Five years ago, remote healthcare staffing was a fancy term for call forwarding and emails. The virtual assistant answered the main phone from their home office, took a message, and emailed the practice. It worked. But barely. Technology was clunky, and the practice was forced to find a way to coordinate incoming calls in a manner that barely kept the wheels on the bus running together.
Now, the technology that drives healthcare staffing is worlds apart. And it’s more effective – and at times, easier – than working with in-house staff.
From Call Forwarding To Communication
The biggest shift has been how communication works.
Call forwarding was an effective means of getting virtual assistants involved in practice needs back five years ago. The main line of the practice got forwarded to the virtual assistant’s phone. They answered it; got what they needed; and then transmitted through email or a separate messaging system what they created as a “message.” Every action required a multiple step process.
Now, healthcare staffing platforms use VoIP directly integrated into practice management systems. The call comes through, a remote staffer can see caller ID straight from the practice’s files and then confirm their patient status based on appointment history, current prescriptions, and recent visits – all while they’re on the phone.
It’s like night and day. There’s no time for them to take a message and email it later. Remote staff can book appointments, note changes to status, and coordinate care while they keep someone on hold at the same exact time. It’s not faster – it’s providing better care than many in-house workers who’re stuck using older systems themselves.
Cloud Access That Works
Five years ago, remote staff had access to practice needs and made compliance officers cringe. Practices invested in VPN access, remote desktop options and other tedious means of getting remote assistants into systems they had no need accessing. It was slow and cumbersome, and so was the remote access security protocol; it put too many people on edge about compliance.
The move to cloud-based practice management systems has given remote assistants the easiest avenue of success as compliant access for anyone working from home is obtained without having to worry about technical issues.
And that’s more important than it sounds. When systems can load remotely in no time, complicated tasks can get completed quickly. Remote assistants aren’t only taking messages; they’re fielding schedules, performing verifications, working referrals, essentially doing the same work that required someone being there instead. Now, providers like My Mountain Mover healthcare staffing can offer services that technology hasn’t previously allowed.
Real-Time Coordination
Remote assistants used to have to wait for a response. Someone called with an issue; they emailed the provider; they waited until someone checked their email to get back to them. If it were urgent? They called – but then they got pulled off the line for follow-up.
Now, healthcare staffing operations use real-time communication solutions for medical purposes meant to provide instant messaging for collaborations both virtual and in-house.
No more WhatsApp or even typical uses of Slack. These systems are HIPAA compliant personal collaboration systems created for urgent communication.
So when a patient has something that requires immediate provider feedback, the remote assistant can message the clinical team with urgency and get feedback in seconds.
Intelligent Call Routing
Five years ago, call forwarding was call forwarding with no intelligent thinking; calls either went to the office or went to the remote assistant. There was no differentiating factor nor decision-making ability with something so simple and sometimes annoying.
Now, intelligent routing helps callers get where they need to be at all times – with rules associated with priority systems and availability. A patient calling with a question gets forwarded to remote assistants; a hospital calling with urgent lab results gets sent straight through to the practitioner; a pharmaceutical company? Voicemail.
It all takes place at a rapid pace based on caller ID, availability of staff, time of day and other critical pieces of information. Something that could only be handled by truly expensive enterprise phone systems now works through software that’s fractions less expensive.
Quality Monitoring and Training Tech
Here’s something that most practices forget about – how do you ensure quality when your staff isn’t under your direct supervision?
Five years ago – the answer was trust. Staffing companies would check on their staff, but the actual quality was never monitored much to anyone’s avail. The practice had to have faith that remote assistants were appropriate in their approach.
Today’s healthcare staffing companies use call recording options for quality control at a level that no traditional in-house intervention can offer. Screen shares and performance analytics provide practitioners more information than they’d ever get if they had their staff right in front of them.
Managers can request random monitoring of calls once or twice over time, review times from their recorded samples, call resolution percentages and find training needs based on metrics instead of anecdotes.
It’s actually better for remote assistants than it’s ever been for in-office staff as most practices don’t monitor their front-desk team at all.
Workforce Management Platforms
Coordinating schedules for remote healthcare staff used to be a manual spreadsheet nightmare who covers which practice who’s covering whose days What do we do if there’s a spike in callers? What do we do if someone calls out?
Now technology provides workforce management options like never before – automatically compiling data across integrated practices giving patients consistent coverage at all times – even if it’s not their preferred coverage option.
Patients don’t know who’s calling them because work-from-home software tracks volume levels across multiple engagements, forecasts busy times based on historical data previously assigned goals, and reallocates as needed dynamically with software most didn’t think possible five years ago.
The Security Revolution
HIPAA compliance prevented many places from considering remote healthcare staffing an option five years ago. Security systems were expensive but could secure access. Now they’re integrated into remote services thanks to built-in multi-factor authentication for all standard relative solutions.
Encryption of communication, automatic sessions that time out if idle and access logging provide greater security for remote assistants than traditional team members in-house.
An in-house employee might work through their personal devices; share passwords with their boss; have a computer open vulnerable for anyone coming into an office. A remote assistant won’t have these downsides – they’re employees whose access is monitored or logged.
What This Means For Practices
The technological improvements made over five years haven’t made healthcare staffing possible – they’ve made it preferable in some situations instead.
Remote assistants who work with modern technology can handle complex tasks with updated quality assurance better than traditional models in-house ever could offer.
They’re no longer a workaround – they’re a smarter option.
Those who rejected remote staffing possibilities five years ago due to inadequate technology should reconsider their options. The landscape has changed entirely – the experiment now looks like the future for how medical practices will cover their administrative needs.
Technology will change for the better. Voice AI for frequently asked questions. Predictive analytics for reinforcements needed. Greater integration across more systems – but it’s already changed in favor of remote healthcare staffing in ways it never was deemed feasible just 5 years before.
