Oncologists and hematologists are on the front-lines helping their patients in the fight against cancer and other blood-borne illnesses. When their patients try to reach them outside of office hours, leading practices depend on the skill and experience of CMS, a U.S. based medical answering service with more than 50 years of experience answering calls for oncology and hematology practices. 

Our answering service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We answer your calls as an extension of your office, following your precise instructions to ensure that every call reaches the right resolution. 

Custom Answering Service for Oncologists and Hematologists

A hematologist-oncologist is a physician trained in hematology (the study of blood) and oncology (the study of cancer). He or she specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention of disorders and cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic (controls bleeding) and vascular systems, such as Iron-deficiency anemia, Hemophilia, Sickle-cell disease, Leukemia, Lymphoma.

At CMS, we help providers deliver high-quality patient care after-hours by answering and dispatching calls, taking messages, and answering routine questions. Our oncology answering service is 100% customizable and tailored to the exact needs of your practice. We know how important your calls are. We also know how important it is to follow instructions and protect your free time. 

After-Hours Hematology & Oncology Call Types and Account Instructions

Our job is to provide exceptional telephone support to your practice when your regular office can’t. Whether we’re taking overflow calls during your busy periods, after-hours emergency calls, or any call type on any schedule in between, we always answer live in the name of your practice and follow the specific instructions that you put in place. 

All of our accounts feature on-call scheduling and physician-specific dispatch instructions that enable us to always reach the right on-call provider using their personalized instructions. Every oncology-hematology answering service account is built from the ground-up to meet their patients, staff, and physician’s unique needs. 

We can follow custom scripting and call handling instructions for every call type you might receive. Including: 

• Emergencies and Calls for the On-Call. For life-threatening emergencies, an automated call screening message or scripting question can be used to refer callers to 911 or their nearest emergency room. For other urgent calls, we can ask the caller whether their call can wait for office hours, or follow your call filtering instructions to determine what should and shouldn’t reach the provider on-call. 
• New and Existing Patients. After-hours calls can be limited to existing patients while new patients are referred to the office. We can also take non-urgent messages from new patients and hold them for office hours. Existing patients may be allowed to proceed through the call script and reach an on-call doctor depending on the nature of their call. 
• Consults, Facilities, Pharmacies, and Calls from Other Doctors. We can take detailed messages for consults as well as calls from other doctors, pharmacies, and facilities. These calls can be dispatched per your instructions or the nature of the call. 

We can also configure call scripting that automatically dispatches to the on-call doctor whenever certain conditions are met. For example, some accounts tell their patients to call the on-call doctor if they’re experiencing: 

• Fever 100.5 F. degrees or greater
• Uncontrollable nausea or diarrhea
• Pain medication is not working
• Chest pains or shortness of breath
• Severe shaking or chills
• Bleeding from the nose or gums
• Blood in the urine
• Black, tarry bowel movement
• Severe diarrhea
• Constipation with intense abdominal cramping
• Changes in your vision or hearing
• Increased bruising or pinpoint red or purple spots anywhere on the body
• Or any new symptom causing you concern

Again, if any symptoms escalate to a life-threatening emergency or urgent medical condition, callers can be referred to 911 or their nearest emergency room. 

Regardless of your practice size or desired answering service configuration, we can personalize our service to meet your needs. All of our services are fully HIPAA compliant.