Healthcare is an ever-expanding, changing, and necessary field. As science progresses and research develops, the education required to fill these healthcare positions is simultaneously advancing. People are going to school to be specialized in a specific area of healthcare and many positions require schooling beyond an undergraduate degree.
Multitasking chaos
Working in a hospital or medical setting in general is frequently filled with chaos. Unfortunately, this mayhem may stem from healthcare workers trying to multitask.
It’s common that our job titles don’t always fully encompass everything that we do on a daily basis; however, for healthcare workers trying to save lives, working on a variety of projects at once may have seriously negative outcomes. This is especially true when working in life or death situations as a nurse, for example, might.
Medical vs. clerical duties
One of the biggest challenges that healthcare professionals face is balancing medical versus clerical duties. If there is a lull in between seeing patients, nurses may be instructed to step in to answer clerical questions or deal with scheduling appointments over the phone.
Although this may be fine in the short-term, if these nurses are consistently placed in this position instead of dealing directly with patient care, the medical facility’s turnover rate could skyrocket.
Nurses are highly trained medical professionals with a specialty that they have worked hard to achieve. These skills should be put to use.
Outsourcing healthcare phone services
A way to prevent these negative outcomes is outsourcing healthcare phone services. Hiring outside call center agents to take care of solely the phone calls for a healthcare center has a multitude of benefits.
Outsourcing benefits
- Increases in productivity and efficiency – for nurses trying to balance their time between treating an ill patient and answering scheduling questions, staying focused is difficult. After all, each duty requires a different skill set. If phone calls are handled by outside workers, the nurses can focus on nursing, which is what they are trained in and were hired to do. As Flatworld Solutions explains, more attention can be paid to the patients and the greatest care possible for them.
- Accuracy and error reduction – aside from separating job tasks for nurses versus outsourced healthcare callers, maintaining skill set specialization has additional benefits. Nurses are trained in medical care, but as Becker’s ASC Review describes, medical callers are trained on new rules and regulations. This may include coding, billing, and confidentiality among much else. These regulations change constantly, but it is the caller’s job to know these, so the nurses can focus on patient care, while medical calls are handled appropriately and effectively.
- Opportunities to partner – a CEO of Tri-County Memorial Hospital describes outsourcing as a type of business partnership. The hospital remains a place to treat patients and focus on patient care, while jobs are created elsewhere to focus on the technology and calling side of healthcare. More jobs are ultimately created across multiple businesses.
- Respect and appreciation – overall, employees want to be respected. Healthcare workers in particular put in endless time and money to gain specialization in this specific area of education. If their employers respect this dedication and allow them to use their skills and talents in treating patients instead of performing clerical duties, employee and employer happiness will increase while turnover rates will decrease.
Nurses and other healthcare professionals have a specialized talent, as do outsourced callers who can be trained in these types of medical calls. Maintaining specialized talents, allowing everyone to work to their full potential in an area they are dedicated to and knowledgeable in, is beneficial for any healthcare setting, and potentially any business.