What Is a Clinical Call Center & How Does It Help Your Practice?

What is a Clinical Call Center?

A clinical call center is a healthcare service that provides patients with medical support and assistance over the phone.

Since healthcare call centers typically operate round-the-clock, patients can call anytime, giving them access to medical support and assistance outside regular office hours. By providing patients with 24/7 access to healthcare professionals, clinical call centers help reduce the burden on emergency departments and ensure that patients receive timely medical care. 

However, since their inception, many clinical call centers have expanded outside clinical functions and now provide administrative support. At a time when the U.S. healthcare system is handicapped by staffing shortages, virtual medical assistants and other remote staffing services have become the saving grace for many practices across the country.

How Does a Clinical Call Center Work?

Like conventional care settings, healthcare call centers are staffed by trained medical professionals, such as nurses, pharmacists, and physical therapists. Every time a patient calls, the virtual care provider asks the patient a series of questions to determine the nature of their medical concern. Based on the patient's symptoms and medical history, the remote staff will document the patient's concerns and refer the patient to a physician or other healthcare provider. If the patient's condition requires urgent medical attention, they may be advised to seek emergency medical care.

Clinical call centers can also provide a range of other services to patients, such as medication reminders, appointment scheduling, and follow-up care. This can help improve patient outcomes and ensure patients receive the care they need on time.

Benefits of Clinical Call Centers

Clinical call centers provide a variety of benefits that extend to different areas of your daily operations. Here’s how your practice can use them to your advantage:

1. Expand Healthcare Access

Aside from improving convenience and overall patient experience, healthcare call centers serve a more practical purpose—they bridge the gap between your community’s underserved population and your practice.

Most experts identify geography and the lack of adequate healthcare facilities in rural areas as barriers to healthcare access. Imagine living in a location where the nearest healthcare facility is miles away. Having a clinical call center can instantly bring vital healthcare services closer to remote, hard-to-reach places, vastly improving healthcare in rural areas.

2. Reduce No-Shows

Healthcare organizations nationwide lose approximately $150 billion yearly from missed and canceled appointments, while individual physicians lose an average of $200 of potential income for every lost time slot. Needless to say, a missed appointment is a missed opportunity to earn.

That’s where a clinical call center can make a world of difference. Having dedicated agents tasked to remind patients about their upcoming appointment improves schedule adherence and reduces no-shows. On top of appointment reminders, your remote staff can also conduct surveys for patient satisfaction and even website submission callbacks to convert leads into patients.

3. Unburden Your Staff

Constantly ringing phones and overwhelmed receptionists are a common sight in many practices today. The result? Patients waiting on the line for minutes on end and overworked staff.

Free your front desk staff from the telephone cord and let a clinical call center handle inquiries, extension transfers, and appointment scheduling. Freeing up your on-site employees maximizes productivity while preventing burnout, which can reduce the attrition rate within your organization.

4. Boost Patient Engagement

Contrary to popular belief, healthcare call centers don't just take calls; they also reach out to patients. Whether for appointment reminders, lead conversion, or other critical outbound calls, a clinical call center boosts your patient engagement efforts without the extra work.

5. Ace Compliance Requirements

Adhering to federally imposed and regulated performance measures such as the Healthcare Effectiveness Data Information Set (HEDIS) is an excellent way to generate more income for your practice. However, compliance can be challenging and daunting, especially with the new 2023 HEDIS measures.

However, monitoring your compliance status can be a breeze if you have a clinical call center. With experienced compliance specialists, these centers can provide invaluable insights into your practice performance and how to ace the measures you qualify for to maximize reimbursement.

Choose the Clinical Call Center Your Peers Already Trust

Clinical call centers offer profound benefits to patients, providers, and healthcare organizations alike. With the right partner, you can reach remote locations and expand healthcare access, reduce your no-show rates and the risk of staff burnout, boost patient engagement, and ace your compliance measures.

DrCatalyst has provided clinical and administrative support to practices nationwide for 11 years. Our clinical call center services cover every area of practice operations, from the clinical, front desk, and back office tasks to transcription, billing, and other critical administrative functions. Trusted by over 6,000 providers and utilized by over 2,500 clinic locations, DrCatalyst is the answer to your practice's clinical call center needs.