Maintaining a steady workflow and ensuring maximum patient satisfaction requires a generous amount of both mental and physical focus from a medical practitioner.
Having said so, providing a comfortable treatment experience isn’t just about giving the necessary medical solution. The entirety of it should also include hassle-free appointment procedures to timely prescription refills.
But as a doctor, with only a few hours to spare for the mundane to-dos, the growing need of an assistant is undeniable. And so, the best bet is to hire a healthcare virtual assistant for handling the miscellaneous medical tasks.
Virtual Assistant for Medical Practice: What to Look For?
The growing advancement of technology in the medical industry has allowed doctors and practitioners to seamlessly delegate their administrative tasks to virtual assistants. Since more and more people are now hiring virtual assistant for medical practice, keep the following key points in mind for a sound decision.
Experience
All virtual assistants in the medical field, regardless of their role, are required to adhere to patient privacy and confidentiality. And so, it’s mandatory to recruit a trained HIPAA compliant assistant in healthcare settings.
Availability
You should hire a virtual assistant depending on their flexibility. While most jobs are typically a 9-5, medical offices continually require availability outside the usual business hours. Being able to manage multiple tasks in an open-ended work schedule is quite necessary, especially owing to frequent emergencies.
Skills
Certain skills should be appreciated and sought out when looking for a VA in the medical industry
Medical Expertise: A virtual medical assistant should have a solid grasp of medical terminologies and procedures, so as to keep records organized and error-free. Understanding the healthcare system also aids in providing accurate information and avoiding discrepancy between the patient and the doctor.
Technological Knowledge: Virtual assistance requires an adept individual who proves to be proficient in Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, medical software, and for obvious reasons, appropriate computer literacy to work with sensitive patient data.
Communicative Skills: Since the role surrounds back and forth communication with the healthcare professional and their patients, the virtual assistant must possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills. Drafting medical information in a concise yet precise manner is a highly commendable trait for a virtual medical assistant. This is more true for roles such as real-time scribes, patient coordinator, patient monitoring assistants etc. where accuracy is non-negotiable.
Strategizing: Healthcare providers have to deal with hundreds of patients everyday. This means, countless patient data is being generated each hour. For this, a virtual medical assistant should be highly organized and work through challenges on time with their analytical skills.
Privacy and Ethics: The most vital aspect of being a virtual assistant is to stay committed to security and privacy of all medical information. Showing signs of plausible work ethics and maintaining patient confidentiality at all costs should be a VA’s core value.
Advice for a Smooth Virtual Assistance Experience
While virtual assistance remains to be a necessity in modern times, it’s advisable to follow a few handy tips as you go. But before you do so, be certain of the ifs and buts of Virtual Medical Administrative Services.
Effective Communication
The foremost requisite to a well-managed virtual assistantship is impeccable communication. As a medical practitioner, you should ensure precise and timely conveyance of information to and fro with the VA.
Staying connected with easy-to-go options such as instant messaging and video calling throughout the day is thus vital to maintain schedules and appointments.
Define Employment Tasks
Clearly communicating the scope of work beforehand will make things much easier for both you and your employee.
While the day-to-day tasks of virtual assistants may vary depending on the company they’re serving, the usual ones include organizing the weekly or monthly calendar, scheduling appointments, documenting patient histories, managing electronic health records (EHRs), and so on.
Hence, healthcare workers should provide a precise job description when recruiting a virtual medical assistant.
Tracking Regular Progress
To stay informed regarding the work progress and ensure productivity, the practitioners should utilize up-to-date technologies such as tracking software. This way, you can check whether all the tasks are assigned accordingly and timely completed.
Timely Feedback for Efficiency
Given that you face any difficulties with the virtual assistant services for medical practice, providing regular and transparent feedback can bring about required positive changes.
Although such trial and error processes can sometimes feel tiring, this will ensure enhanced productivity in long-term contracts. Be patient and let your VA gradually learn your way of doing things and contribute to it.
Final Thoughts
Hiring a virtual assistant for medical services will thus relieve you tedious administrative tasks while giving you the opportunity to provide better treatment to the patients. Recruit one today for an organized tomorrow!