stressful. You don't have the money to hire a second receptionist, your on-call physicians can't take all the calls, and the call center that you hired just isn't cutting it. Your virtual office receptionist will answer phones after hours with a cordial greeting, then direct your patients to the service that they need. If they need to reach the on-call physician, she'll notify the doctor on call right away.

3. She is the ultimate office receptionist

She never stops working and can make those reminder calls when your office is closed and your patients are more likely to be home. She is always available to make your staff's jobs easier, and for a fraction of the cost that you would pay people to do the same work. Use or don't use her as you wish, she can be there for you whenever you want.

To “hire” your own virtual receptionist, please visit Webley online today.

How reminder technology works and how it can reduce no show rates

Monday, May 10, 2010 by Webley MD

For most medical practices, dealing with no-shows and late patients consumes a large portion of the time that office staff could otherwise spend on billing, coding, digitizing patient information, answering the phone, etc. Over 75% of physician's practices use reminder telephone calls to remind patients about their appointment time and date. High demand for medical care sometimes necessitates that less urgent appointments are scheduled weeks or months in advance -- enough time for appointment cards to be lost and previously wide-open schedules to become packed with events. Many practices have found that the longer the lead time between the time the appointment is made and the actual appointment, the higher the no show rate.

While the patient's side of the dilemma is understandable, for the practice, a missed appointment means a lost revenue opportunity. Reminder phone calls from a phone dialer program help maintain peak patient flow. An automated appointment reminder system uses a computer program to dial customers at a preset time before their appointment. A pre-recorded message provides a details of the appointment, including date, time and patient name. Even messages that are left on answering machines serve as effective reminders. One study found that leaving a reminder message on an answering machine was as effective as reaching a live person.*

Reminder call software can automatically draw information from appointment databases and customize each reminder message. The technology also works in a similar fashion to create custom email reminder messages. Few practices send appointment reminders via email though most people have email addresses that they use on a regular basis. Patients will likely appreciate email reminders from your practice and sending these reminders will help differentiate your practice from the competition.

* Haynes & Sweeney, The Effect of Telephone Appointment Reminder Calls on Outpatient Absenteeism in a Pulmonary Function Lab. Respir Care 2006;51(1):36–39.

Saving time on the phone and use the phone to make money for your practice

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 by Webley MD

When making appointment reminder calls, we estimate that a typical receptionist can place about 20 calls in 60 minutes. With all the rings, busy signals, and redials, it’s no wonder the process is so time-consuming. If the receptionist earns $15/hour, the practice spends 75 cents per reminder call. However, if the physician chooses an automated appointment reminder call service, the savings amounts to 50 cents per call, or an amount equal to two-thirds of the cost of a manual call.

Regardless of your receptionist’s actual salary and dialing speed, the savings add up quickly for practices of all sizes. Automated phone dialing software can dial a number in a fraction of the time it takes a human. And with an automated phone dialer program, your receptionist is not tied up with redialing, waiting for an answer, or being put on hold.

A good automated notifications service does all the medical appointment reminder and confirmation work for you. The program generates personalized appointment date and time announcements. Automated caller software improves tracking, as it records every call made and the results of each call, including whether a live person or answering machine was reached. And, this type of software captures and tracks patient responses and offers greater convenience to patients. To confirm or cancel an appointment, the patient only needs to push a button.

Automated phone dialer programs can be used for other types of notifications, including the availability of lab results and preventive health messages, such as flu shot reminders. With automated caller software, sending notifications to many patients takes very little time and patient/practice communication is improved. These notifications will generate greater income for your practice and improve patient satisfaction.