The demand for healthcare professionals have only increased over the years. More and more people are seeing the importance of looking after themselves from the get-go, making lives both more fruitful and equally busier for healthcare professionals. The more patients they deal with, the more administrative tasks they have to deal with on a regular basis. That’s where administrative assistants come in.
An Online Administrative assistant handles time-consuming administrative tasks so healthcare professionals can focus better on patient care. Traditionally, doctors hired assistants who worked on-site. These assistants offer direct assistance, but it greatly limits a doctor’s hiring options. The rise of the digital realm also saw the rise of employees who work completely remotely.
Clients Expressing Gratitude to DocVA
This technological advent has opened the door to a vastly more massive talent pool. Doctors can now hire administrative virtual assistants from around the world, allowing them to choose the perfect employee for their medical practice.
The Role of Administrative Virtual Assistants
An administrative virtual assistant is someone who takes on various clerical and administrative duties from a remote location. They handle tasks that range from managing calendars and scheduling appointments to customer service and data entry. Their work as a whole greatly reduces the administrative burden carried by healthcare professionals, greatly improving their work efficiency and career satisfaction.
The Difference Between an On-Site Administrative Assistant and a Virtual Administrative Assistant
Both on-site and virtual administrative virtual assistants perform the same tasks. They do paperwork, answer emails and phone calls, and basically tend to the needs of the healthcare professional they work for. The key difference between the two lies in the delivery of their service.
While an on-site assistant works within the confines of the clinic, a virtual assistant leverages technology to work from a remote location. Virtual assistants have the advantage of being more flexible and accessible beyond the usual office hours, which is highly valuable in the healthcare industry given the need for round-the-clock support.
Doctors also have the pleasure of hiring an assistant from anywhere in the world when they choose to hire a virtual assistant over an on-site assistant. This allows them to sift through a line up of qualified applicants to find one that is not only skilled and experienced but also someone who fits perfectly with their work culture.
Benefits of Hiring Online Administrative Assistants
The accessibility of online administrative assistants offers numerous benefits that go beyond reducing the workload of healthcare professionals.
Access to a Global Talent Pool
The biggest advantage of hiring a virtual administrative assistant, as previously iterated, is the access to a global talent pool. Traditionally, when a doctor hires an assistant, they are limited to local candidates only. Now, doctors can hire the employee that fits best with their practice from anywhere in the world.
Cost-Effective Method
Hiring an online administrative assistant is a more cost-effective solution than hiring an on-site employee. Virtual assistants can work on a contract or a freelance basis, which eliminates the cost of full-time employment benefits. Doctors who hire full-time can still cut costs given the overhead expenses of an in-house employee such as office space and materials.
Easier Scalability
As a healthcare practice grows, doctors must also scale up the administrative support for their clinic. Opting to hire virtual employees is a breeze for scalability. Doctors can easily add or remove more employees depending on the needs of their clinics, a factor significantly more tricky when dealing with on-site full-time employees.
Efficient Completion of Administrative Tasks
Administrative virtual assistants are highly trained to handle a variety of administrative tasks efficiently. After all, it’s what their career entails. Whether it’s scheduling appointments, managing medical records, organizing patient files, or tending to patient inquiries online, they are more than skilled and willing to handle the responsibility.
Increased Productivity
By reducing the workload that burdens a medical clinic, the presence of an administrative assistant greatly increases productivity. Through thorough and meaningful assistance, healthcare providers can focus more on treating patients and doing other meaningful work. On the other hand, an administrative assistant will deal with the clerical tasks that the clinic equally requires tending to for it to run efficiently.
Reduced Risk of Burnout
Burnout is unfortunately all too common within the world of healthcare. Doctors who face a mountain of both clinical and administrative duties can face burnout quickly and way too often. By delegating these tasks to an administrative assistant, healthcare professionals experience reduced stress and maintain a healthier work-life balance.
Better Patient Outcomes
When a healthcare professional has more time and energy to spend on patients rather than tedious administrative work, patient outcomes improve naturally. A virtual assistant can also make sure that tasks such as appointment reminders, follow-ups, and patient inquiries are handled efficiently, further contributing to the enhancement of the patient experience.
Better Technological Management
Virtual assistants are tech-savvy professionals, given the nature of their work. They study and face software and applications regularly and are used to adapting to newer technology. This is one of the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant over an on-site assistant. They are better equipped to handle technological applications such as electronic health records systems, management software, scheduling software, and more, allowing your practice to operate with greater efficiency through the help of technology.
Key Skills of a Valuable Administrative Assistant
Thanks to access to a global talent pool, employers can now specifically find the perfect employee who can offer the best virtual assistant services. To ensure that their medical practice is receiving the best service it can get, every healthcare provider must look for the following skills when hiring a virtual assistant.
Excellent Time Management Skills
A great virtual administrative assistant is adept at managing time. They often juggle multiple tasks at once. This has allowed them to be able to prioritize workload according to scale and deadline. They also manage their own time as remote employees, which makes this skill highly essential for their career growth.
Excellent Communication Skills
Since virtual administrative assistants work remotely, they must have the ability to communicate perfectly with everyone they encounter to avoid errors and miscommunications. They must have the ability to convey information clearly and accurately. This skill is crucial when interacting with both patients and other healthcare staff members.
Technological Proficiency
Technological proficiency is a fundamental requirement for virtual administrative assistants. They often handle software that deals with various administrative tasks such as calendar management, coordinating telehealth services, or patient records management. A tech-savvy assistant is needed to ensure that your practice runs smoothly under the aforementioned programs.
Supreme Attention to Detail
This one in particular is a non-negotiable skill. Every effective administrative assistant must have supreme attention to detail so they can supervise efficient medical office management. They must catch and correct errors before they evolve into something major, especially when it comes to factors such as confidential patient records and billing.
Customer Service Proficiency
The virtual assistant is usually the first point of contact for patients in a healthcare professional’s practice. Considering that, a good virtual executive assistant must have excellent customer service skills. They must be concise, polite, professional, and empathetic at all times. Patients must leave the interaction more pleased than when they came in.
Composure Under Pressure
The world of healthcare is ripe with stress and fast-paced scenarios. A good administrative assistant must have the ability to remain composed under immense pressure. They must handle urgent situations, deadlines, and meet multiple demands without compromising the quality of their work.
Hiring the Right Online Administrative Assistant For You
Assessing Your Needs
Before hiring an administrative assistant, it is important that you assess your needs and identify the key tasks that need tending to within your clinic. This will help you find the most qualified administrative assistant for your practice. You must also assess whether you need short-term or long-term assistance. Contractual and freelance assistants should suffice for the former, and a full-time virtual assistant is needed for the latter.
Choosing the Right Platform
Choosing the Right Platform
Depending on your needs, you can then choose the right platform to find online assistants. For freelancing needs, you can turn to sites such as Upwork or Fiverr, while job boards such as Indeed and Glassdoor may be better fit for full-time hires.
Evaluating Candidates
After choosing the right platform, you should have a pile of resumes and portfolios to review on your hands. Given the massive market and the demand for administrative assistants these days, it shouldn’t take too long for you to get drowned in a sea of applicants. You can take the time to review each candidate’s resume to assess each of their qualifications.
Beginning the Interview Process
After sifting through numerous applicants, you can then select those who have the right skills and qualifications to meet your needs. That’s when you can begin the interview process.
Selecting a More Streamlined Process
All of this is essential in hiring the perfect online administrative assistant for you, but it’s understandably time-consuming. Thankfully, you can instead opt to work with a staffing agency like DocVA. Through us, you already have a select pool of talented administrative assistants to potentially work with.
Thrust Confidently in the Future of Healthcare With DocVA
DocVA prides itself on hiring only the best virtual assistants that are currently operating in the online job market. Through our skilled and experienced assistants, we can proudly offer an unparalleled opportunity to greatly enhance your healthcare practice.
Whether you’re scaling up, streamlining your workload, or you simply want to have a better work-life balance, DocVA offers the perfect solution of your administrative needs.
