Patient-centered care is a crucial foundation of good healthcare, and every practice should deliver this to a high standard. However, doctors are extremely busy, leading to record levels of burnout. To improve both practice efficiency and physician well-being, a popular solution is to hire a virtual healthcare assistant.
How Does a Virtual Healthcare Assistant Work?
Ready to dive in and hire a virtual healthcare assistant? No, of course you’re not, you need to know a little more before making an informed business decision. Luckily, Hello Rache is here to provide you with an education on the principles of a virtual healthcare assistant.
The traditional setup for a health assistant is that they commute to your practice every day, navigating traffic and bad weather, before working a standard 9 – 5 shift. And this certainly has its benefits, particularly when it comes to the coffee run, but it’s a setup which has been in place for over a century. Now that we’re in the 21st century, there must be a solution which takes advantage of the technology at our disposal.
The internet provides the answer. For the last 15 years, internet technology has advanced rapidly to ensure that what was unthinkable in the 2000s is now easy. Previously, a home internet connection would have only been enough to get a person online for basic browsing. However, modern internet connections now ensure that huge amounts of data can be processed at high speed, and this opens a whole world of opportunity.
Modern internet speeds allow remote workers to complete practically every task that their in-house equivalent can do, from videoconferencing through to email management and onto to accessing cloud storage solutions. Accordingly, a virtual healthcare assistant can work from anywhere in the world, there’s no reason for them to be located in your local vicinity anymore. This flexibility empowers you to choose from the very best virtual healthcare assistant in the world.
For a virtual healthcare assistant to get started, they only need two things: a computer and an internet connection. Once those are in place, your practice simply needs to provide them with login credentials. There's no need to supply any IT equipment, office supplies, or a workspace. Best of all, a virtual healthcare assistant can be hired on an hourly basis, so there’s no need to commit to a long contract.
The Many Benefits of a Virtual Healthcare Assistant
While a virtual healthcare assistant can match the abilities of an in-house health assistant, you may be wondering what the major benefits are of selecting a remote alternative. And it may be that your practice appears to be running perfectly fine with in-house assistants. However, it could be running much better with a virtual healthcare assistant, and this is because of the following benefits on offer:
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Cost Savings:
A virtual healthcare assistant offers your practice the chance to make substantial cost savings. Typically employed through a VA agency, a virtual healthcare industry isn’t directly employed by your practice. As such, there’s no expectation for you to cover sickness pay, vacation pay, or pension contributions. Naturally, these savings can quickly add up, and it’s estimated you can save up to 78% in operating costs or around $11,000 per remote worker.
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24/7 Coverage:
Thanks to the global spread of virtual assistants, your practice no longer needs to be restricted to limited coverage. With many virtual assistants working in different time zones, it suddenly becomes easier to fill those difficult and unsocial out-of-hours shifts. This enables your practice to provide 24/7 support to your patients and ensure they’re always able to access your service with inquiries and queries. This allows you to maximize your patient satisfaction levels, a crucial metric in healthcare.
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Scalability:
In-house assistants tend to be employed on permanent contracts, and this makes it hard to adjust your staffing levels when demand rises or falls suddenly. This scenario can place your practice in a position where it’s unable to cope with demand or wasting money on labor which isn’t required. But with a virtual healthcare assistant available on an hourly basis and on short-term agreements, you can bring additional staff in and out of your practice only when you need them.
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Access to Specialized Skills:
Local labor can provide you with a certain availability of specialized skills, but it’s still restricted due to the number of health assistants in the local area. And this makes it difficult to find an assistant who’s a perfect fit for your practice. But this isn’t a problem when you’re looking for a virtual healthcare assistant. With a global roster of talent available, you can easily find a virtual healthcare assistant with world-class transcription skills. This ensures you offer the best possible service to your patients and reduce the burden on your in-house professionals.
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HIPAA Trained and Secure:
Data security is a crucial part of healthcare and needs to be adhered to at every step of a patient’s journey. Breaches in patient data are common, and these obstacles need to be navigated by individuals who understand existing regulations. This makes HIPAA compliance essential. A virtual healthcare assistant comes fully trained in best HIPAA practices, and by adding one to your team, you’re demonstrating that data security is a priority for your practice. The end result is peace of mind for your both you and your patients.
Time Management:
Every second counts in healthcare and time management is essential when it comes to running an efficient practice. A virtual healthcare assistant will significantly enhance your practice’s time management efforts by taking on a wide range of administrative tasks such as appointment scheduling, patient record management, and billing processing. With these responsibilities delegated, your practice will be reducing the administrative burden on your healthcare professionals. This enables them to focus more on patient care, enhancing patient outcomes and providing a best-in-class service.
How a Virtual Healthcare Assistant Can Enhance Your Practice
The health virtual assistant industry certainly has a lot of benefits to offer your practice, but what about on a day-to-day level? What is it that a virtual healthcare assistant can step in and take control of? The good news is that a virtual healthcare assistant can turn their hand to almost anything. The main responsibilities you can expect them to take on are:
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Appointment Scheduling:
Your practice needs effective appointment scheduling to ensure optimal patient outcomes. Virtual healthcare assistant, with their extensive experience in healthcare, have the relevant skills – such as being methodical and conscientious – to efficiently manage your appointment schedules. This results in patients being well-informed about their appointments while empty slots are promptly filled, and the risk of missed appointments are minimized.
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Patient Communication:
It’s well known that excellent communication is vital in healthcare. For patients’ well-being, it’s important they remain informed about their care, and it’s equally vital that your practice knows its patients are aligned with their treatment plans. All of this communication, however, can be time consuming when your healthcare professionals have patients to treat. This problem is easily addressed when a health virtual assistant is on hand to take it over. And with their excellent communication skills, you can rest assured that communication will flow seamlessly between practice and patient.
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Record Keeping:
Accurate patient data is the only way you can provide high quality patient care. However, this accuracy requires significant attention to detail, which can be challenging for a practice staff who are already stretched thin. But a virtual healthcare assistant has the dedication and meticulous approach to ensuring that electronic health records are accurately maintained and up to date.
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Medical Billing and Invoicing:
Medical billing and invoicing can be complex and stressful for your patients, so it’s paramount that you can reduce this anxiety for them. It’s also incredibly labor-intensive, and your in-house team may not have enough hours in the day to address it with the care and detail it requires. But a virtual healthcare assistant makes successfully completing medical billing and invoicing a reality. They can verify insurance, address patient queries, and process the relevant paperwork to preserve your revenue flow.
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Telemedicine Assistance:
The realm of telemedicine continues to grow within healthcare, but it’s still in its infancy and many patients need assistance accessing these platforms. When problems with telemedicine occur, there’s the risk of appointments having to be abandoned and rescheduled. To avoid this inconvenience for all parties, your practice can rely on a virtual healthcare assistant. With their excellent skills in internet technologies, they can guide patients through the logon process and address any technical difficulties. This will reduce cancellations and enhance patient satisfaction.
Medical Transcription:
Healthcare professionals have the skills to transcribe their consultations, but they don’t always have the time to complete this task due to patient care demands. Fortunately, a virtual healthcare assistant comes fully trained in the best transcription practices and has a solid understanding of medical terminology. The result is accurately transcribed documentation and clinicians who have the time to focus on their core duties.
Where Do You Find a Healthcare Virtual Assistant?
The capabilities of a health virtual assistant are wide and varied, which makes them the perfect partner for your practice. From saving you costs through to providing an enhanced patient experience, they can be the difference between you and your competitors.
But where do you start with finding a virtual healthcare assistant? After all, if they’re based all over the world, how do you even begin to narrow down your choices? Thankfully, Hello Rache is on hand to help you with your search. As an established VA agency, we’ve used our experience and contacts to gather together a roster of amazing talent who can help transform your practice.
With our health virtual assistants available at a flat-rate pricing of just $9.50 per hour, we offer one of the most competitive rates you’ll find. This rate is free from hidden setup, cancellation, and contract fees, so you can rest assured that Hello Rache is transparent when it comes to the costs involved. As well as this transparency, we can provide you with a dedicated account manager, give you access to tracking and performance monitoring software, and allow you to work with the same health virtual assistant every day.
Now is the perfect time to begin transforming your medical practice into the business you envision. To learn more, click here to start a conversation with us.
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