4 Ways Healthcare UCaaS Can Transform Your Practice

What is UCaaS?

UCaaS is a cloud-based technology solution that combines multiple communication tools and services into a single platform. Although options may vary depending on the provider, research company Gartner classifies UCaaS services under the following core capabilities:

• Telephony. This includes enterprise telephony features, capabilities, emergency calling services with notifications, and public switched telephone network (PSTN) access. Users typically access telephony services via physical IP phones, physical analog phones, analog devices, desktop apps, web apps, or mobile apps.
  
• Meetings. This includes multiparty audio or video conferencing with content sharing, in-meeting messaging, customizable layouts, closed captioning, recording, virtual backgrounds, breakout session support, reactions, and other capabilities. Users should be able to access meeting services using their desktop app, mobile app, web app, and room systems.
  
• Messaging. This includes personal messaging for one-on-one communication and team messaging for group communication. Messaging services allow users to exchange real-time text messages, emojis, images, files, and links. Users can access messaging services via desktop, web, and mobile apps.
  
• Software Applications. This allows users to access various communication and collaboration features through a consistent user interface across different devices. UCaaS providers offer desktop, web, and mobile applications. They also provide software extensions and plug-ins that users can integrate with business tools like email, calendar, and CRM solutions.
  
• Application Programming Interface (API). This enables customizing, developing, or integrating discrete UCaaS capabilities with other software applications.
• Adjacent Services. These optional solutions may not be primary UCaaS services, but they’re added to the bundle to increase its offer value. The solutions include integrated contact center services, quality of service monitoring, and analytics.

By allowing users to access an extensive set of communication tools online, UCaaS makes it easier for individuals and organizations to communicate and collaborate, regardless of their location or device.

Healthcare UCaaS is a powerful all-in-one communication solution that can streamline and simplify how practices communicate in today's digital age. 

Read More: 8 Signs Your Medical Practice Needs a New Phone System

UCaaS vs. VoIP: What’s the Difference?

When you’ve been managing a healthcare practice for some time, you’ve probably heard of another technology that enables voice calls via the Internet: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

UCaaS and VoIP are both technologies related to communication over the Internet, but they’re not the same thing.

The US Federal Communications Commission defines VoIP as the technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular or analog phone line. It converts analog voice signals into digital data transmitted over the Internet. VoIP can be used as a standalone service or as part of a more extensive system. UCaaS, on the other hand, does a lot more than that.

UCaaS is a more comprehensive solution that includes various communication tools and services, including VoIP. As mentioned in the previous section, UCaaS providers offer a range of services like voice communication, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing.

So while VoIP is focused solely on voice communication over the internet, UCaaS is designed to be a complete communications solution. It integrates multiple communication channels into a single platform, of which VoIP is a component.

4 Benefits of Adopting UCaaS in Healthcare

When used to its full potential, healthcare UCaaS can improve every aspect of your clinic operations, including your finances, team dynamics, and patient care delivery. Here are the top benefits of adopting UCaaS in your healthcare practice:

1. Reduces Cost

Adopting UCaaS in healthcare means subscribing to a cloud-based solution for your clinic communications. When compared with on-premises phone systems, a UCaaS system means:

• You don’t need to pay massive upfront costs for hardware such as servers.
• You don’t need to have bulky hardware taking up office space.
• You don’t have to deal with unpredictable maintenance costs.
• You don’t need to spend on equipment upgrades every few years.
• You only pay for the number of users you need

UCaaS provides unlimited communication across multiple channels, all conveniently bundled in a monthly (or annual) subscription.

Read More: Cloud-hosted or On-premises: Which Phone System is Perfect for Your Practice?

2. Keeps Your Practice Compliant and Secure

There are countless tech solutions offered to businesses worldwide, but not all are fully equipped to handle your healthcare practice’s communication needs.

Your practice handles sensitive patient data, so you need a system that can meet the stringent privacy and security requirements for dealing with protected health information (PHI). By partnering with a reputable UCaaS provider, your practice can have a HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST-certified, and encryption-protected communications system.

Because UCaaS is a cloud-delivered service, you won’t have to worry about constantly checking for security updates. Your UCaaS provider can execute security and upgrade updates automatically.

Read More: How to Choose a HIPAA-compliant Cloud Phone System

3. Improves Patient Care and Experience

No patient ever wants to stay on hold for a long time or be transferred to multiple extensions, especially when they urgently want to speak to someone about their health. By using a single integrated communications platform, your clinic staff can engage patients through multiple channels (phone, chat, text, video, etc.).

UCaaS helps your clinic staff minimize call wait times, lessen call transfers, respond to patient concerns faster, deliver telehealth services, send automatic reminders, and connect with patients even when they’re out of the office. By leveraging the many features of a robust UCaaS solution, you can ultimately improve the quality of care your practice provides and elevate your patients’ experience.

4. Streamlines Clinic Operations

By giving you access to robust communication features in a single platform, UCaaS allows you to improve clinic processes, automate workflows, and ultimately streamline your practice operations. Here are a few areas you can strengthen by leveraging UCaaS technology:

• Collaboration. UCaaS systems have a messaging feature that allows you to send and receive messages, make calls, and share files with anyone in your office. By significantly improving how your staff communicates and collaborates, UCaaS can help your practice work on tasks more efficiently and effectively.
  
• Integration. With the right UCaaS provider, you can integrate your communication system into your practice’s EHR software and further increase efficiency and productivity. Meditab, for example, offers call integration with its flagship product IMS. The integration provides click-to-call, voicemail management, and voicemail transcription features.
• Efficiency. Because UCaaS is a third-party solution, you contact your UCaaS provider for any questions, concerns, and updates. Trusted UCaaS partners like ER Tech Pros provide 24/7 support so your IT staff won’t have to deal with cloud phone issues and can focus on other projects.
• Scalability. By adopting a UCaaS solution, you can utilize the service at every stage of your practice’s growth and scale the coverage to meet your needs. You don’t need to pay for 100 users in your communications system when you only have 50 clinic staff. Pay for the number of users you require and simply scale up as your practice grows.
  

Healthcare UCaaS: The Future of Practice Communications

Unified communications can change how your practice operates, communicates, and delivers patient care. It helps organizations reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, and boost data security. No wonder research company Forrester labels it as business-critical.

Don’t get left behind.

Partner with a reputable UCaaS partner to get the most value from your clinic communications solution. ER Tech Pros is a managed IT company specializing in providing healthcare organizations with the technology they need to work smarter, collaborate easier, and take care of practice operations on the go. Take your clinic to the future with a comprehensive and HIPAA-compliant UCaaS system.