Remote working for your healthcare practice

It is safe to say that healthcare as an industry has experienced a stressful period since the Winter of 2019. The pandemic has applied pressure in ways that most healthcare practices would not have predicted, but being on the front line, they did not falter, and they have been pushing through every obstacle to ensure everyone’s safety. One of the biggest changes that society has experienced since the start of the pandemic is the transition to remote working. With the national lockdowns, many organisations had to transition parts of their operations to remote working to stay online and operational.

Healthcare practices were inundated with panicked calls from the public, and to keep operations online during such a stressful time period and team members safe, many healthcare practices switched to remote working. The benefits of remote working are endless, but for healthcare practices such as yours, there are some key benefits that are worth keeping remote working practices online, even after the pandemic.

Better appointment attendance

Attending your healthcare practice for a follow-up appointment or a check-in, isn’t always ideal. Those who are working will have to take time off to attend the practice, factoring in travel time and traffic, and those who have a limited means of transportation or have difficulties with mobility will find it more difficult to attend appointments. A simple solution to a problem with appointment attendance is deploying a video chat system that allows your patients to simply join you online from wherever they are, eliminating the need to come into the practice unless a physical examination is necessary.

Reduce the spread, and save lives

Adding a video chat not only increases your appointment attendance rate, but it also reduces the spread of contagious illnesses, such as seasonal viruses. The likelihood of someone who is not infected picking up a contagion from a patient waiting to be seen is much higher than if they didn’t have to attend the practice at all. This not only keeps your patients healthier but also the general population. Video chat can also assist with a more efficient triage, since many visits to the Doctors’ surgery are patients that did not require a physical appointment.

Improve patient experience and team efficiency

Remote working entirely for healthcare practices is impossible, since there is a degree of physical presence and contact that is necessary. However, there are areas, such as administration, that can operate remotely, keeping these team members safer. One simple way to achieve this is through a web chat software, such as Click4Assistance, allowing your patients to easily instant message your team right from your practice’s website. Eliminating the long waiting queue on the phone, patients will be more likely to use web chat software to contact your healthcare practice since it is much more convenient and allows the patient to carry on with other tasks, rather than spending an indefinite time waiting in a telephone queue.

Booking appointments online

While this isn’t exactly remote working, it does tie in with an improved patient experience for your healthcare practice, and improves your team’s efficiency. With web chat software, your patients can easily book appointments or order new prescriptions on your practice’s website, allowing your remote working team to pick up the messages on their dashboards.

Who is Click4Assistance?

Click4Assistance is a web chat software provider based in the UK. They have been supporting healthcare practices, just like yours for over 15 years. Their complete suite of customer service solutions are remotely accessible so your team can seamlessly work form home: live chat, video chat, Click2Call, direct messages, AI chatbots, and even your own CRM integrated. If you’re interested in deploying Click4Assistance, the UK’s premier GDPR compliant live chat software solution, to digitally transform your health practice, give us a call on 0845 123 5871 or send an email to theteam@click4assistance.co.uk and one of our experts will be with you right away. Not ready to reach out yet? Discover how it works, try a demo, or better yet, try Click4Assistance completely free for 21 days.