Patient care and healthcare have been the major focus for many developed and underdevelopment countries. Healthcare has been a prime concern in some countries across the world. The pandemic outburst had changed the whole scenario and increased the urgency and need for healthcare and in many cases, distant patient care such as providing virtual medical consultancy to patients with mild symptoms and quarantined at home.
This type of shift has shifted how healthcare functions and introduced a whole new branch called telehealth, virtual health. The Healthcare contact center software with the right features really helps in empowering and synergizing the whole concept of telehealth.
What is telehealth or virtual healthcare?
To provide any type of healthcare services, a patient and doctor connect via an electronic or telecom-based communication channel. They discuss symptoms, causes, etc. and in many cases, doctors also prescribe medicine or further medical tests that need to be conducted.
During this whole medical consultation, neither doctor nor the patient visits the hospital or each other. Everything is conducted remotely and patients are diagnosed and medicated remotely.
This concept is introduced by identifying physical areas and some diseases like COVID 19, in which it is difficult for a healthcare facility to reach people that need healthcare services. But, now, it is used in urban lifestyles to have regular consultation with doctors or first aid for sickness, etc.
How does healthcare call center software help?
A healthcare call center solution will have various communication features to provide a reliable means of communication between patients and a healthcare facility. The use of an omnichannel contact center solution will add a digital engagement solution to this software, so patients and medical staff can use digital platforms to communicate with each other.
It saves time and other resources and ensures the first aid or medical consultation is delivered using a flawless healthcare communication solution. There are multiple other benefits of using this software in the telehealth industry and providing remote consultation, medication, and other healthcare services to patients at the right time.
In the healthcare industry, each moment is precious and any delay in medication or lack of reliable healthcare services can create a threat to lives. Thus, this call center software can be used more effectively as it will not be restricted by roadblocks that otherwise come across to visit a doctor’s clinic physically for medication.
What are the essential characteristics and features that a healthcare call center solution must have?
A contact center solution is a common term and when this term buzzes our minds, we think about a software solution with some predefined features. Remember, all call center solutions are not healthcare contact center solutions.
A contact center solution must have some essential features and comply with major compliances to provide virtual healthcare services. Let’s explore the top 10 must-have characteristics with essential features in this software.
1. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which was passed by federal law back in 1996. It emphasizes the privacy of patients and other healthcare data.
Your healthcare contact center software needs to be HIPAA compliant if you want to provide healthcare services to patients in the USA. In many other countries, this compliance is accepted to ensure the confidentiality of patient data.
2. Medical emergency call handling
All call center solutions provide different automatic call distribution rules to route calls of a patient to the right team or doctor and also it would have a call queue to put a patient on the hold until he or she gets connected with a medical representative.
But, what is more, important in a healthcare call center software solution is emergency call routing. If a patient needs emergency service, his or her call has to be given priority to deliver on-time healthcare to save more lives. Your software must have either priority call routing or extension calling feature to support this need of a healthcare facility.
3. Connect with the same doctor
Many patients use virtual healthcare as a relief to get remote medication and consultation as either they are physically unfit to visit a doctor on their own or they are leading a very busy life.
Unlike a normal scenario of a call center, in which the software for call centers connects the caller to any available agent in a telehealth scenario, patients prefer to consult with the same doctor. Your healthcare call center system must have this feature like a sticky agent to connect patients with the same doctor.
4. Send emergency alerts or healthcare notifications
A contact center software solution that will be used in a virtual healthcare facility needs to handle emergency situations as well. For example, telehealth is not sufficient and patients need to be brought to the hospital to provide emergency care.
In this case, the hospital call center software needs to send an alert to respective staff to handle the emergency such as ambulance driver, first aid team, physician, etc. to attend to the patient and provide the right care.
A voice broadcasting solution and SMS broadcasting system integrated into the software for healthcare can help here to send emergency alerts and notifications to handle situations better and save more lives.
5. Digital engagement with omnichannel communication for better patient care
Some patients may prefer other communication channels such as WhatsApp to get medical attention such as a depressed person. In this case, digital engagement is necessary to provide medical attention and services.
Even sending casual healthcare reminders like the next telehealth call appointment needs multiple communication channels like SMS. Thus, an omnichannel contact center solution is a must in the healthcare facility that uses the telehealth phenomenon.
Epilogue
Healthcare is a crucial industry as it is involved in saving more lives with the mental and physical healing of patients. Telehealth has made it possible to reach distant areas to provide the best patient care with good healthcare services. Healthcare contact center solutions with the right features and traits are one of the important tools that keep this industry functional and successful.
To acquire the right healthcare contact center software for your hospital or healthcare facility, use the information shared in this article or contact us. We have the best contact center solutions for the healthcare industry that are available at competitive rates.
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