Saying communication is vital to the medical field is like saying air is essential for breathing. Regardless of the ever-evolving pandemic situation worldwide, technology advancements alone have pushed the medical industry to explore new ways of meeting the higher expectations of both patients and staff.
Communication tools that provide ease of access and utilization are essential. So, how does a medical practice better handle days with high call volume?
While providers like 8x8, Talkdesk, and RingCentral offer varied features and pricing, all of their platforms give you updated communication tools accessible from anywhere there's an internet connection on any device.
Why Would a Medical Practice Need CCaaS?
In the medical field, your patients are your customers. But have you ever thought about how increased demand may be stretching your staff thin, only to frustrate patients? How do you give the best care experience without the best communications strategy in place?
Some organizations think that unified communications are primarily for businesses that have a customer service call center. That couldn't be further from reality. The truth is, if you regularly speak to patients (and let's face it, who in the medical field doesn't?), your practice can benefit from a contact center unified communications platform.
Medical professionals' unique work environment makes flexibility in their communication tools essential. Whether in the office, on the go, or working from multiple locations, a cloud-based contact center platform delivers functionality that helps increase patient satisfaction and boost staff efficiency while decreasing frustration and burnout.
How CCaaS Functionality Benefits Medical Practices
CCaaS platforms offer a multitude of features that address the pressing challenges facing today's healthcare providers. A contact center helps you cope with high call volume by allowing you to prioritize how specific contacts, such as inbound and outbound calls or patient portal inquiries, are handled. Automation like identity pre-verification and customized menu routing boosts efficiency further and ensures calls get to the right person the first time.
Here are some other ways CCaaS benefits medical practices:
Collaboration and Presence
CCaaS systems offer access to vital health-related information through a single framework allowing for secure communication in real-time. Staff can collaborate through several mediums via a secure app, including SMS, voice, video conferencing, and instant messaging from their desktop computer or any mobile device.
When you’re able to see who is available at any given moment with real-time availability of presence, your staff can connect faster to inbound calls. This ease of communication translates to higher efficiency because patient inquiries are solved quicker, allowing more time to address additional calls.
Simple Utilization
You won't need extensive technical expertise when utilizing your CCaaS platform, freeing up your staff to focus on patient outcomes. Most often, users can adapt to the new system quite quickly.
If working with us, we not only provide training, but we also provide ongoing support. We’ll make sure your employees hit the ground running and are ready to tackle their workload.
Scalability
Business needs change, sometimes overnight. CCaaS changes with you. Is your practice cyclical? Ramp up or down depending on the time of year, around special offers, healthcare crises, and more. Adding or deleting users, configuring permissions, and assigning extensions is as easy as a few keyboard strokes.
If ever the need arises where your staff must work from home, with CCaaS, they won't miss a beat. The same communication tools they'd use at the office are available through one app, accessible from any device anywhere with an internet connection.
A Word on Security
Security is important to any business, but in the medical field, confidentiality is not only vital, it's the basis for any type of communication. It's not practical to exchange personal health information (PHI) over carrier-based text or other means.
CCaaS platforms take security seriously, meeting HIPAA compliance requirements. They eliminate risk by housing all tools across one cloud-based platform for voice, staff messaging, video, and more, replacing the need to use unsecured personal devices or multiple vendor applications.
What Does the Future Hold for Medical Practices? The Best of Both Worlds: UCaaS and CCaaS Combined
Recently, both Talkdesk and 8x8 announced new products that combine UCaaS (Unified Communications as-a-Service) and CCaaS, which is particularly interesting for many businesses, but especially for the medical industry.
Why? Because instead of having to add much-needed contact center functionality to your business telephony package, both come in one. Meaning, your staff has access to both the tools they use for office communication and critical CCaaS features without going through two different systems.
These combined systems support the entire scope of care, from initial inquiry to post-care follow-up, ultimately improving patient engagement and experience.
Are you curious what CCaaS would look like in your medical practice? Don't worry; we can help you weed through the particulars by assessing your practice's needs, presenting customized options and negotiated pricing, guiding you through implementation, and even providing ongoing support afterward. Just give us a call to learn more!
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