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The client: a healthcare practice struggling to respond to patient calls and messages
The healthcare practice served more than 1,000 patients per month, with 30 medical professionals working alongside a receptionist and clinic administrators.
It offered medical consultations, prescription management, and follow-up care.
To book appointments, request prescription refills, and discuss follow-up care, patients had to call reception first, then wait for a transfer or leave a message for the appropriate clinician.
As patient volume increased, however, the receptionist struggled to answer incoming calls and respond to messages promptly.
Approximately 40% of calls went unanswered, and patients sometimes called again while waiting for a response. These repeat calls added to reception’s workload.
Further complicating the process, receptionists had to identify the purpose of incoming calls, determine which clinician should respond, and pass along messages when that clinician was unavailable.
Patient texting presented another concern.
Faced with pending patient questions and no clinic-owned texting channel, clinicians used their personal cell phones to exchange prescription updates and follow-up information.
Those conversations took place through personal messaging accounts, leaving the clinic unable to consistently review or manage the patient information clinicians shared.
The clinic needed to reduce missed calls and connect patients with the appropriate clinician. It also needed to protect patient information exchanged through calls and texts as part of its HIPAA obligations, including when practitioners worked away from the facility.
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4. Your clinic’s next chapter starts with iPlum
The challenge: unanswered calls and delayed patient follow-up
The practice’s communication process placed reception at the center of appointment requests, prescription inquiries, and clinical callbacks.
While the arrangement worked on slow days, it created the following bottlenecks as the practice grew and patient volume increased.
Reception could not answer incoming calls consistently
First, up to 4 in 10 incoming calls were not answered. And that’s because the receptionist had to divide her attention between answering new calls, transferring existing callers, and taking messages for unavailable clinicians.
As a result, receptionists fielded repeated inquiries about the same request, while other patients waited to get through.
Patient requests required repeated coordination
The ability to answer the call was only the first bottleneck.
Receptionists then had to determine what the patient needed, identify the appropriate clinician, and check their availability. If the clinician could not take the call, receptionists recorded the request and passed it along for a callback.
Thus, prescription questions and follow-up inquiries required several exchanges before reaching the practitioner responsible for the patient’s care.
Voicemail added to the callback backlog
The clinic reported that 40 to 60% of voicemail messages took more than 24 hours to receive a return call.
Receptionists had to listen to messages, identify the patient’s request, and route it to the appropriate practitioner. At the same time, new calls continued coming in. The growing backlog made it difficult to respond promptly to patients who had already left a message.
Personal messaging accounts limited oversight of patient information
Clinicians exchanged prescription updates and follow-up information through personal messaging accounts because the practice had no designated texting channel.
However, clinic administrators could not consistently manage access to those conversations or retain correspondence for later review. Retrieving a patient exchange depended on the practitioner who held the messages.
The practice therefore needed a communication system that addressed confidentiality, authorized access, and retention as part of its HIPAA procedures.
The solution: routing patient calls by purpose and introducing secure clinical messaging
The practice signed up for iPlum as a solution to change how incoming calls reach receptionists and clinicians, manage voicemail, and move patient texting into a clinic-owned, secure channel.
The implementation centered on the following parts of the patient communication process.
Configure a phone tree around common patient requests
The clinic set up iPlum’s phone tree with auto-attendant and extensions on its main number.
The phone tree allowed the facility to record a greeting that presented three options: press 1 for appointments, 2 for billing, or 3 for prescription refills.
The clinic assigned the corresponding extensions to the receptionists, billing administrators, and medical professionals responsible for those requests.
Practitioners also received individual extensions linked to their iPlum numbers. That way, they could answer calls through their existing smartphones, including when working away from the facility.
The configuration also specified where unanswered extension calls would go for voicemail.
Use voicemail transcription when reviewing callback requests
For calls that went unanswered, the practice incorporated voicemail transcription into its callback process.
Receptionists and clinicians could read a written version of a message through the iPlum app or portal. And, the original audio remained available for checking names, callback numbers, or details that required clarification.
With iPlum, receptionists could review voicemails about appointments, while clinicians handled prescription and follow-up questions. Both could read the transcription and return the patient’s call from their iPlum number.
Introduce secure patient messaging as part of the practice’s HIPAA procedures
The practice adopted iPlum’s HIPAA-compliant texting for prescription updates and follow-up discussions involving confidential patient information.
Clinicians used practice-managed business numbers for those exchanges. Patients could download the free iPlum app to participate in encrypted app-to-app conversations with their provider.
The business account also gave the practice a means to administer user access. Authorized users could review patient correspondence according to their assigned permissions.
The practice obtained a Business Associate Agreement from iPlum as part of the setup. Secure messaging, account permissions, and the agreement formed part of its procedures for protecting patient information.
With iPlum, the facility could also:
- Acknowledge missed calls with automatic text replies. The clinic could send patients a preset response explaining when reception would return their call.
- Prepare appointment reminders using scheduled texts. Receptionists could compose reminders in advance and select the date and time for sending them.
- Standardize routine messages with text templates. Receptionists could use approved wording for appointment confirmations, clinic directions, and opening hours, then add the relevant details before sending.
- Separate patient contact details from personal address books through Business Contacts. Clinicians could store patient numbers in iPlum’s encrypted contact container and access them through the app or portal.
- Set calling availability through Business Hours. Practitioners could define their working hours and route incoming calls to voicemail outside those periods.
The results: an 83% reduction in missed calls and 100% secure texting
Within three months of adopting iPlum, the practice reported an 83% reduction in its missed-call rate. Compared with the previous rate of 40%, the figures translate to:
- Missed calls decreased by 83% within three months.
- The missed-call rate dropped from 40% to 6.8%.
- The call answer rate increased from 60% to 93.2%.
- The practice achieved 100% secure patient texting
For a practice serving more than 1,000 patients per month, the change meant a greater proportion of callers reached reception or a clinician.
Your clinic’s next chapter starts with iPlum
If your facility struggles with missed calls and patient conversations on personal messaging accounts, both deserve attention.
With iPlum, your practice can combine a phone tree with HIPAA-compliant calling and texting. Receptionists can route inquiries to the appropriate clinician, while practitioners review voicemail transcriptions and exchange confidential messages through secure channels.
Your practice can also manage account access and obtain a Business Associate Agreement as part of its HIPAA procedures.
