Why small practices should outsource their medical receptionist service

Topics covered:

• Improving practice cost efficiencies
• Focusing on elevating patient care
• Leveraging technology to avoid errors
• Adopting customized solutions

As a small medical practice, you have to monitor your cash flow closely. You don’t have the steady stream of patients that some of the larger clinics have – yet you still have similar overhead expenses.

Reducing costs is always at the top of your mind. However, you want to ensure you do it in a way that doesn’t impact patient care negatively.

That’s where outsourcing your medical receptionist service can be super helpful. Besides not having the budget for a full-time, in-house office staff, you may not even have the need. After all, some days are busy, and others are not.

Below, we’ve outlined five of the biggest benefits a small practice like your own can reap from outsourcing your medical receptionist service.

1. Save money

Let’s start with the big one: outsourcing your medical receptionist service helps your bottom line. The cost savings alone are simply enough of a draw for a small medical practice to transition to outsourcing its administration!

Finding ways to reduce overhead costs is essential in all medical practices, but even more so in smaller ones. Small clinics have fewer patients to generate revenue from, yet the overhead expenses are still costly.

Simply put, some clinics lack a consistent patient load to justify paying for a full-time, in-house medical receptionist – especially on slow clinic days.

Besides their actual salary costs, there are substantial costs associated with an in-house medical receptionist’s

• Taxes, vacation time, sick days, benefits, and retirement savings
• Overtime costs
• Office equipment and supplies
• Technology and accessibility requirements

However, outsourcing your medical receptionist service saves you more money than just salary costs. There’s also a reduction in your clinic’s overhead expenses (utilities, office space rent, insurance, and legal fees). You no longer need a large front office space and can use this space more effectively for patient management.

When you select a highly trained medical receptionist service, you’re saving substantial time, too.

Hiring and training can take hours. But when you outsource admin-related duties to a team of experienced administrators, they can hit the ground running.

With the savings from outsourcing, you can improve patient services, research, and amenities to enhance patient care.

To get a head start and compare how much you can save by hiring a receptionist service, you can view the range of plans we have on offer.

2. Improve patient care

You became a doctor to help patients – not spend time completing paperwork.

Yet, for countless physicians, an average of 8.7 hours per week (16.6 percent of working hours) is spent doing administrative tasks. The worst part? Thirty-eight percent of doctors’ administrative tasks are work someone else could have completed or eliminated.

Freeing up time in your schedule by outsourcing administration leaves you with extra availability to provide patient care. You can spend more time educating patients about their conditions, researching medical treatment options, and responding to patient inquiries.

You’re also less stressed and anxious about managing your workload. Concentrating on what you do best – providing quality care – helps improve patient satisfaction.

With the help of a virtual receptionist, you can also extend your office hours – without actually being on-site yourself. A medical receptionist service that provides an after-hours call answer service ensures your patients always reach a live person, no matter the day or time. This type of care is beneficial when patients have more urgent healthcare inquiries or non-traditional work schedules.

Some virtual receptionists can even provide bilingual services! Greeting Spanish-speaking patients with professional care builds better relationships and reduces miscommunications between patients and providers.

In addition, you can offer care to more patients when you build a reputation as an inclusive, bilingual healthcare practice.

3. Increase efficiencies

Administrative tasks completed solely by a medical receptionist (rather than other medical staff) increase office productivity. Wondering how?

A medical receptionist’s job is contacting patients, scheduling appointments, and completing paperwork – not your nurse’s or medical assistant’s. A virtual medical receptionist knows precisely how you want your clinic to operate and even uses customized call scripts when speaking with your patients. Your clinic will receive messages instantly delivered in real-time via an app, email, or SMS.

Receptionists have years of education and training to complement their administrative skillset, leading to better patient flow and efficiency in your practice. And when you outsource to a medical receptionist service that uses automated systems, even more efficiencies can occur. Patients with busy schedules can

• Book their own appointments via a self-scheduling tool,
• Use a 24/7 live chat service that provides instant, convenient communication,
• Enjoy a streamlined patient intake process. 

4. Reduce errors

Smaller physician practices that cannot afford a large medical office staff must complete tasks outside their expertise.

For example, if no medical receptionist can answer the phone or greet patients, your nurse or medical assistant may have to. Since they‘re doing these tasks at the same time they’re juggling their own work, it can quickly cause inefficiencies.

This creates a disruptive patient experience, and mistakes can easily occur. We all know that medical paperwork requires strong attention to detail. If your team accidentally enters incorrect information, billing errors or medical record confusion may happen.

Automating your admin systems with the help of a virtual assistant can also significantly reduce the opportunity for errors. Some of your workload – like scheduling appointments and maintaining patient files – can be automated to help lessen the chance of mistakes.

Protecting patient and practice information is critical. By outsourcing to a medical receptionist service with a HIPAA-compliant medical receptionist on staff, you can rest assured knowing the service takes data security seriously.

The bottom line about outsourcing your medical receptionist service

Taking calls and scheduling appointments is one of the most critical tasks in your medical office. These tasks help your practice stay organized and maintain a consistent cash flow when done well.

In small medical offices where budgets are tight, outsourcing these administrative tasks to a medical receptionist service can provide countless benefits, including

• Cost savings
• Better patient care experiences
• Improved efficiencies
• Fewer errors

Enjoy these benefits by learning more about WellReceived’s medical reception services.