Effective communication with this group of established patients is so important, we highly recommend assigning someone specifically to a role that we call the Patient Communication Facilitator or PCF for short. This role could be part-time or full-time for several team members, depending upon the size of the practice. Take a look at this example of a Patient Communication Facilitator role description. You will see answering incoming phone calls listed as a secondary responsibility here. Ideally, while you are in the process of contacting established patients in order to confirm or schedule appointments, you are not also handling incoming calls or physical reception. It’s too hard to do both incoming and outgoing work well at the same time. This is very much a function of the size of your practice, but even the smallest practice should designate at least one hour each day to the outgoing Patient Communication Facilitator or PCF duties!Â