Power Outages Recovery
By · CommentsHospitals and medical centers are the life support system in times of both crisis and general healthcare. Over the past few years, a large part of the country has experienced severe weather-related disasters, including damage from hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If a power outage occurs, monitors, oxygen pumps, and other valuable equipment can stop working and threaten the lives and well-being of patients. Power outages cannot be predicted and can sometimes last as long as two weeks; but with some planning, your medical center can be prepared when a disaster strikes.
Most power outages seem to occur during the spring and summer months, and with us approaching this time again, we are here to let you know there are a number of steps you can take to minimize the effects of an outage to your medical center. We’ve developed a list that will help you create an efficient disaster recovery plan and drastically reduce the negative effects to your company:
- Identify your risks and establish a recovery location for back-up systems, records, and supplies.
- Know the contact information for your patients’ families, vendors, etc.
- Have access to multiple and reliable methods of communicating with your staff and patients.
- Enlist the help of backup power generators!
Using Cosmopolitan Medical Communications as your off-site medical answering service would be highly beneficial to your medical center. We can quickly pull the needed resources to take over your center until you’re back on your feet. In the meantime, Cosmopolitan can handle your phone calls, schedule appointments, take messages, and more. We are available 24 hours a day to respond to patients concerns, and offer peace of mind to you and your staff.
Call us today to start your disaster recovery plan!
Cosmopolitan’s Disaster Recovery Plan
By · CommentsDisasters can happen to anyone at any time, and we urge our clients to develop a recovery plan. Arranging for an off-site answering service to handle your phone calls, take orders and make appointments is an important part of creating an effective disaster recovery plan. But what happens if Cosmopolitan gets hit with a disaster? Having been in business for over 35 years, Cosmopolitan Medical Communications has had the opportunity to ensure back up measures are in place for all aspects of our business.
Our office has fiber laid that travels two directions outside of our building to two different central offices at the phone company Cosmopolitan partners with. Should a problem arise with phone services, our system automatically reverts to the alternate set of phone lines traveling to the alternate central office location. We also use VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), which allows us to maintain telephone service via the internet to ensure our clients never lose phone calls.
We also have power backup in case we should lose power. While our battery backup system is being utilized, our on-site, diesel generator is automatically started. Having an on-site, diesel generator guarantees power backup at our own location. Our battery backup and generator even provide power to our air conditioning units, to ensure an adequate working environment for our staff during these times. Cosmopolitan backs up our systems on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. If we ever experienced a systems failure, we can simply load our backups and resume services to our clients allowing for instantaneous recovery.
If a major disaster strikes and prevents us from resuming normal operations in our office, we have a Disaster Recovery Agreement with another contact center in another state that allows us to either have our Team travel to their location, or route all our calls to their facility. Cosmopolitan Medical Communications is fully prepared for any situation to ensure your business and clients are taken care of. “We have backups for our backups.” –Vice President Michelle Weiss
Contact us today for a custom quote to start your disaster recovery plan!
Bilingual Medical Call Center
By · CommentsWhat happens when you receive a frantic call from a first time mother requesting an emergency appointment for their young child? Did we mention she is speaking Spanish and it’s 2 a.m.? Language can certainly be an obstacle when scheduling medical services on the telephone, wasting time and possibly losing revenue through miscommunication. Save your staff the stress of trying to break down this barrier by using our professional bilingual medical call center!
At Cosmopolitan Medical Communications, we provide your office and patients with 24-hour bilingual services. Cosmopolitan Medical bilingual Team Members are trained to provide Spanish-speaking patients with excellent customer service. Our bilingual Team can also answer many patient questions; however, we also know that there are questions that only a physician should answer. In this case, we will be sure to leave a detailed message for the doctor to follow up with the patient during office hours. If the on-call doctor doesn’t speak Spanish, AnswerNow will be able to provide bilingual interpretation between the patient and the Doctor.
Your Spanish-speaking patients will feel cared for and they will have the confidence that their health is in the best care possible, no matter what time, day or night. Cosmopolitan will follow an on-call schedule provided by your practices so as not to disturb anyone who does not need to be bothered. We are here to answer your phone calls around the clock so that you don’t have to.
It can be difficult for a company to employ enough staff members to ensure their Spanish-speaking clients are served, let alone provided with the same level of quality service that the company aims to deliver.
Make sure and contact us today!
Cosmopolitan Helps Nurses
By · CommentsPatients receive a lot of information after their appointment: prescriptions, personal care and follow-up instructions, so it’s no surprise that your office may experience an abundance of calls two or three days later to ask questions regarding their post-discharge instructions. We’ve already mentioned a few ways to relieve some of the stress of your nurses with our “Love Your Nurses” blog, including taking them off phones and delegating responsibilities amongst staff. You can read the full post here.
We know it can be a challenge for patients to come home from the hospital and keep track of all their vital post-discharge responsibilities. So what happens when your patients are filling up the phone lines with requests for information regarding follow-up instructions and questions about medications? Cosmopolitan is here to help streamline this by offering support not only to the patients, but to you and your medical staff working hard to fill the void.
We offer follow-up calls at 24-hour and 72-hour intervals or any customized time as determined by your office, ensuring your patients are on track. We assist with instructions, prescription routines, follow-up appointments, and many other common questions. By using our service, you and your staff save valuable office time, the patient feels supported, and all their needs are met in the most professional manner by the partnership between our staff and yours.
Call us today to get a quote! 1-800-900-0101
A Nurses Perspective
By · CommentsDid you catch our recent post, “Love Your Nurses: Make Your Office More Efficient?” It discussed how hard nurses work to assist the doctor, keep up with patient care, and maintain appointments. Nurses show commitment to their patients, the community, and of course the nursing profession. However, helping with administrative duties can, in many cases, take away from caring for patients.
Nurses are always prepared, even if there are cases they are unfamiliar with. What nurses do has a direct impact on a patient’s progress. For instance, they interact with not only the patient but with the patient’s family as well. They see patients on their good and bad days, celebrating them when they’re feeling strong, and helping them through times when they feel weak. Nurses are constantly learning new things, taking in the insights of doctors, patients, office managers, and even other nurses. As the office manager, you work hard to give everyone what they need so that patients receive a high quality of care, so how do you keep your front line nurses from feeling overwhelmed?
Shift some of the administrative responsibilities to us! Like we said in our “Love Your Nurses” blog, “nurses are crucial to the process of patient care, and it is your job as an office manager to make sure they feel their daily list of tasks is manageable.” Nurses should not have to answer phones, make appointments, and make calls regarding lab results. Their focus should be on the patients in the office! Cosmopolitan Medical Communications can help with the administrative tasks, allowing your nurses to put their wide variety of skills to better use! We can contact your patients and provide them with their lab results and make sure they are following through on their after-care instructions.
Let your nurses focus on what really matters: patient care! Let Cosmopolitan handle the rest! Contact us today for a custom quote.
Support System
By · CommentsWe have written a few blog posts about making and maintaining resolutions, and how without an active support system, it can be difficult to follow through to the finish line. What makes an active support system? There are two people who are crucial – you and your patient. The most important way your patient can stay healthy is to be involved as an active member of their own health care team! Patients who have good relationships with their doctors tend to be more satisfied with their care—and have better results.
As the medical provider, it’s crucial to provide support to your patient as they’re about to embark on a long journey. Cosmopolitan has created a few ways to show your support:
● Provide plenty of information
● Create an open environment and allow for questions
● Follow up with patients who need it
Cosmopolitan Can Help!
If you’re finding that your schedule is filling up with follow-up appointments or your phones are overflowing with patient concerns, let Cosmopolitan help! We offer you complete “after hours” medical office solutions, which allow for professional, accurate and timely communications. Cosmopolitan offers everything you need to keep your operation running smoothly. In addition to be a medical answering service, Cosmopolitan offers on-call schedule management for physician practices, health plans and hospitals, virtual reception, appointment scheduling, and appointment reminders. We’re here for you during or after office hours.
Contact us today to start your custom quote!
Help Patients Maintain Resolutions
By · CommentsDid you catch our recent blog post, “Setting Realistic Goals”? Once you’ve made your resolution, now comes the difficult part – maintaining it. If you’ve prepared yourself for reaching your goal both mentally and physically, then it can be an easy journey. However, we know there are probably a good a good amount of people who still have a hard time sticking to their guns. It’s happened to the majority of us at one time or another!
As a doctor and/or medical advisor, it’s important you provide each patient with words of advice. They need to know that even though they have a hard habit to break or a difficult goal to reach, it can be done. Here are some tips that Cosmopolitan has come up with to help maintain goals:
● Analyze each step and allow for setbacks
● Take small steps to reach your goal
● Give each goal a meaning
● Don’t keep them to yourself, have a support system
How Cosmopolitan Can Help
We know how important your patients are, which is why we offer a wide variety of custom services to keep your practice running smoothly both day and night. With our medical messaging, we offer complete “after hours” medical office solutions. If you and/or your in-office staff are not available, Cosmopolitan Medical Communications will proudly work as a professional extension to your office! Your patients will receive sincere, quality service at all hours of the day.
Call us today for a custom quote! 1-800-913-1337
Love Your Nurses: Make Your Office More Efficient
By · CommentsWhile the doctor may be the one who has their name on the building, it is often the service of nurses that helps keep your office under control. A nurse is often the go-to person for questions or problems that may arise and is generally one of the main people responsible for the ever-impossible task of keeping appointments on schedule. Whether you employ one nurse in your office, or are running a hospital that has over 100 on staff, the job of a nurse can be extremely stressful. Nurses are crucial to the process of patient care, and it is your job as an office manager to make sure they feel their daily list of tasks is manageable. One way to do this is to take some steps toward organizing your office! There are several ways small changes of your office organization will benefit your nursing staff:
1) Take your nurses off the phones. Whether it is providing lab results or following up on a patient’s after care, many nurses get stuck making and taking phone calls during their work day. At Cosmopolitan, we will contact your patients and provide them with their lab results. We can also make sure that they are following through on their after-care instructions. We are 100% HIPAA compliant and likely much cheaper than your nurse! Being able to delegate responsibilities away from your nurses when possible will enable them to focus on what is really important (and more within their pay grade).
2) Make delegations among staff clear. Nurses often act as the middle-men between all the different functions of your office. Make it clear what exactly is expected of them during their shifts. They can certainly help others if they find themselves with additional time, but they should not feel like the doctor or administrative assistant’s tasks ultimately fall on their shoulders. If the rest of your office staff is not completing their share of responsibilities, consider bringing on additional help, or replacing staff members who are inefficient. While a nurse is an extremely valuable asset to your office, they cannot fulfill the role of multiple staff members and should not be expected to.
3) Switch to electronic medical records. Regardless of how efficient your staff is, paper documents have a habit of going missing as soon as they are needed. Looking for missing information is stressful, but searching for it may take valuable time out of your nurse’s day. By switching to an electronic system, the likelihood of documents going missing is greatly reduced, as are your nurses’ stress-levels. At Cosmopolitan, we even offer paperless messaging (sent via alpha page, email or text message), so even your afterhours information can be stored and sorted electronically, never to be lost again! Not only will electronic records reduce anxiety over lost documents, but it will greatly reduce the heaps of paper on your desk, allowing your staff more room to breathe.
Using these tips for organization, and any others you think may benefit your office, will greatly decrease the amount of pressure placed on your nursing staff. If your nurses are able to fulfill all of their primary job responsibilities, they will feel more appreciated and valuable to your team. If you can keep your nurses feeling happy and confident when coming to work, you will lower your turnover and keep your work-environment feeling more positive overall!
Preparing for the Worst
By · CommentsIf you think you are in a disaster-free area, you are wrong. Disasters come in all shapes and sizes and can happen at any time, so it’s your job to prepare yourself and your staff for the unthinkable. Whether the disaster is a hurricane, tornado or even an illness, how are you planning to pick yourself up? When the offices are flooding, the roof is on fire, or a patient has collapsed in your waiting room, keep calm and carry on!
We’ve discussed in previous blogs, like “Ready or Not…It can Happen to Anyone!” and “Disaster Recovery Checklist”, the importance of creating a disaster recovery plan. However, we haven’t covered a crisis involving patients. They either make appointments for routine checkups or due to an illness that requires immediate attention. What happens if the patient is far more ill than anticipated and faints in the waiting room? How quickly will your team respond? It’s extremely vital to have a plan in place for times like these. It’s a good idea to get emergency contact information for your patients in case of a scenario like this, and if one does occur, make sure you keep the phone nearby for a call to the ER if necessary. If the patient appears to be alright, still ensure that the patient has a safe ride home. What’s your protocol for situations like this?
Cosmopolitan Can Help
While your staff is focusing on emergency situations, Cosmopolitan can take care of everything else! Our medical call center team is available to help keep your office running smoothly with our medical answering service, virtual reception, appointment scheduling, and appointment reminders (live or automated). Our services are customizable and available 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Give us a call today to get started on creating your customized plan!
Set Realistic Goals
By · CommentsWith 2012 officially underway, it’s no surprise that goals and resolutions have been set worldwide. Some popular resolutions that are seen year after year include spending more time with family, losing weight, getting fit, and possibly quitting smoking and/or drinking. If successful, all of these resolutions would save time spent in the doctors’ office. In recent studies, over 66 percent of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese, which in turn can cause many health issues like heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Patients set goals for themselves in hopes of improving their lifestyle, with no idea what the medical risks may be. As a doctor and/or nurse, your duty is to provide comfort to patients. When they walk in your doors, chances are they are already nervous and are unsure about how to approach you with their questions and concerns. Help your patients’ turn worrisome, negative doctor’s appointments into simple, routine check-ups! Here are a few tips on keeping the appointment open and comforting:
- During a busy day, full of demands, it can be difficult to slow down and focus, so remember to listen intently.
- It can be tough to bounce between professionals who understand medical terminology and patients who may not. Don’t forget to answer their questions in a language they can decipher.
- Stay calm and smile!
Cosmopolitan is available to help doctors’ offices stay on track so that you can focus on helping your patients rather than answering phones. What kind of goals have you set for 2012? We’d love to hear about them, share with us on Facebook!