Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has seen a massive shift in how business is conducted on a global scale. There’s been home schooling, work-from-home scenarios, and drastic reductions in sit-down dining, all in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
While well-intentioned and somewhat successful, these efforts have not completely halted the spread of the virus. As such, our healthcare industry is as important as it's ever been. And for an industry this vital, advanced communications tools can help medical professionals operate in collaborative efforts, and also maintain a connection to the patients they serve.
Cloud-hosted VoIP is one of the most versatile instruments in a doctor’s virtual medical bag, with the ability to enable meetings, webinars, and conferences online, as well as provide face-to-face tele-medicine. This crucial component of modern life is also a valuable resource for healthcare professionals on the frontlines, as it can improve patient-provider communication.
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How Cloud Hosted Benefits Healthcare
Face-to-face communication between doctors and patients will always be the ideal. Not only is it better for the patient to experience the humanity of a comforting bedside manner, but medical professionals also prefer it because of the cut-and-dry HIPAA compliance rules.
If you work in any sort of healthcare practice, you’re intimately familiar with HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which obligates all healthcare providers to safeguard the privacy of the personal health information of patients. It’s about securing patient files, and keeping that information out of reach of any unauthorized parties.
HIPAA also covers digital voice through a combination of best practices and technology tools. As a medical professional, when you store voicemails and recorded calls, “personal health information” becomes “electronic personal health information.” In the cloud, stringent security is utilized to lock down or encrypt information so that it's safe from theft.
Let's take a deeper look at the ways cloud-hosted VoIP benefits the healthcare industry.
Share Systems Across Multiple Locations
With cloud-hosted VoIP, the building no longer matters. Cloud communications can gather multiple locations under one shared administrative account—this means shared phone numbers, recordings, menus, and more. Naturally, this saves money previously spent on individual phone lines, but it also allows users to dial any phone as an in-network extension, with all the critical call-handling features that help a business run efficiently.
Access Patient Info More Efficiently
Cloud phone systems integrate with business CRM software to provide customer service agents with client info—similarly, an integration between cloud systems and Practice Management Software (PMS) pops patient info onto the screens of medical professionals. This saves office time when making appointments, handling insurance claims, and interacting with patients in general. Dialing out to patients is simplified as well, as a click-to-dial functionality can be accessed.
Make & Receive Phone Calls From Any Location
Internet-based cloud technology harnesses the power of softphone applications that run on computers and smartphones. These apps offer doctors the tools needed to access phone systems remotely, giving them the ability to answer work calls and dial out to patients without sharing their personal cell phone number. When making a work call, the medical professional’s outbound caller ID displays the office number and this technology also allows the doctor to easily transfer the call to other colleagues.
Limit Patient Interaction
From the grocery store to family gatherings, everyone is attempting to keep the number of people they come into contact with on a daily basis to a minimum. And an enclosed doctor’s office is the last place where people should be forming a crowd. Cloud-based communications cuts down time spent in a medical facility by utilizing SMS messaging as a way to alert patients of the exact moment the doctor can see them. This drastically slashes waiting room duration, going further to safeguard the health of both staff and patients.
Check the Vital Signs of Your Communications with CCi Voice
The present day is showing us all exactly how crucial the healthcare industry is—and as the leading medical advancements must be made available to personnel on the frontlines, so should the most beneficial communication system.
Contact CCi Voice to learn more about the cloud-hosted VoIP treatment for your healthcare operation.
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