How medical practices can benefit from a bilingual medical reception service

You want to provide the best care to every patient who contacts your medical office.

Yet when a non-English speaking person reaches out for information, you encounter a problem: You and your current staff cannot communicate with them.

When Spanish is the second most common language spoken in the U.S., that’s a lot of potential patients you’re unable to help – and a lot of potential revenue you’re passing up on.

Thankfully, there are bilingual medical reception services available to help you connect with patients – no matter whether they speak Espanol or English. By doing so, you’re efficiently providing a service that increases patient satisfaction and lowers overhead costs.

Here’s how a bilingual medical reception service can start benefiting your office – as early as tomorrow.

1. Provides cost-savings benefits

Hiring a bilingual medical practice can reduce overhead costs in many ways.

Lowers your staffing budget

Sure, you can always hire staff who speak more than one language. But, training can be costly and take time – time you could spend on more valuable things, like addressing patients’ medical concerns. And once they’re trained? Ongoing costs will be associated with hardware, software, vacation, benefits, and more.

With a virtual bilingual medical reception service, you can immediately begin offering bilingual services – without providing on-site training or incurring additional staffing-related expenses.

In the medical world, confidentiality is of the utmost importance. Hiring a bilingual medical receptionist service that uses encrypted technology and has experienced, HIPAA-trained medical receptionists ensures this isn’t a worry.

Reduces your office space

Using a virtual bilingual receptionist means your office no longer requires sizeable front office space to house numerous office professionals. You can use that extra space in several creative ways, including:

•  Increasing the number of waiting rooms and growing the number of patients you see,
• Creating more storage for additional medical supplies and equipment to improve the patient experience, or
• Housing an affiliate healthcare C-suite level professional that adds other service offerings to your office.

If there’s no need for any of those additions, you can reduce your office space by moving to a smaller location (and saving costs).

1. Increases your patient base

Offering medical services in two languages makes your practice more attractive to a broader range of potential patients. Your schedule will start filling up with more and more patients. As a result, you’ll begin to maintain a predictable cash flow cycle at your practice.

Those profits increase even more when you hire a bilingual medical reception service that provides after-hour services.

Using a bilingual medical reception service that supports patients 24/7 ensures that patients will always reach a live person, no matter the time of day. That’s hugely important in the medical world, where you’re accurately aware that patient care happens around the clock.

Offering this level of care can also dramatically increase patient satisfaction and open the door for a positive referral. This, in turn, leads to another increase in patient load and office cash flow.

2. Improves the patient care experience

Contacting a medical office for medical advice can often be a stress-filled experience. For some, making the call to seek expert medical help can be anxiety-inducing and something they put off for as long as possible.

Once they contact your office, communicating can be frustrating throughout the consulting, planning, and problem-solving involved with medical care. And when you provide that service in a patient’s non-native language, it can become even more overwhelming.

Offering bilingual reception services can make patients feel more comfortable explaining their medical concerns. Rather than have patients struggle to communicate with your office in your native tongue, patients can do so in a more familiar language.

Everything from the intake process to scheduling a follow-up appointment becomes more accessible and convenient – exactly how healthcare should operate. And accessibility and convenience are crucial to building outstanding patient-practitioner relationships.

Patients may seek medical advice from an alternative service provider if you don’t offer bilingual services.

But when you do, your patients may be more likely to reach out in the future when they require additional medical assistance.

3. Creates better quality healthcare

Healthcare delivery and patient safety also improve with fewer language barriers. This study found a high risk of error when communicating with patients with limited English proficiency. Addressing language challenges creates better healthcare access, patient satisfaction, and communication.

The care can extend past the patient to their family, too. For example, communicating using a patient’s native language helps their family better understand the diagnosis and available treatment options.

4. Helps increase competitiveness

Medical services can be highly competitive unless you offer something that sets you apart.

A bilingual medical reception service can be a great way to stand out. Offering services in both English and Spanish can quickly boost your professional image. It shows you have strong values, priorities, and goals as a medical professional. Plus, it demonstrates you’re doing everything possible to meet the needs of all.

For medical offices that offer virtual services, this is especially helpful. No longer are you limited to only English-speaking customers in your local region. You can now speak to potential patients from around the world.

Making a first impression is crucial in developing a solid patient-medical professional relationship. Offering bilingual support and the medical experience patients need leads to long-lasting patient relationships.

You are no longer constantly seeking new patients to join your practice. Instead, you can focus on caring for your successful patient load.

A bilingual medical reception service: the answer you’ve been looking for.

Reaching more of the Spanish-speaking community isn’t as difficult as you think.

With the help of our highly skilled, HIPAA-trained bilingual medical receptionists, your patients start receiving better care – from the moment they call your office.

We offer after-hours answering, medical appointment scheduling, and new patient intake – at a fraction of the cost of an in-house receptionist. You can stay connected to your patients in real-time through our mobile app and medical live chat.Contact us today for detailed plans and prices and to learn more about the benefits we can offer your practice.