Hospital receptionists play a key role in the healthcare industry. They carry out several responsibilities in any medical facility.
If you are looking to become a hospital receptionist, you must acquire knowledge of what this job is all about before you make a final decision about whether to embark on this career path or not.
This article will discuss what hospital receptionists do, the salary of hospital receptionists, how to become a hospital receptionist, and the skills that are essential for this type of career.
Who is a Hospital Receptionist?
A hospital receptionist welcomes patients and their loved ones to a medical setting or facility.
These individuals respond to questions that are thrown at them by visitors to the medical facilities where they work and create medical schedules for patients.
Moreover, hospital receptionists assist patients in completing medical forms, handling payments, explaining the prescriptions of doctors to patients, and directing calls that come into medical facilities to the appropriate quarters.
Hospital receptionists develop the medical bills for each patient, handle all supplies, and ensure that orders are satisfied.
Hospital receptionists make sure that everything that goes on at the reception of medical facilities goes off without a hitch, resolve minor issues, and update the insurance details of patients accordingly.
How Much Do Hospital Receptionists Make?
According to salary.com, hospital receptionists earn an average salary of $38,000 every year.
However, the salaries of hospital receptionists vary based on their academic credentials, location of work, and the skills they possess.
How To Become A Hospital Receptionist
You can become a hospital receptionist by following the steps below:
1. Acquire a degree
There is really no academic requirement for getting a hospital receptionist job.
However, several hospitals always award this position to people who have at least an associate degree.
Moreover, to boost your credentials, enroll in and complete several certifications, like those in medical administration, medical assistance, and several others.
Also, take courses that will boost your ability to use Microsoft Word and people management apps.
2. Gain field experience
Several medical facilities prefer to employ hospital receptionists who have more than a year of field experience.
It can be very hard for you to find any medical establishment that may allow you to learn on the job in the role of a hospital receptionist.
So, make sure that you acquire sufficient field experience once you get a degree. You can do this through an internship or by volunteering.
3. Put together your CV
After you acquire a degree and obtain the relevant field experience and necessary certifications, create a CV for yourself.
On the CV, make sure that you correctly list all the certifications you have, the schools you attended, and the roles that you performed over the course of your internship or volunteering.
Moreover, don’t forget to review your CV when you are done writing it to remove grammatical errors.
Having an impressive CV can increase your chances of securing any hospital receptionist job.
4. Look for jobs
You can find hospital receptionist jobs through online platforms and those that are physically advertised by medical establishments.
If you are looking online, make sure that you check social media and join network platforms like LinkedIn and several job boards, as many companies post job openings there.
Essential Skills Every Hospital Receptionist Should Have
As a hospital receptionist, here are a couple of important skills that you should have if you want to have a successful career:
1. Customer service skills
Hospital receptionists assist patients and respond to inquiries that patients or their loved ones have at hospitals.
These experts welcome anyone who comes into a medical work environment.
So, if you want to excel in this job, you must have excellent customer service skills, which will enable you to handle the challenges of patients effectively, understand what they want from the hospital, and give good responses to any questions they have.
Moreover, possessing strong customer service skills will enable you to discharge your duties in a polite manner and make patients feel good, irrespective of their medical condition.
2. Multitasking skill
As a hospital receptionist, you must possess the ability to complete several tasks at the same time.
Since you are responsible for performing several duties in the medical setting, possessing excellent multitasking capabilities is a no-brainer.
This skill will enable you to perform your duties without wearing yourself out.
Hospital administration is always looking for people who can multitask to fill receptionist positions in their facilities.
3. Detail-oriented
You can succeed as a hospital receptionist if you pay attention to details whenever you are handling any task.
When making clinical appointments for patients, make sure you don’t mix things up or put in the wrong patient information, as this can have bad results.
4. Strong knowledge of medical terms
Having a strong knowledge of medical terms is very beneficial when responding to the inquiries of patients and any call that comes into the organization.
Moreover, understanding medical terms will enable you to organize records effectively. Nonetheless, the majority of the terms you will learn will be on the job.
Don’t lose heart if you don’t know several terms a couple of months into the job.
5. Professionalism
As a hospital receptionist, you must perform your job with a sense of professionalism.
When engaging with your co-workers or patients, make sure that you do it in a friendly manner.
Moreover, treat everyone who crosses you with respect, and don’t be rude to anyone even when the job is taking a toll on you.
Maintaining the highest level of professionalism when executing your duties will make it easy for your co-workers to relate to you.
6. Communication skill
You need to have excellent verbal and written communication skills to excel in the role of a hospital receptionist.
As a hospital receptionist, you will regularly interact with patients and other professionals in the field.
So, you will be able to do your job well if you know how to respond to messages and phone calls and also how to listen.
7. Organizational skill
As a hospital receptionist, you will handle several documents on behalf of your company.
Thus, knowing how to file documents accordingly and discharge them to the correct destinations when needed is very important.
Moreover, you must learn how to schedule appointments and how to use computers to complete records.
Possessing excellent organizational skills will make the job easy for you.
8. Computer skills
As a hospital receptionist, you must learn how to use basic and advanced computer software to save patient information and data.
Possessing excellent computer skills will enable you to do your job seamlessly.
This explains why you stand a better chance of securing a hospital receptionist job than someone without good computer skills.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) On What A Hospital Receptionist Does?
To perform their jobs effectively, receptionists must develop active listening skills, give out clear details, be compassionate, and avoid looking down on anyone.
Hospital receptionists must never talk too fast, claim not to have an answer to any inquiry thrown at them by patients, be rude, or overshare information.
Wearing jeans to work as a hospital receptionist on the weekend is a good idea. However, wearing corporate clothes on Mondays to Thursdays makes more sense.
As a hospital receptionist, having excellent literacy, math, and IT skills will enable you to do your job well.
Conclusion
The work of hospital receptionists is essential to the delivery of quality treatment.
Many different tasks fall under their purview in any hospital or clinic.
This article has provided all the important pieces of information that you must know before you embark on a career as a hospital receptionist.
However, in addition to the skills listed above, problem-solving and adaptability are two other skills that you need to excel in this job.
Awesome one; I hope this article answers your question.
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