Healthcare is a competitive, challenging, and fast-paced industry where hectic schedules and long working hours aren’t uncommon. For that reason, many medical professionals want to run their offices as smoothly as possible, hoping to make their patients healthier and happier and subsequently increase revenue. However, that might prove to be quite difficult, especially in old-school practices that still adhere to conventional organizational methods. To simplify this process and ensure your medical office runs more efficiently, here are some helpful tips you could implement:
Solve existing issues
While this may seem obvious to many industry professionals, the best way to learn more about the problems that your employees are facing is to simply ask them. Schedule monthly team meetings, ask each person for suggestions and feedback, hold one-on-one conversations about in-office challenges, and encourage teams to freely share best practices and success stories. Identifying and solving the existing issues in your medical office will enable you to optimize day-to-day operations and create new processes that will boost overall efficiency.
Cross-train employees
Cross-training can be a challenging and time-consuming process that requires an upfront investment. But if one of your staff members is unable to come to work, having well-trained employees who can take on their role in the meantime will prove to be invaluable. To implement this process, you can foster a flexible and supportive culture, mandate employees to cross-train at least one colleague, test out this training with rehearsals, and accept feedback for enhancing the training procedure. Stick to administrative tasks if your staff doesn’t have authorization for medical training.
Focus on equipment
Running a medical office comes with a number of unique and unavoidable expenses that have only increased during the pandemic. But even though we tend to focus on the larger costs, many have found that smaller expenses can quickly add up to create a larger impact on the business. Australian medical practices, for instance, have decided to buy an N95 mask in Australia in larger quantities each month to equip themselves early on. As a result, they have a stock of quality necessary items available, instead of being forced to purchase them at a higher price if a sudden need arises.
Try online scheduling
Across European countries, on the other hand, online scheduling systems are on the rise. Local medical offices consider them to be quite efficient at lessening the workload, which could also benefit your practice. Just by adding a “Book an Appointment” feature to your website, you can streamline front desk operations. Administrative teams won’t need to talk on the phone all day, patients can enjoy little or no hold times, and front desk staff won’t have to worry about potential scheduling errors. You may also be able to attract new, younger patients with an online scheduling feature.
Automate confirmations
If you’re implementing online scheduling, why not go a step further and fully commit to increasing the productivity in your medical office. For example, you can adopt automated appointment reminders by asking for email or phone information when a patient books an appointment online. Then, you can send them a confirmation message, set a reminder with personalized details, remind them of the appointment 24 hours earlier, and provide the opportunity for rescheduling and cancelations. This can be quite advantageous to your practice, as it’s inexpensive, lessens workloads, and improves the overall patient experience.
Modernize the paperwork
Consider the amount of paperwork new patients have to complete before scheduling an appointment at your medical office for the first time. If collecting this information is necessary for providing optimal care, it might be more efficient to let your patients handle their paperwork at home. Put all the forms on your website, email them to new patients, and ask them to complete the forms ahead of time. The paperwork can then be printed out and brought to the appointment or sent back in electronic form. Either way, this will save some valuable time for you and your patients, thus helping to boost productivity.
Like most aspects of business, efficiency isn’t linear. But if you prioritize and implement the simple tips mentioned above, you can increase the productivity of your medical office and accelerate growth and success.
