Once the must-have communication status symbol, pagers have given way to the technology of the smart phone. Yet the pager has hung around in the healthcare industry as a preferred, reliable communication tool for many a long time healthcare provider. With the advent of secure text messaging it is now time to ditch the pager.

If you’re in health care, you know about the importance of HIPAA, which mandates the safeguarding of personal health care information.   This requirement also applies to your medical answering service and the information they collect from your callers, including each time they send you a text message.

If you work within the health care industry, you already know the importance of protecting patient health information (PHI). A question we are regularly asked is, "How can I tell if I have a HIPAA compliant answering service?"

Healthcare seminars and classes are a great way to communicate instruction tailored to a specific interest niche. This is both an effective and efficient way to disseminate medical-related information.While you can announce a schedule, plan the curriculum, and prepare the space in hopes that someone shows up, this isn’t the most effective approach. What if no one attends? Then you’ve wasted time and resources.

Are you confident your medical answering service provider is equipped with the right technology to handle your patient calls? If not, it’s probably time to take a closer look at the call center you’re doing business with.

It's hard to run a business and still be available for customers' calls around the clock. Your phone is the front door to your business and first impressions count. Sending customers to voice mail when they call could be costing your business big time.  Having a live person answering your phone makes all the difference in the world to customer perception and satisfaction. What follows are the hidden costs of using voice mail.