You may have heard of the option of virtual secretaries, and thought it sounded like a good idea, until you remembered that because of the nature of your business, such an option wouldn't work for you.  If you are involved in the medical profession then obviously you have very different needs than most businesses.  Most businesses will be taking messages on retail possibilities.  Medical answering services could literally be involved in life-threatening situations.  There are moral and legal ramifications to consider here.

Ordinarily, a doctor would have to hire a full staff of workers, or at least one secretary that is experienced with medical secretarial work.  However, there is another option: the medical answering service.  Certain companies only provide medical answering services (as opposed to retail) so that physicians and other doctors do not have to worry about any long delays or amateur mistakes. 

Such a service will usually include more than just a virtual (or telecommuting) secretary.  In addition, the physician gets cost-effective operator delivery, voice mail, text messaging, email messaging and paging services.  Furthermore, when you order medical outsourcing services, you can have full confidence that the secretaries you work with have experience in answering for medical offices.  They will have had experience in answering medical calls and know how to respond even in emergency situations. 

All calls that go to your office will be handled promptly and efficiently by an answering service.  You will not have to worry about your clients being placed on hold in favor of retail or tech support representatives.  Your clients will not have to 'compete' for attention.  This is important, because no one wants to be kept waiting when the issue is a medical one.  People can wait to learn how to install Windows Vista or on how much door replacements costs.  People are not so receptive to waiting when they are calling about the results of a diabetes test. 

Therefore, the best answering service will only offer you operators with HIPAA training behind them.  HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Probability and Accounting Act.  If you want the highest of quality workers answering phones for your office, and don't want to take chances with outsourced Indian call reps, then look into HIPAA-trained medical personnel.  This is a great way to accelerate your practice without having to spend too much money on hiring new employees.  There are specialized answering services available and you and your clients can benefit from this provision.