Many businesses employ virtual assistants to reduce the administrative workload burden. But did you know that mental health clinics and facilities can also benefit from this type of support?
Mental health virtual assistants are professionally trained workers who have all the skills required to support mental healthcare providers with office tasks. But they’re a more affordable solution than in-person office assistants, even for small, private practices.
Keep reading to discover how a mental health virtual assistant can help you run your practice in a way that benefits both your patients and your team.
What is a mental health virtual assistant?
Mental health virtual assistants are remote workers who support mental health professionals. Some people call them psychiatrist assistants.
While these individuals’ skills and responsibilities are similar to those of an administrative assistant or mental health assistant, they work from a remote location instead of your clinic.
Remote assistants who specialize in the mental health industry can provide a variety of virtual assistant services and remove the weight of burdensome tasks from your shoulders.
Some examples of the tasks you can delegate to a mental health virtual assistant include:
- Live charting with your patients
- Calling patients to book appointments and offer appointment reminders
- Handling appointment cancellations and rescheduling
- Transcribing medical documentation into an EMR/EHR system
- Arranging patient referrals
- Greeting patients who enter your clinic via video
- Performance insurance verification
- Handling payment processing
- Answering the phone
- Answering any queries from patients
- General data entry
Even if you already have a receptionist on your staff, having a mental health virtual assistant can reduce their workload and help them focus on their highest-priority tasks.
Want to add your own mental health virtual assistant to your team? Book a call with our team, and we’ll help you transform your practice with the perfect virtual assistant.
How much are virtual assistants in a mental health clinic paid?
The average administrative assistant in the US makes $19.08 per hour. But their employer also needs to pay for other fees, including but not limited to:
- Mandatory benefits (disability insurance, social security, etc.)
- Sick leave
- Paid time off
- Taxes
- Additional benefits to entice talented candidates to come work for you
With Hello Rache, you can have a virtual assistant on your mental health team for a flat fee of $9.50 per hour.
Whether you need one person’s support for two hours per day or want a team of four people for 40 hours per week, the hourly rate for each virtual assistant remains the same. You get to work with the same person day after day, and you don’t have to worry about managing vacation time or sick days. You can leave that to us.
Are virtual assistants worth it for mental health practitioners?
Virtual assistants are more than worth it for mental health practitioners. Because you can get someone on your team for as many hours as you want, it’s an affordable solution for any mental health services provider.
Let’s calculate why this support is worth it.
Regarding salary alone, you’ll save $10 an hour over an in-person assistant when you hire a virtual mental health assistant. If you hire someone for 40 hours a week, you’ll save $1,600 just in salary.
But you also save the value of your time for every hour of work you’ll delegate to your mental health virtual assistant. How much is one hour of your time worth?
For example, if an assistant saves you five hours per week, you’ll be able to use those hours to take on more patients — or work shorter days. Either way, you get your time back in exchange for much less than that time is worth.
7 advantages of hiring a mental health virtual assistant
Wondering if a remote mental health assistant is a good fit for you? Here are seven benefits of hiring a mental health virtual assistant for your private practice.
1. It’s cheaper than hiring an in-person assistant
The biggest advantage of having a virtual mental health assistant is that you can save money while getting all the benefits of an in-person assistant. Although this type of assistant works remotely, they can do almost everything an in-person assistant can do.
You’ll also save on overhead costs. The equipment needed for virtual assistants doesn’t require as much room in an office as a receptionist or administrative assistant. If you delegate receptionist duties to your mental health virtual assistant, the required equipment will take up less room as well.
Plus, you won’t need to pay for hours you don’t need. While it’s possible to hire someone in person on a part-time basis, it’s difficult to manage expectations for hours when your needs fluctuate. That’s not an issue with a virtual assistant.
2. Mental health virtual assistants are often more qualified than regular administrative assistants
Virtual assistants from Hello Rache are trained medical professionals in nursing and other specialties. They already have experience in the healthcare field.
Due to their experience, these virtual assistants are extensively trained in common and specialty medical terminology. They’re also skilled in medical scribing, which requires different skills than transcribing in other industries.
You won’t have to train virtual mental health assistants as much as you’d need to train an administrative assistant with little to no experience in mental health. This means you’ll be able to onboard your remote assistant more quickly.
Plus, all our independent mental health virtual assistants receive HIPAA training certification before they begin working with you.
3. It lets you end your work day earlier
There’s no need for you to catch up on voicemails, emails, medical records, and other administrative duties that tend to pile up during the day. Instead, delegate your busy work to your mental health virtual assistant when your day is done.
You can go home at 5 p.m. and get some rest instead of overworking yourself day after day. You can even take that long-awaited vacation without fear of coming back to an overwhelming list of administrative tasks.
4. It streamlines every process in your mental health clinic
Make your front desk run more smoothly by outsourcing the overflow virtually. If you have too much traffic in your office, hire several mental health virtual assistants instead of relying on a single in-person employee.
Hiring a remote mental health assistant can also help you simplify medical transcription. You can have someone in the room with you and your patient to transcribe the entire appointment. This process is much more efficient than taking handwritten notes during the appointment and transcribing them later.
In short, you can make sure every task has an owner. Instead of administrative tasks falling to “whoever has time,” they’ll go to your virtual assistant — the person who’s 100% responsible for them.
5. It helps you grow your mental health clinic
You can take on more patients with the time you save due to having a mental health virtual assistant. In turn, you can generate more profits with your mental health clinic.
Alternatively, you can hire additional staff members thanks to the cost savings you’ll get. Additional staff members will allow you to onboard more patients, regardless of what your current schedule looks like. So, if you have dreams of growing an efficient practice to a larger-scale operation, remote assistants are the way to go.
6. It allows you to get support more quickly
Hiring a mental health assistant is no easy task. Traditionally, you’d need to spend several weeks — if not months — to find the right candidate and hire them for your team.
First, you write and publish job listings. Once people apply, look through those applications and carefully consider each candidate.
The longest part of the process is performing job interviews with candidates. But it’s not over yet — you’ll also need to perform background checks on your chosen candidates.
You can get started in a matter of days when you work with a virtual assistant from Hello Rache. We handle sourcing, interviewing, training, and background checks on every mental health virtual assistant. This makes it easy for you to ramp up hiring when you need to.
7. It helps you increase patient retention
Want to increase patient retention? Provide a higher quality of mental health care and a smoother experience for patients. You can do that more easily when you have a mental health virtual assistant helping you.
As a result, your patients will be more satisfied, and your retention rate will naturally increase. Your patients may even refer your clinic to others, helping you acquire more patients.
Hire the perfect mental health virtual assistant
A virtual assistant for your mental health practice can be transformative for not only you and your staff but also your patients. If you’re ready to save time and run a smoother practice, get in touch with our team today, and we’ll find the ideal virtual mental health assistant for your needs.
