Phone Etiquette Tips

Medical offices get countless phone calls every day. Because phones are the most frequent mode of communication between patients and staff, how you handle a patient phone call makes a huge difference in your reputation and patient satisfaction.

But when you’re dealing with phones ringing constantly and a long list of patients to call back, you may get overwhelmed by phone etiquette. When too much is happening, you may not be considering the best way to answer the phone in a medical office.

Fortunately, our guide to medical office phone etiquette can help. Check out our tips to learn how to properly answer a telephone call in a medical office.

1. Avoid Medical Jargon

Medical jargon may be part of your everyday vocabulary behind the scenes, but it will go over the heads of most patients. This will leave them frustrated and feeling out of touch with your office, so it’s best to avoid jargon altogether. Instead, explain any medical terminology in simple terms so that any patient can easily understand it. Your patients will appreciate your efforts to consider their perspective.

2. Identify Your Clinic Quickly

Whether you’re taking an inbound call or making an outbound call, it’s important to identify the name of your clinic quickly. Patients may be making a slew of phone calls to a list of medical offices, so they may sometimes forget which one they’re calling. And if they’re on the receiving end of the phone call, they may be suspicious or confused until you properly identify your clinic and explain the reason for your call.

3. Follow HIPAA Procedures

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires medical offices to follow certain protocols when handling phone calls. Following these protocols will ensure you stay compliant and avoid any legal issues. For example, patients must provide consent before receiving phone calls relating to medical treatment, checkups, appointment reminders, and more. Calls cannot be made for telemarketing purposes, and the office must provide a toll-free number for patients to call back.

4. Explain Any Reason For Pauses

There are many medical office phone scenarios where your front office staff may need to pause during a phone call—to check appointment availability, to locate paperwork, or to transfer the caller to the doctor. No matter the reason for the pause, it’s important to explain to the patient the reason for the silence. Most people are understanding about short wait times, but they cannot see what’s going on and will appreciate the insight.

5. Give an Approximate Call-Back Time

If a pause in the phone call goes on too long, callers may get frustrated and wonder why you’re taking up their time by keeping them on hold. Rather than leaving them waiting, medical office telephone best practices suggest that you call them back when you’re better prepared to resolve their questions. Make sure to give an approximate call-back time for these situations so the patient knows what to expect—and then make sure they’re called back!

6. Medical Office Phone Scenarios

There are numerous reasons people call medical offices. They might want more information about your office and specialty, or to book an appointment. No matter the practice you’re in, these are common examples of medical office phone scenarios, but they’re not the only ones. Insurance companies might call, or other businesses may try to sell medical gear. Regardless of who is on the other end, you should always present yourself with the utmost professionalism. This sets a good precedence from the first moments of a call. How you handle a patient phone call reflects the office as a whole, and making a good first impression is crucial.

There are some general dos and don’ts of telephone etiquette that should be used in any medical office phone scenario. For example, you should always answer the phone within two or three rings. In addition, it is generally considered good form to wait for the caller to hang up first before hanging up yourself. Avoid interrupting the caller, especially if they’re a patient. Instead, show them you’re attentive by asking relevant follow-up questions when possible.

It can be difficult to know how to end a medical phone call. Some office staff members may get themselves stuck in an endless circle of goodbyes and thank-yous, while others may abruptly hang up and leave the caller on the other end. It’s most polite to wait for the caller to hang up first, then hang up immediately after. This communicates that you’re not in too much of a rush to help them if they should have any last-minute questions.

7. Medical Office Phone Scripts

One way to make sure the people answering calls understand proper phone etiquette is to create scripts for common calls. Knowing in advance what things to say and how to say them can take the pressure off your staff. When they have a script to work from, they no longer have to figure out how to respectfully navigate professional conversations on the fly. Some medical office phone scripts allow room to adapt to the direction of a conversation. Whether you use set scripts or adaptable ones, either route allows you to incorporate proper phone etiquette in every phone call. People judge places based on their experiences, which often starts with the first phone call.

8. Speak Clearly

Phone conversations already have many obstacles to overcome: You can’t see each other or read physical cues, there may be noise in the background, and there may be other distractions that make it difficult to pay attention. For this reason, it’s crucial to speak as clearly as possible during all phone calls. This includes speaking slowly, calmly, and loudly enough for anyone on the other end of the line to hear everything you’re saying.

Managing Your Medical Office Phone Calls

If you need help managing your medical office phone calls, reach out to ROI Call Center Solutions. Our expert agents are trained in medical office phone etiquette and will leave every caller with a positive view of your office. We’ve helped countless offices with phone answering, surveys, appointment setting, and more. Contact us today to learn more about our medical call center services.

Triaging patient phone calls is a challenge for any busy hospital. With limited time and information, your staff will have to make quick decisions under pressure. If this process isn’t done well, your hospital could be wasting valuable time, spending too much money, and creating unnecessary legal liabilities.

But we have good news for you: With the right training and practice, any team can master the art of telephone triage. Check out our quick guide to improve your triage protocols today.

1. Gather the Right Information

Gathering the right information upfront will help you understand the scope of the problem and gauge how serious it is in comparison to other phone calls. Once basic information is collected, the triager can move on to asking triage questions and choosing the right course of action. Here is a list of information the telephone triager should collect on any call:

• Name and basic demographics
• Brief medical history
• Description of the illness
• Chief complaint

2. Ask Relevant Questions

The most efficient triage processes are founded on knowing the right telephone triage questions to ask patients. Since information needs to be gathered as quickly as possible, it’s important to ask only the most relevant questions. The initial questions should detect whether this is a life-threatening emergency or urgent problem that needs to be addressed within a few hours. The follow-up questions should detect less urgent issues and mild symptoms that can be treated at home.

3. Confirm Understanding

After listening to the patient’s medical history, symptoms, and chief complaint, the triager should then repeat a brief synopsis back to the patient to confirm that they heard everything correctly. This will eliminate errors and ensure the caller and the triager are on the same page. Since it’s impossible to use visual cues during a phone call, there can be more room for error, so quickly verifying the information will help the triage process go more smoothly.

4. Practice Telephone Triage Scenarios

Triaging patient phone calls can only be perfected with practice and experience. Help your newest triagers improve their skills by practicing telephone triage scenarios before they get on the line with real patients. Choose a range of scenarios, and go over the possible outcomes of each call. This practice will help your triage team be more confident and composed when they need to make decisions in real time.

5. Use Verbal Cues

Though talking on the phone does not allow you to gauge visual cues, you can use verbal cues to help make triage decisions. Listen closely to the caller’s tone of voice, level of concern, and level of anxiety while they speak. These are all important contextual clues that should determine the level of urgency in any given situation. Callers will feel more secure if you take their concerns seriously, even if their symptoms don’t seem to indicate an urgent problem. 

6. When in Doubt, See the Patient

Triaging questions are used to determine whether or not a patient needs to be seen by a doctor, and to determine how urgently they need to be seen. But triage questions are not completely fool-proof, and there may be situations when the triager isn’t sure how to proceed, even after thoroughly asking questions and listening to responses. In these circumstances, it’s always best to see the patient. You don’t want to be held accountable for turning a patient away if they had a severe problem.

7. Give Instructions for Call-Backs

If the patient’s symptoms aren’t serious enough to be seen by the doctor, they should always be encouraged to call back if the condition gets worse. But sometimes patients aren’t sure when is the right time to call back, so make sure to give detailed instructions to guide them. If the triage call line is extremely busy, there may also be circumstances when the triager needs to call the patient back to get more information. In this case, be sure to give the patient a loose timeline and phone number to look out for.

8. Use a Medical Call Center

If your hospital is having trouble keeping up with the pace of phone calls, it may be time to hire a  medical call center. This will ensure you have the bandwidth to thoroughly speak with all callers and reduce the chance of triage error. Shop around for a medical call center that aligns with the values of your institution and upholds your high standards.

Implementing These Tips

Implementing these tips will improve your triage protocols and raise the levels of patient satisfaction. Remember that learning how to triage takes time and practice, and every staff member can benefit from regular training.