Top Qualities Of An Effective Medical Receptionist
A study, published in the Journal of Medical Practice Management, suggests that 96 percent of patient complaints are the results of poor customer service whereas the remaining 4 percent is the outcome of misdiagnoses and poor quality of clinical care.
This boils down to the fact that you should take proper measures to boost the level of your customer service to make it reflect the glory of your brand. With the front-desk being an important part of your customer service team, you may want to make sure that you hire a medical receptionist who has certain inherent customer-service skills.
Here are some qualities that you should look for in your front-office executive:
- Multitasking: Medical receptionists are expected to be multitaskers. This translates into the fact that they should be good time managers as well. Medical receptionists are required to handle elaborate paperwork that relate to the patients’ medical history as well as their financial and personal information. Additionally, they have to handle phone calls throughout the day and schedule or cancel appointments while still being able to manage the time and energy to smile at each and every patient who walks in.
- Adaptability: Front-office employees at a medical clinic may have to deal with rapidly-changing patient emotions. They need to be patient enough to make the patients feel relaxed when they wait for their turns. They need to understand that they work in a stressed environment where patients are concerned with health issues and they may demonstrate behavior that may demand polite interventions. Sometimes, patients may express feelings of disappointment and a good medical receptionist will know how to control his/her own emotions and send out a message of reassurance to help patients calm down.
- Respect for Confidentiality: Medical receptionists should know that they have to safeguard the privacy of their patients at all cost. There are cases in which receptionists gained access to patients’ private medical information to blackmail them. A professional medical receptionist should ensure secure storage of private medical data in an appropriate manner and in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the medical service.
Sometimes, your in-house medical receptionist may find it quite difficult to bear the daily workload and you may consider hiring a medical answering service that will remain available on a 24/7 basis. Your answering service team can schedule appointments on your behalf, adhere to strict data privacy guidelines, and help you and your staff to focus on key work areas.