It is time to change your physicians answering service when patients complain about how their calls were handled, when urgent calls do not reach your on-call clinician the way your protocol says they should, when messages arrive wrong or late, or when the service cannot show you how it protects patient information. One bad night can happen anywhere. A pattern is a reason to switch.
Below are the six signs to watch for, how to check each one without relying on anecdotes, and what to do before you switch.
1. It cannot show you how it protects patient information
Every call your answering service takes for your practice carries protected health information: a name, a callback number, a reason for calling. If you are a HIPAA covered entity, the service is generally a business associate, and you need a Business Associate Agreement in place. If your current provider has no BAA with you, will not explain how messages are stored and delivered, or cannot tell you who has access to them, that is the most serious sign on this list.
See HIPAA-compliant answering services: what you need to know and what a BAA with an answering service should cover.
How to check: ask for a copy of your signed BAA and a written description of how messages are protected in storage and delivery.
2. Patients wait on hold or give up
If patients tell your staff they were on hold for a long time, or that they called the after-hours line and gave up, the service may not be staffed for your call volume at the hours you need it. Long holds are especially hard on patients who are worried or unwell.
How to check: ask the provider for a report of hold times and abandoned calls for your account, by hour. Place a few test calls yourself at different times, including evenings and weekends.
3. Agents do not sound like your practice
Complaints about rude, rushed or confused agents, or agents who mispronounce common medical terms and medication names, tell you the service is not trained on your calls. Patients judge your practice by the voice that answers in its name.
How to check: listen to recordings if the service keeps them, or place test calls with common scenarios: a refill request, a new-patient inquiry, a question about directions. Ask how agents are trained for healthcare calls and how your script is kept up to date.
4. Coverage has gaps
Patients call outside office hours, and some of those calls cannot wait. If your service does not answer at every hour you forward to it, including weekends and holidays, or if calls fall back to voicemail at certain times, you have a gap your patients will find before you do.
How to check: compare the hours in your agreement with what actually happens. Test calls on a holiday and late at night tell you more than a sales sheet. See after-hours, overflow or 24/7 answering for how coverage is set up.
5. Urgent calls do not follow your protocol
Your practice decides which calls are urgent and who gets them. Agents should ask your screening questions, contact your on-call clinician in the order you set, and move to the next person if nobody answers within the time you set. They should not decide clinical questions themselves. If an urgent call has reached the wrong person, reached nobody, or was held until morning when your protocol said otherwise, the service is not following your rules.
How to check: place a test call that should escalate under your protocol, let the first contact deliberately not answer, and see what happens. Our guide to designing an on-call escalation protocol explains what to test.
6. Messages are wrong or late
A misspelled name, a wrong callback number or a missing detail turns a message into extra work for your staff and a delay for the patient. Occasional errors happen anywhere; frequent ones mean the service's process or training is not working for you.
How to check: for two weeks, have your staff note every message that needed correction or arrived late. Share the list with the provider and ask what it will change.
Before you switch
- 1Raise it first. Give your current provider the specific examples and a chance to fix them. Sometimes the problem is an outdated script or on-call schedule.
- 2Read your agreement. Check the notice period, any termination terms and what happens to your message history and recordings.
- 3Write down what you need. Your hours, call types, urgent criteria, on-call order and delivery preferences. This becomes the brief for the next provider.
- 4Vet the replacement properly. Use the questions to ask an answering service, ask for a BAA up front, and test before you forward.
- 5Plan the cutover. Run the new service's test calls while the old one is still answering, then change forwarding on a quiet day.
Our guide to switching answering services without dropping calls covers the cutover step by step.
What to look for in the next service
- A BAA you can review before you sign up, and specific answers about safeguards and access.
- Coverage at every hour you need, including weekends and holidays.
- A script and escalation protocol written with you and approved by you.
- Agents who follow your rules and do not give medical advice.
- Message delivery to the right person by the channel you choose.
- Billing you understand before you sign.
Answering365's medical answering services answer patient calls 24/7/365 in English and Spanish, with HIPAA-compliant handling, custom scripts and protocols, and emergency dispatching to your on-call staff. For examples, see our case studies.
How do I know if my physicians answering service is the problem?
Look for patterns, not single incidents: repeated patient complaints, urgent calls that did not follow your protocol, messages that regularly need correction, or gaps in coverage. Test calls at different hours are the quickest way to see what patients experience.
Will switching answering services disrupt patient calls?
It does not have to. Set up and test the new service while the old one is still answering, then change call forwarding. Your phone number stays the same if you forward rather than port.
For the full process of choosing a provider, see the answering service buyer's guide.
Next step: plan the move in switching answering services: moving your number and scripts without dropping calls.
Read the buyer's guide, or call Answering365 at 888-588-9800 to talk about your practice's calls.
