In this day and age, a health care facility is a complicated thing with a lot of moving parts, from doctors to nurses to other health care professionals and admin staff. And, at the heart of all of that, tying everything together and making sure they stay connected and in sync, is a robust and comprehensive communication system.
It’s one of the most important things that makes the entire operation tick. After all, you need a way for patients to get in touch with healthcare professionals and vice versa, you need to facilitate communications between departments, and you need to market your healthcare products and devices to new customers, and you need a way to monitor all these things to make sure that everything is running smoothly. As the world grows bigger and more connected in the digital age, the goals of healthcare have changed to accommodate shifting priorities and expectations.
Health care isn’t just maintaining a hospital or clinic anymore. It’s also scheduling appointments between patients and doctors, staying in touch with people throughout their treatment, offering telemedicine to patients from far-off places, and so much more. For a lot of places, it’s just not enough to have a single reception desk handling all these things.
Having a dedicated call center for your healthcare facility has a lot of advantages, the main one being that you can streamline your communications and expand your network of customers and patients. You can have a specific team whose only task is to make and answer calls so that your doctors and nurses can be free to do more important responsibilities.
However, actually getting a call center up and running is no easy task. There’s a lot to think about, and it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, especially if you haven’t done it before. If you’re looking to get into this business, keep a cool head and don’t panic. CommPeak and our VoIP services are here to make the process of figuring everything out as easy and painless as possible. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re considering a call center for your healthcare facility:
Conceptualize Your Vision and Come Up With Concrete Goals
Every healthcare facility is different, faces unique challenges, and has different requirements. There are a multitude of ways to integrate a modern communication system into your operations, and knowing exactly what you want to do and what your goals are is a good first step.
Before anything else, ask yourself, what your plans are. Do you want to use your call center to help patients book appointments with their doctors, or will it have to give people a call when their diagnostic tests are ready? Something else? Maybe you want to dip your toes in marketing and promotions as well? Is SMS going to be integrated into your operations or is it going to be strictly calls? Is the system only meant to accommodate patients and customers or do you want to have internal communication baked into the VoIP services as well?
These are the questions you first need to ask yourself when setting up a call center for your healthcare facility. It can also help if you have specific goals for the short-term and the long-term. What do you want to see happen in a month’s time? Three? How about in six months? What about in 2-5 years?
But, of course, remember that at the end of the day, these are just guidelines to help you achieve success. It’s important to stay flexible and quick on your feet. Don’t be afraid to go off-script and take risks if an opportunity to innovate arises.
Get In Touch With CommPeak’s Experts and Customize Your Communication System
Now that you’ve figured out your goals and what you want to see happen, it’s time to really get things started. A lot of hospitals still have a legacy phone system consisting of analog tech and copper wires, but if you want to grow your operations, then that’s simply not gonna cut it.
VoIP or Voice over IP allows you to make calls over the Internet, making it a lot cheaper and more convenient than its traditional counterparts. All the processes happen online, so you no longer have to pay for hardware or keep IT professionals around to maintain them. You’ll also gain access to a lot more features that you just can’t find anywhere else.
First thing’s first, get in touch with a VoIP service provider like CommPeak and let their expert staff guide you through the process of setting you up with a healthcare communication system. Every situation is different, and your setup will be customized to your specific needs.
For example, if you’re planning on making a lot of outbound calls, then it’s a good idea to get an autodialer. It’ll help make things faster and more efficient. It can be configured to automatically call people back after a certain amount of time. You can also set up an auto attendant or use our special AI to directly connect patients with the right agent and reduce wait times.
SMS integrations are also available if you want an alternative way of contacting patients and clients. Some things, like appointment reminders and satisfaction survey links, are easier done through text after all.
And, if you’d like to have an international operation for your healthcare facility, then purchasing DID numbers will go a long way in establishing a local presence in other countries and making your business more trustworthy to your new clientele.
Train Your Staff and Develop Your Standard Operating Procedure
Hiring the right staff and giving them the training they need is essential, especially in the field of health care. There’s a lot to learn and many laws you have to comply with, so make sure you’re prepared to take that task on.
Remember that your staff will most likely encounter important and critical questions regarding human health. A lot of times, they’ll also be dealing with stressed, emotional, and anxious patients. That’s a lot of responsibility, so you need to make sure that your agents can handle it.
Come up with a comprehensive training plan and give your staff ample time to learn. You can also take advantage of the monitoring software that’s conveniently integrated into CommPeak’s products. Keep track of what your agents are doing and what tasks they’re accomplishing. You can even access call and message logs to get a really clear picture of how your agents are performing and interacting with patients.
Optimize Your Operations
Getting things up and running may take a lot of work, but it’s still just the beginning. You need to stay on top of things if you want your healthcare call center to truly take off.
Monitor your call metrics. Make sure that you aren’t getting too many dropped calls and that patients aren’t left on hold for too long. Learn to be flexible and adjust accordingly to give everyone the most optimal experience.
If the wait times are too long, consider hiring more staff to compensate. If you’re encountering a lot of issues with language barriers, then that’s a sign that you might need other language speakers on your team. For every issue you encounter, remember that it’s an opportunity for your operations to grow and improve.
You can also adjust staffing schedules to accommodate peak hours. Make sure that there’s always enough people to answer and make calls when it’s most needed.
And finally, look back on your goals. Based on your own measurement, did you achieve what you set out to accomplish for your healthcare facility or do adjustments need to be made? Running a business is always a work in progress, so make sure you’re always ready to adapt and figure out the best way forward.
Conclusion
Building an efficient healthcare communication system is no easy task, but you don’t have to do it alone. CommPeak is always going to be here to support and guide you through the entire process. And with our top-tier VoIP services and additions like the autodialer and CloudPBX, you’ll find that there’s no problem you can’t face head-on.