Monday, January 17, 2011

Will The Backup Medical Assistant Spell The End of Human Administrative Assistant Profession?

By Adela Kailyn


There was a time when a medical practitioner's office could not function without their receptionist. This person use to seem like the glue that held everything together. They were the first person who dealt with patients; the one who answered questions and soothed fears. The receptionist booked medical appointments, double checked paperwork, and reminded patients that they had an upcoming appointment. In many cases the receptionist was just as crucial to keep the office organized and running smoothly as the office manager was.

The receptionist actually had a lot of things to handle. They were responsible of everything from making sure that they patient had their paperwork filled out, to alerting them that it was time to reserve an appointment. The longer a receptionist was with the office, and the better they got to know the patients, the more crucial they became. A good receptionist could usually alert the healthcare professional when a patient was having health issues.

Today more and more offices are converting over to automated services which basically do most of the things that the receptionist use to handle. The reason that the offices are converting to the programs is because the programs are cheaper and more efficient than humans. Now people are wondering if the days when a live administrative assistant is still a vital part of the healthcare provider's office are slipping away.

The automated programs have gotten incredibly elaborate. They can handle all sorts of things from making phone calls, sending text messages, and organizing a patient's files and have an appointment scheduler. Right now it seems like the only thing the programs cannot do is greet the patients when they walk through the door, and this is something that the office manager can manage. Not having to pay the receptionist wages will save the hospital a lot of money every single year.

The fact that the human receptionist is gone is going to make it even harder to get use to the new system. The rest of the office staff are not going to be the only ones who feel the loss. The patients are not going to find the office quite as inviting now that someone else is handling the greetings. The office manager can check the patient in for their appointment, but they probably won't have the time to have long conversation while the patient waits.

Office managers should think very carefully before they take the steps to replace their receptionist with the software. They want to consider all of the things that the receptionist handles and make sure that they are going to get a program that will fill the hole that is left behind. The last thing the office manager needs is to be left alone with an incompetent piece of software.

Medical terminology is just one of the features that a backup medical receptionist needs to have. If the program does not list this as one of its features the administrative manager should look somewhere else because the program will not be able to properly deal with files. Another feature that the program must include is an approval by a federal medical organization that declares the program meets privacy settings.




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