From Nurse To Entrepreneur
The following article was originally published in the Home News.
During all the time she worked in doctors' offices, says Gretchen Godwin, she kept hearing complaints about answering services. "I thought that an answering service run efficiently by a registered nurse could be more effective," says Godwin. Now she has the only answering service in New Jersey run by a registered nurse.
Godwin is accustomed to training nurses and assistants how to deal with people and she acquired some of those skills from moving often. Her father was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and the family had 24 homes in 26 years. She was a medical assistant in the optometry practice of her husband, Joseph, a Princeton University alumnus, until he decided to break free of that profession and become a writer and teacher. The family moved from Colorado to New Jersey and he taught fifth grade in the Hopewell Valley School District while she finished her nursing training at Regents College, a SUNY nursing school located in Albany.
Godwin worked as a clinical office manager at Princeton Eye Group, and when Dr. Wayne Grabowski, a retinal specialist, left to start his own firm, she moved with him.
About the time her husband changed jobs (he is now working at ETS) Godwin bought Corridor Medical Answering Service from Stanley Pure in 2001 and expanded it to 12 operators. Lynne Wildenboer of Red Wolf Design Group is also an investor and designed the logo and brochure for the firm.
Custom tailoring for each account means that doctors can direct calls to their voice-mail boxes. For emergencies, the caller can speak to an operator immediately, otherwise the caller can get routine information (office hours, directions) or leave a message. "It makes the doctor look professional and high tech," says Godwin.
"We can send text messages to cell phones," she says. "A doctor can create a triage system of calls or have every call answered by a live operator. Some have created health tips for their voice mails."
Messages from patients needing referrals can be collected and dealt with all at one time.
Says Godwin: "We don't triage phone calls, but because I am here I can emphasize to the operators how important what we do is."
