The Medical Group Management Association’s MGMA Stat poll asked healthcare professionals to describe their organizations’ telephone systems. Most respondents (52 percent) described that a staff member answers incoming calls while 42 percent said that calls are answered by an automated phone tree providing the caller with different options to direct the call.6 percent have some other method. For the 52 percent who indicated a staff member answered, a third (19 percent overall) indicated that the call was directed to a wait queue while two-thirds (33 percent overall) responded that there was a continuous ring until a staff member answered the call.
The poll was conducted on March 27, 2017 with 1,352 total responses. Of this total, 18 indicated the question was not applicable to their situation with a net of 1,334 answering the question.
MGMA Stat is a national poll that addresses practice management topics, the impact of new legislation, and related topics. Participation is open to all healthcare professionals. Results of other polls and information on how to participate in MGMA Stat is available at: mgma.org/polls.
