Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Pager/answering service dilemna

I have a pager and answering service. I'm having problems with the answering service in that they are not able to figure out who is on call (despite sending call schedules one month ahead of time).

I want to drop the answering service but want a buffer between patient directly having my pager number or phone number. I suspect, if patients had that, most everyone would bypass calling the office and I will not be able to function as a physician.

Is there anyone in ACville who have found a reliable way around the answering service? or around the pager?

Once upon a time, I was in a 6 MD group practice in the Midwest that didn't believe in answering services. Patients had our home phone numbers. We covered our own patients Mon-Thurs, and covered every sixth weekend. Weekend phone calls averaged around 100/day, and I'm not kidding. It was absolutely stupid. Now, I'm solo, pay an answering service $60/mon. and get maybe 3-5 calls a week. (None at all this whole weekend). When I opened my practice, I forgot about how I was going to let my after-hours patients know how to get my answering service, so I ran down to Radio Shack and picked up a $15 machine that tells them the service's phone number. 7 years later I'm afraid to upgrade to voicemail because I don't want to break to MoJo! (If it ain't broke, don't fix it). I'm not anti-tech, heck, I do have an iPhone! Make a personal visit to your answering service and let the owner see your angry face. If they don't wise up, find another service. Do not, repeat, DO NOT! go the home phone number route. (If I can save just one doctor...)

I did not want to carry around a pager and a cell phone so what I do is forward the office phones to my cell phone. Since I am solo, I tend to take my own call, but for the times when someone else is covering, I then have the message tell people where to call.

My message in general tells them to leave a voice message if they NEED to speak with the "provider on call". Most of the time people leave messages for appointments, occasionally they need a call back.

Now..the only thing I don't like has nothing really to do with this system...but I hate calling people when I cannot have my return number blocked (when calling from home or the cell number).

I've been doing this for over a year now...and it works. I found the key is what the outgoing message says (ie, call the pharmacy, when we are open, etc).

Barbara,
I like your idea. It may work for me. Let me see if I have this correct...

1. Patient calls your office. Your office's answering machine states that it's closed, call 911 if it's an emergency, and then instructs the patient to press a number if they want the call fowarded to the on-call person.
2. Phone gets fowarded to your cell phone where it could be answered in a timely manner (you pick up or answer the message--and I presume you leave a message on the cell phone stating that they could leave a message if the patient will leave their phone number AND they deactivate their call block.
3. If you are not on call, then the office answering machine forwards it to the on-call physician or the on-call physician's answering machine.

By doing this you get rid of the pager and answering service.
I like it!

Almost....

If you call my office during closed hours you can hear my message. I change it as the need dictates (360-538-1800).

Basically, I just forward the office phone to the cell phone by hitting *72, listen for 3 beeps and then dial the cell phone number (the instructions are in the front of the phone book). Basically, it bypasses the office phone all together during closed hours. I/we just need to remember to "un-forward" the phones when we get in the office.

If I'm not on-call, I still leave the phone forwarded, but my message will state who to call.

Regarding having patients unblock their phone...they never do. . Now when I call back, if it's blocked, I just use the cell phone - which I rarely answer anyway...I just pick up messages. I will sometimes answer it if I recognize the number...the ER or the lab for example, otherwise I let all calls go to voice mail.

Besides...it turns out that another family practice office has the exact phone number except for one digit. The same goes for the prison! Most calls do not leave messages.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have other questions.

When I left a large group and went solo I had an answering service, pager and cell phone. At first I had the office phones forward to the answering service after hours and it worked pretty well. I was still getting a bunch of stupid after-hours calls though. Then I quit forwarding the phones to the service and instead put an answering machine on the office lines which basically gives the office hours, says go to the ER if this is an emergency, call during business hours if this is a pharmacy, and, the number for the answering service if you absolutely MUST speak to the doctor. This tiny, inexpensive maneuver shaved off countless unnecessary after hours calls that I actually get. Many people leave messages on the machine and only a handful go ahead and call the service to have them call me. I have a terrific service and they will actually give patients messages for me such as, this can wait until Monday, please call back then (they always run it past me first though). Now, since I also no longer go to the hospital, I may go a week without receiving any after hour calls. Life is good.

Leslie

Leslie,

It would seem as though no matter how few calls you get, you would still have to pay the service, correct?

I have no idea who well the following works, because I haven't used it. My friend does, and he swears by it. I know everyone has heard about it by now. He uses OneBox receptionist. I beleive he pays $30.00 per month. He completely dumped his answering service. The way it is set up, OneBox will set up your greeting with a professional voice. It explains to the patient that they should call back in the AM for all non-emergent things. If the patient MUST speak with the on call doctor, they should push 1, and the call goes to his cell phone. For any messages which are not emergent, press 2, and they go to voice mail. The nice thing about the voice mail is he is alerted by a text message that a voice mail has been received, which can then be retrieved by telephone, email or going to the website.

I am not sure I have it exactly correct. If you want anymore information, I could probably have him type it here. Just another method.

Hi Gang,

We used to forward the phone to either my cell phone or Julia's home phone every night. Once we got tired of drunks calling at 2:00AM to make an appointment, we changed things around a bit.

Our office answering machine messages says:

If this is an emergency - go to the ER or call 911
If this is routine, like making an appointment - call back when we're open.
If this is to CANCEL an appointment - leave a message.
If you REALLY NEED TO REACH the doctor on call - call the "Bat Phone" - and we give out this number in the message.

Whoever's the on-call for that night or weekend takes the on-call cell phone home with them. Doesn't matter if the patient gets the number, as it's the on-call number, not our personal home or cell numbers.

If they call for something that is routine, we ask them nicely to call during normal hours.. no, I won't write myself a note to have one of the girls call you Monday to schedule your appointment, you have to call back thank you very much.. If they're calling after hours or on weekends for pain meds, they're S.O.L. If it's a routine refill, then no I'm not going to "just phone it in" for you - call the girls during normal hours.

We average about FOUR real medical calls per week, and most nights the "Bat Phone" doesn't ring. It works, and saves us $20/ month for pagers each, and also saves what a service charges.

The ER and all the hospital floors have the "bat phone" number in their on-call lists, and know outside office hours they'll get a doc directly without having to wait for a call back - and they LOVE it.

The patients who DO have medical problems - and they're usually moms or dads with sick kids - LOVE the fact that they get "Dr. Vinny" or "Dr. Julia" directly without having to wait for a return call or deal with the answering service.

In our practice, it is a setup where everybody wins.

Hope this helps a little,

V.

Vinny,

Sounds like a great set-up. My problem there is that cell phone coverage in my home is intermittent to none. So, I call the answering service to let them know how to get in touch with me...home phone, cell phone, other phone. And, if they are unsuccessful getting through to me on the denoted phone, they will even call my husband or sister to see if they know how to reach me. Or, I can tell them I will call them at such and such intervals to get my messages. They can then relay this info to the callers. It gives me a lot more flexibility and is worth the $50/month to me. I have even taken calls while hiking around Jenny Lake at Grand Teton National Park.

Leslie

I have been using GotVMail virtual answering system (learned about it in PC Magazine). It costs me about $15/month. After hours we transfer main line to our GotVMail number. Patients get the message: if if not urgent, press #1 and we'll return call tomorrow (phone is transferred to one mail box for nurses to check next day), if urgent press #2 and we'll transfer to dr.on call (if I am on call - patient leaves a message to another mailbox and I get notification on my call phone)(If another doctor is on call - call gets forwarded to another doctor's office) Every day receptionist goes online and changes the "on-call" phone number to which urgent calls get transferred

Sounds a lot like OneBox. I think it works great. I just have to get a new cell phone with a better battery.