Medical providers of all types rely on their talented receptionists to take incoming phone calls and greet visitors. But at some offices, turnover is high. We’ve worked with clients caught in the turnover cycle – a cycle in which they finally have a new receptionist fully trained when another one quits. Could high call volumes be in play?
The receptionist in a typical family medicine environment needs to handle both phone calls and visitors. The pressure to help visitors is significant because there is direct, face-to-face contact involved. Unfortunately, high call volumes can prevent receptionists from devoting sufficient time to visitors. We wonder if the additional stress causes burnout.
One way we work with clients to avoid this sort of thing is to take some of that excess call volume. We can actually take all the office calls if that’s what management wants to do. Either way, preventing in-house staff from being overwhelmed by phone calls can go a long way toward relieving stress.
Call Center Turnover Rates Are High
Across the entire call center industry, turnover rates are actually fairly high. On average, it’s 30-40% annually. Furthermore, the number one reason employees cite for moving on is stress. Understanding what causes the stress is the first step in reducing turnover rates.
In a call center environment, stress is caused by:
- Constantly dealing with unhappy callers
- An inability to offer appropriate solutions
- Demanding performance targets
- Lack of support among management
Remember that all of this applies to the call center industry as a whole. Things may be very different in a GPs office or a group family medicine practice. The point of bringing it up is to present the idea that high turnover in a doctor’s office may be the result of stress. And part of that stress might be related to high call volumes.
Phones Can Be an Interruption
Patients see phone calls as a means of communicating with the office. Clinicians and practice owners look at phones as a way to serve patients. But in reception, phone calls are often seen as distractions. Receptionists have other tasks to do, tasks they get pulled away from every time the phone rings.
If a receptionist’s workload is heavy without phone calls, it gets heavier when she needs to answer the phone. Hearing the phone ring can easily become a stress-inducing cue that leaves her anxious throughout the day. Enter the medical answering service.
What We Can Do
Here at Apello, medical answering services are our area of expertise. We can actually help take the excess burden off your reception staff so that their stress levels are not so high. For example, we can have your calls forwarded to us. We have fully trained personnel who specialize in medical calls. They can answer, take messages, schedule appointments, and even provide triage.
We essentially act as a supplemental reception staff handling calls at whatever level you need. We can take them all or just be there to handle excess traffic when the phones get busy. Of course, we can take all your calls after hours. From taking messages to forwarding calls to getting patients in touch with their doctors in an emergency, we can handle it all.
There is no way for us to know for sure whether high turnover rates in medical reception are because of excess call volumes. But it seems plausible. If your office has a high turnover rate among receptionists, at least consider bringing in a medical answering service to take some of the pressure off.
