Sending your patients customized reminders can help save your practice a lot of time. Not only do these reminders prompt better appointment attendance, but they also remind patients of the reason for the visit and about what they need to do beforehand, if necessary.
Many people forget about their appointments or cannot show up due to an important life issue cropping up. Ideally, they will let their doctor’s office know about their inability to show up. This would allow someone at the healthcare provider’s office to suggest an alternative date for the appointment as well as to slot in a different patient for that specific time. But when a patient forgets, it can cost time, money, and patient satisfaction. Customized reminders can help address these problems.
A customized reminder is a patient reminder with certain pertinent information. This information can include, amongst other things:
Sending customized reminders should be done either automatically or by a virtual assistant. This person, when making the appointment, can immediately set up a series of customized reminders that include text messages, emails, and even phone calls. These reminders can include all information specifically focused on a particular patient’s visit, instead of impersonal, 'canned' form messages.
Your virtual medical assistant from Cool Blue VA can do all this and so much more by using the latest technology that easily interacts with your practice’s data system.
A customized reminder may contain some of a patient’s private medical history. Many healthcare professionals worry that sending out this type of information may risk it falling into the wrong hands. If this happens their practice could stand in contravention of the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), which has very strict rules about the handling of a patient’s private information.
A medical virtual assistant from Cool Blue VA using can help with this. All our virtual assistants have HIPAA training and certification. They know how to deal with confidential information. Furthermore, by using safe, up-to-date technology, they help ensure that any messages sent reach only the people for whom they are intended.
In an in-house setting, you may often see more than one person send out messages to patients. Unfortunately, the more people with access to information, the greater the risk of confidential information getting leaked.
Sending out customized reminders has benefits for both your patients and your practice.
Besides reminding your patients of their appointment, tailor-made customized reminders can include all the essential details about a specific patient’s consultation. This helps patients arrive at your practice fully prepared.
On the other hand, a patient may choose to reschedule their appointment if given the option due to changes in their circumstances. The person in charge of appointment setting and sending out customized reminders can easily communicate with a patient to make suitable arrangements.
By sending out customized reminders, you may experience a vast reduction in no-shows and last-minute cancellations. This is due to the email, text, and voice reminders that allow your patients to cancel or reschedule appointments in a timely manner. This allows your virtual medical assistant to reduce empty calendar spaces during a healthcare practitioner’s day by slotting in patients on the waiting list. Your waiting list will shrink, and your practice will not have to prepare for a procedure that will no longer take place, if applicable.
Many people in the healthcare field believe that the best way of connecting with patients is through a telephone call. But this may only be true in certain instances, such as when the healthcare provider calls a patient to discuss their test results, for example. Here, the patient will expect a call.
However, for other contacts, many people cannot take a phone call during regular business hours. Due to work commitments, they may either miss or ignore a call. This is especially the case with unknown numbers.
Pre-determined customized reminders circumvent this scenario. A patient can pay attention to them whenever they are able. Your patients thus receive the message but at a time suitable for them.
Having various in-house staff members take time out of their workday to phone each patient and remind them of pending appointments wastes time and resources. These people could have better spent their time focused on other, much more important tasks.
One dedicated person formulating and sending out timed customized reminders frees up in-house staff to concentrate their efforts elsewhere. Also, because only one person handles this important task, and because the messages are automated, you reduce the risk of incorrect information getting sent out while knowing that the messages are sent out at a set series of predetermined times.
Hiring a virtual medical assistant using a state-of-the-art program that easily integrates with your healthcare practice’s current software can help promote patient confidentiality. The more people working with someone’s confidential information, the greater your risk of information leaks.
While not all virtual assistants are familiar with HIPAA, all the virtual assistants at Cool Blue VA have HIPAA training. They know how to deal with your practice’s confidential information. They have also all gone through a strong vetting process.
Cool Blue VA is in the unique position of being able to offer healthcare practices a wide range of virtual assistant services. These include sending customized reminders. Most of our virtual assistants, if not all, have some type of medical background. These well-trained individuals can handle many of the wide range of tasks needed in a healthcare environment.
Our virtual medical assistants are well-versed in various aspects of appointment setting, confirmations, and the sending of well-tailored customized reminders. What is more, they can reschedule appointments and add someone from your waiting list in the event of a cancellation. In other words, they can accomplish many tasks that usually take up a lot of time in an in-house practice setting.
To find out more about hiring a virtual medical assistant who can help with customized reminders, or if you would like to know more about the virtual assistant services we offer, contact Cool Blue VA at 714-695-8000 today. We will help you find the perfect virtual assistant for your needs.
