{"id":947,"date":"2017-07-19T13:45:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T20:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.sprucehealth.com\/?p=947"},"modified":"2026-01-09T07:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:26:18","slug":"ditch-medical-answering-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sprucehealth.com\/blog\/ditch-medical-answering-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Ditch Your Medical Answering Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

$400 a month?\u00a0$554<\/a> a month?!? When I set out to research\u00a0how much medical answering services cost, I was a bit shocked by what I found. The cheapest price I came across\u00a0for a service that could at least spell “HIPAA” correctly was $65 per month, and\u00a0most of them were closer to $200 or more.<\/p>\n

This surprised me because the core functionality of a medical answering service is pretty simple: take a verbal message from whoever is calling and relay it to a covering\u00a0doctor in some text format. I’m an emergency medicine physician, so I’m always calling\u00a0other doctors’ offices outside of business\u00a0hours and getting their answering services. I’ve interacted with hundreds or maybe thousands of them by this point, covering surgical clinics, primary care groups, psychiatry practices, and all manner of other specialties. You name it, I’ve called it, and the answering services are all about the same from the caller\u00a0side.<\/p>\n

So why does it cost you so much for me or, more importantly, your patients to get you a simple text message? This is 2017, and you should\u00a0ditch your medical answering service right now because…<\/p>\n

Spruce Can Be Your Answering Service<\/h1>\n

Yes, Spruce can easily and painlessly replace your medical answering service. And save you money. I’m biased, but I promise it makes sense, so hear me out.<\/p>\n

We built Spruce with\u00a0powerful, flexible telephony and messaging features so that healthcare organizations could run\u00a0their entire\u00a0operations on the platform, coordinating teams and modernizing both in-person and telemedicine care. We weren’t designing it to be used as a simple answering service, but it turns out to fit that bill perfectly. It’s kind of like how memory foam was invented by NASA<\/a> for aircraft safety but I mostly use it to make my mattress more comfortable.<\/p>\n

Let’s check out a dead simple way to set up Spruce for a medical answering service workflow…<\/p>\n

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The Answering Service Workflow on Spruce<\/h1>\n
    \n
  1. Make a provider account on Spruce<\/a>.<\/strong>
    \nWe’ll give you a new second phone number right after you sign up, and we can even provision\u00a0you multiple numbers, too, if you want; the sky is the limit. Then, install the Spruce app on your iPhone or Android device, and you’ll be able to\u00a0make\u00a0and receive calls from your new number. Any\u00a0voicemails you get will be\u00a0stored permanently and securely,\u00a0and they’ll also be transcribed right in the app in a HIPAA-compliant way. You now have a true second phone line for medical use.<\/li>\n
  2. Invite your teammates.<\/strong>
    \nUse Spruce to invite your teammates aboard.\u00a0You’ll all have access to\u00a0the same inbox, and everybody\u00a0will be able to make calls from your new number and see messages and transcriptions for every patient. You’ll also be able to message each other within a patient thread to coordinate care behind the scenes. Now you have a second phone line that you can seamlessly share with your whole group!<\/li>\n
  3. Set your notifications.
    \n<\/strong>Each team member can set their own notification preferences independently. Do you want to get push notifications for every patient call or message? Just some patients? No patients at all? You can set up Spruce\u00a0however you want. If you’re on call, then you\u00a0can leave your notifications on. If it’s your night or weekend off, then you can mute everything.<\/li>\n
  4. Choose your ring preferences.
    \n<\/strong>Spruce lets you flexibly handle incoming calls. You can have\u00a0any incoming call ring multiple phones at once. Or you can set\u00a0all incoming calls to go directly to voicemail, saving you bothersome rings. A custom voicemail greeting can explain to your patients that they should leave a message and that your team will get it, even after hours. Spruce also supports\u00a0an “urgent” option for your callers, if you choose to enable\u00a0it, letting you\u00a0know when a patient\u00a0really thinks that something needs attention. You can change these call\u00a0settings any time you want and as many times as you want, giving you complete control.<\/li>\n
  5. Give your patients your\u00a0new number and\u00a0say goodbye to your answering service.
    \n<\/strong>After the four\u00a0steps above, you’ll be ready to use Spruce as your answering service. When a patient calls,\u00a0they’ll leave a voicemail\u00a0and then Spruce will let you know when\u00a0both the message and its transcription are ready for your attention. Ring preferences and notification settings will\u00a0make sure that only the relevant people on your team are looped in, and you can cancel your expensive answering service.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Advantages of Using Spruce as Your Answering Service<\/h1>\n

    Spruce can be a simple drop-in replacement for your existing answering service, but its powerful feature set means that it also has\u00a0many benefits over a traditional answering service.<\/p>\n