End of life care presents its own set of unique challenges and needs. So it’s no surprise that choosing a hospice answering service can be a challenge of its own.
Your patients and their loved ones deserve attentive, responsive care that they can rely on during one of the most difficult times of their lives. And you need a trusted answering service that will provide your clients with the prompt and empathetic support they need.
To help guide you through this process, we’ve compiled a few things you should keep in mind when choosing a hospice and home care answering service. Before you choose a hospice answering service, make sure they can answer “yes” to all of these important questions.
Is the hospice answering service available 24/7?
Medical emergencies don’t happen on a schedule. You need a hospice answering service that is prepared to take your patients’ calls 24/7 – on nights, weekends, and holidays. With a 24/7 answering service, your patients will receive the care they need before medical situations turn into emergencies. If an emergency has already occurred, the right hospice answering service will ensure patients receive the prompt attention they need immediately.
Does the hospice and home care answering service offer bilingual answering?
No patient should receive subpar care due to a language barrier. It’s important to find a hospice answering service that will be able to communicate with patients of all backgrounds, along with their friends and family members.
Do they offer customization for your hospice’s needs?
End of life care is personal. Don’t leave your patients and their loved ones to deal with an automated messaging system, or a one-size-fits-all answering model. Look for a hospice answering service that will help you develop a custom script for your practice, so that your patients always receive reliable and consistent care. You should also look for a hospice answering service that will work with you to make sure you’ve developed an appropriate triage for handling patient calls, so that you can direct calls to the right channels and make sure all patients receive the attention they need.
Is the hospice answering service HIPAA compliant?
To protect both your patients and your business, it’s important to work with an answering service for hospice that is HIPAA compliant, with employees who are trained according to HIPAA guidelines. When in doubt, ask to make sure that you are working with an answering service that is specifically trained to protect you and your patients.
Are the employees trained to handle medical issues and questions?
When patients or their loved ones call, you need trained professionals who are ready to answer their questions, set up appointments, and even dispatch emergency service providers if necessary. You don’t want just anyone answering these time-sensitive and sometimes medically urgent phone calls; you want to rest assured that someone with the appropriate training is prepared to handle all of your patients’ unique needs. A trained professional will be able to distinguish between a routine call and an emergency, and will know when to escalate a medical situation.
Benefits of using a hospice answering service
If you want to provide excellent care and communication to your hospice patients and their families, you’ll benefit from a 24/7 hospice answering service. A person in need of hospice or home care can be a stressful situation for loved ones – a hospice answering service ensures that they can contact you at any time of the day or night to discuss any questions or concerns they might have.
Here are just a few benefits of a 24/7 hospice answering service:
- Professional service: It’s is never easy for a family to accept that a loved one needs around-the-clock care. Hospice answering services can lift some of the burden handling each call with compassion and care, while keeping a professional tone.
- Cost savings: Additional full-time staffing can cost a lot of money. Use your budget elsewhere to ensure that hospice staff members have all the resources they need in order to care for their patients, and save money with a hospice answering service.
- State-of-the-art systems: A 24 hour hospice answering service will make use of the latest technology to ensure that calls are answered in a timely manner and messages are recorded without any technical issues.
- 24-hour service: With a 24 hour hospice answering service at your disposal, you never have to worry about missing a call from a patient or family member. Agents will be on call at any time of the night or day.
- Recorded calls: You’ll have access to all calls that are answered and messages that are recorded for follow-up and quality assurance.
How to get started with a hospice and homecare answering service
If you’re ready to get started with a hospice answering service, we recommend choosing Sunshine to handle your patient calls with empathy and professionalism. With nearly 40 years of industry experience, Sunshine is one of the most trusted and reliable names in the industry. We treat each of your clients like our own, so you can feel confident that they are always in good hands.
Provide consistent and reliable communications to all of your patients and their families with Sunshine’s hospice answering service. Explore our plans and pricing, or get started with your free trial.
