What is the purpose for an answering service at a doctors office?
Asked by
spring25 (
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December 24th, 2015
I call to leave a message, when they answer I get told to call back when they open. Why not put in a machine and save some money.
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6 Answers
For people with urgent matters, the answering service may contact the doctor.
They can also connect you with someone who is available to cover for the doctor while she is not available.
They can page the doctor. After hours calls are when you have an immediate need to speak to the doctor. The answering service usually won’t take a message for the morning.
Had a friend that was a “Doctor’s Service” for several offices. Boils down to:
1) If it an emergency, have them cal 911
2) If it is for a script renewal or other non-emergency but requires a physician, contact “on call Dr.”
3) If it for an appointment, have them call during office hours.
4) If they need to speak to the doctor then the service pages them.
I worked for doctors for years and they all have an answering service in case of urgent problems prior to or after normal business hours. The service can then either advise of the time the office will open, immediately contact the doctor or his/her on-call doctor or if an emergency connect the caller to 911.
I worked for a doctor who would assess the apparent mental stability of the patient at the first appointment (he is an oncologist) and if they seemed fine give them his cell number.
He actually had a patient call him at home at 3:00 am to ask what time her appointment was that day.
After that incident he became more selective about giving out his number to patients.
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