FARMINGTON – NotifyMD, a new medical call center, has started hiring and training employees at the former MBNA location on Front Street.

While eight salespeople have been hired and are training, General Manager Sharon Cullenberg said Friday, the call center has hired 13 for inbound calls and will be adding to those numbers. Following the hiring and training process, she said, the business will open April 4.

“I’m currently going through all applications and accepting applications,” Cullenberg said. “Applications are available at the center on Front Street or through the local CareerCenter.”

Many of the former MBNA employees have been commuting to Lewiston and Oakland to work in similar call centers, she said. Applicants have expressed their enthusiasm about the opportunity to work closer to home, she said, as she spoke of one who was getting up at 4 a.m. to travel to Oakland from Avon.

Cullenberg understood, saying she was ecstatic to be back working in Farmington after commuting to Lewiston for the past six years for a similar position.

Cullenberg said she is looking for people with customer service skills and those who know some medical terminology, have worked in a doctor’s office or in a call center environment.

The center hopes to eventually fill up to 120 positions, she said, but it will be based on the business that it receives. Sales representatives have started contacting physician offices and medical facilities to explain NotifyMD’s services.

The upside for the doctor’s office, she said, is that the service frees the physicians’ staffs to work on patient needs, while a patient calling in to NotifyMD gets to talk with someone, not an answering machine. From there, their requests or information are relayed to the doctor’s office.

This NotifyMD center is the only one in Maine and joins the companies’ six other call centers across the country. The company is based near Nashville, Tenn.