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In short, a Virtual Medical Assistant (VMA) conducts administrative tasks to assist healthcare providers. The overall purpose of a VMA is to take care of all the smaller responsibilities you, a practising doctor, cannot get to. This, in turn, allows you the time to focus on the bigger picture: your practice and patients.

While a VMA is available as and when you require them throughout the day, work is carried out remotely and not on your premises.

Hiring a virtual assistant has become a popular trend across industries, with the medical sector also jumping on board. This shift towards using off-site assistants started a few years ago. With digital playing a far bigger role in our everyday lives, people are keeping track of their day-to-day activities online, syncing apps, emails, and calendars across all devices.

These developments in technology, with the advancement of high-speed internet, has made it easier for many to now work remotely. Thanks to this growth, technology, jobs, and tasks that once required close proximity can now be done from anywhere in the world.

What does a Virtual Medical Assistant do?

With a wide variety of administrative tasks as the main focus, these can include some or more of the following:

Scheduling

Manage the practice calendar by scheduling appointments in advance and sending appointment reminders to patients with upcoming visits.

Keeping patient records up to date

All information needs to be tracked and recorded for each patient to build an accurate medical history for future diagnosis. Your VMA will handle this.

Address general patient queries

Clearing out emails and dealing with queries that are admin related, such as payments, facilitating referrals, or document transcripts.

Insurance processing

Carry out pre-authorisation of consultations with insurance or medical aid and completing the paperwork for claims.

Office management

General office management tasks, such as taking care of ordering office and medical supplies.

You may think that hiring an assistant is only for celebrities or CEO’s of big corporations, but you will be pleasantly surprised at how much one can do for you.

If you are unsure about whether you really need a VMA, then we suggest you make a list of all the tasks you aren’t getting to and see for yourself where the gap is in your practice for a Virtual Medical Assistant.

Here are a few ways that you can benefit from a Virtual Medical Assistant:

You can focus on your practice

If you don’t have the time to do the administrative side of your practice, then these tasks could be easily transferred to a Virtual Medical Assistant.

More time can be placed on spending time with patients and growing your practice/clinic, the things you are actually passionate about. Furthermore, your work will encroach less on your personal life as you free up more time.

It’s a cost-effective solution

Save on the costs of having an in-room, full-time employee. Costs such as electricity, rent to accommodate additional desk space, or not having enough tasks to keep a full-time employee busy are all reasons why a virtual assistant would work best and is a far cheaper option.

Improve patient satisfaction

By allowing yourself more time to focus on the patient and less time on the admin, you have the opportunity to place emphasis on nurturing relationships. The likelihood of return patients and new patients through word of mouth increases as they will feel more valued, and not simply just a number.

They are tech savvy

We aren’t all tech-savvy, so save all those emails, downloading documents and updating systems to the VMA who is proficient in computer usage and has a natural flair for technology and administration.

Improve workflow

With the assistance of someone else, you can clear up that backlog of admin you’ve been putting off. You will find that once the administrative side of your practice is running smoothly, then everything else will fall into place.

Having daily tasks completed at a fast pace by a pro allows your business to continue without feeling like that pile of work is building up, giving you peace of mind.

Start your own practice

If you don’t already have your own practice, then hiring a Virtual Medical Assistant could be the first step to reaching this goal – based on all the benefits mentioned above. It’s a great way to launch a practice without having to hire someone full time while you still finding your feet.

Are you ready to loosen your grip on the reigns?

The great thing about a Virtual Medical Assistant is that you can choose what tasks you want to delegate to them and how involved you want them to be in your practice.

We suggest you delegate those tasks you don’t particularly enjoy to someone else who does, and who is naturally good at it, to make your life easier.

It may be a big step for you to even consider handing over tasks to someone new, but if you take the risk you will find that the reward is far greater.

Bringing someone new into your practice can appear challenging as you loosen your grip on the reigns, but there is no rush to completely hand everything over and you can move at your own pace, once you are feeling a little more comfortable.

For further peace of mind, it is important to consider working with a company you can trust, like Outsourcery. With a track record of successful placements of Virtual Personal Assistants in other industries, bringing in the addition of Virtual Medical Assistants was a natural step for us to take.

We employ the best of the best and guarantee a high standard of work with trustworthy, highly motivated individuals, so you know your practice is in good hands.

Are you ready to take your practice to the next level?

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