Physicians Answering Service

Physicians Answering Service gives medical practices a live voice on the phone around the clock, so patients reach a real person instead of a busy signal or a voicemail box. The company is based in Portland, Oregon, and positions itself as a call center USA option built specifically for healthcare, with customized answering solutions for the West Coast and clients across the United States and Canada. The core offering is an after-hours answering service that runs 24/7 and handles whatever patients bring to the line. Appointment scheduling and confirmation is available as a web-based service, which frees front desk staff for other work. Secure messaging runs on the Startel Secure Messaging platform, which delivers HIPAA-compliant messages by fax, voicemail, pager or email. The Startel SM+ app supports encrypted texts, receipt notifications, remote wipe, voice and image attachments and auto-expiring messages. For busy daytime periods, the team also takes overflow calls and handles emergency dispatch, which works as affordable outsourcing of customer support when your own staff are stretched. The company serves doctors' offices, clinics, hospices and dental offices. Doctors' offices use it to cover patient issues outside business hours. Clinics rely on it to keep up with high call volume from patients and other medical professionals. Hospice teams use it to make sure family members are supported when they call, and dental offices use it for scheduling, new patient questions and dental emergency dispatch. What sets the team apart is experience and continuity. Many employees have 20 years or more in the office, and a Portland physician quoted on the site points to staff consistency and the fact that operators know the clients they speak with. The company says its pricing has no hidden fees or fine print. It has also rebuilt after a four-alarm fire destroyed its Macadam Avenue offices in January 2018. If your practice is weighing an answering service as part of its back office and patient communication setup, Physicians Answering Service is worth a conversation. Reach out through the profile to request a quote or ask how their coverage would fit your office.