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Taking care of patients is the main reason why doctors chose medicine as their profession. It is rewarding to help patients recover from illnesses and improve their health. But research has shown that doctors spend the majority of their time on indirect patient care. This includes charting, communicating with staff, scheduling, etc. 

Moreover, if you own a medical office, administrative tasks can get in the way of patient satisfaction, results, and revenue. With the ever-increasing demand for quality patient care and digitalization, doctors are turning to Healthcare Virtual Assistants to improve their workflow. Healthcare VAs allow them to focus more on the needs of their patients and the management of their health conditions. 

Furthermore, there is an increasing trend of healthcare facilities and practitioners hiring Healthcare VAs. Doctors hire them to take care of tedious administrative tasks and improve their services. Increased efficiency and better patient experience are among the observed benefits of hiring Healthcare VAs.

So what is a Healthcare Virtual Assistant?

A Healthcare Virtual Assistant is a person who provides administrative services to doctors, medical offices, or clinics from a remote location, usually home or office. This type of Virtual Assistant is skilled at patient charting, handling EMRs, organizing patient files, and medical transcription. In addition, many of them have HIPAA certification and medical-related education.

What can Healthcare Virtual Assistants do for you?

When things work more efficiently, medical offices can be a better place for everyone. Healthcare VAs can help with a lot of things in your medical practice from administrative to customer support tasks. Here are some services that Healthcare VAs can provide. 

Patient Appointment Scheduling

It is important to take calls and ensure that all your patients’ needs are met. Patient inquiries and appointments increase when more patients trust you. Healthcare VAs are professionals in handling inbound and outbound calls to and from patients, providers, and insurance companies. Their patient-friendly voice allows patients to ask questions comfortably. They can also call for appointment reminders so practitioners and patients can stay on top of their schedules.

Transcribing Patient Notes

As doctors, you are on your feet all day helping patients. But as part of medical care, you also have to transcribe your own notes. Turning an audio recording into a written document is a tedious process. Hence, outsourcing transcription work is the way to go.  Healthcare VAs are skilled medical transcriptionists. You only have to send their audio files and Healthcare VAs can convert them into an accurate transcript formatted exactly how you need it to be. 

Healthcare Insurance Coverage and Eligibility Verification

Many Healthcare VAs are registered nurses or graduates of related medical courses. Most of them also have broad experience in customer service. Thus, they know the eligibility requirements of healthcare insurance so well. They can quickly determine if a patient has active coverage and share information about the benefits covered by a patient’s plan from providers. This prevents denials and delays in payments. 

Handling Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

With digitalization, gone are the days of misplaced records. Electronic Medical Records (EMR) allow for safe storage and effortless sharing of patient data between departments through cloud technology. Data can also be inputted and processed with more ease. Healthcare Virtual Assistants have superior data entry skills consequently, doctors can guarantee that they are working on accurate patient data. Not only that. They can also help you organize patient files making it easier for them to navigate through patient records. Hiring Virtual VAs to handle EMRs can increase overall productivity and efficiency in medical offices.

Creative and Technical Task

Patients are becoming more informed about their health. Chances are, they scour the internet and social media to learn about their own diseases. They explore better treatment options before going to a physical clinic. What better way to capture these health consumers than to engage them online. This makes boosting the online presence of healthcare providers and facilities non-negotiable for visibility and consequently, higher revenue. Creative and technical tasks can be done by specialist VAs. These tasks include: 

• Website development
• Website Design
• Social media management
• Digital marketing
• Content writing 
• IT support

Healthcare Virtual Assistants do not necessarily do these tasks, but it’s helpful to look into hiring specialist VAs for better customer engagement. 

Wrap up 

Practically, any healthcare facility including medical offices and clinics can benefit from Healthcare Virtual Assistants. Healthcare VAs put premium attention to detail because they know the value of accurate information for patient care. Doctors can be assured that sensitive patient information is handled with utmost professionalism and care. 
With all the benefits outlined above, medical offices and doctors should consider hiring Virtual Assistants. Be it for administrative, customer support, creative, or technical tasks, hiring Healthcare VAs is a great way to increase patient satisfaction, results, and revenue.