9 Awesome Tips for Streamlining Your Medical Office Management
Every medical practice hopes to offer the best available patient care, yet often they’re forced to work within logistical limits.
Over two-thirds of medical practitioners in the US say they spend valuable time on tasks other than the treatment of patients. That goes to show there are efficiencies to gain in the medical office.
To help take your business to the next level, we’ve put together these 9 awesome tips for streamlining your medical office management.
1. Start with the Paperwork
If there’s a millstone around the neck of a modern business, it lies in paperwork.
Sure, many places have moved away from literal paper, but “paperwork” persists. In some cases, going digital only causes forms to grow longer and more complex. Completing exhaustive forms can offer a false sense of productivity when in fact it bleeds time away from vital duties.
Go through your forms and cut out what you don’t need. Work with the people who use those forms every day so you know you’re creating real efficiency gains.
2. An App for That
Online services are now an expected part of daily life and apps are fast becoming all-pervasive.
Online options are as key to streamlining your operations as they are to the customer experience. Apps and online forms allow you to gather a wide variety of information with speed and accuracy.
Apps and web-based services also offer a key advantage over traditional phone conversations: they don’t demand immediate action from staff. Every time the phone rings, your employees have to drop everything to answer it. That takes away their ability to structure their day and maintain focus.
3. Kill Poor Communication
If there’s a common criticism among medical patients, it’s the impact of poor communication.
Weak communication can have a devastating impact on the healthcare industry. It forces staff to duplicate work, redo expensive procedures, and subject patients to increased levels of stress.
With better communication, you can speed up patient processing, saving money while improving your reputation. Speak with your team to find out where communication breaks down and take steps to avoid it.
4. Consolidate Software
It’s a familiar story in modern business. No one piece of software captures everything a business needs to do, so it has to use multiple solutions. As the needs of the business grow, so does the number of software packages.
The end result is that your workers spend time duplicating records into multiple systems, and your company spends more time on the training necessary to get everyone up to speed.
Rationalizing your software choices and consolidating where you can should top many a list of office management tips, medical or otherwise.
5. Hire Robots
Taking a second look at your software is also a fantastic opportunity to discover what you can automate.
Automation can happen at a number of levels, from a humble mail-merged document or templated email up to robotic process automation. The options for your business will depend on cost and the practical realities of your operations.
Finding the right tasks to automate can free up working hours for more productive tasks, allowing you to do more for less. In the search for new software, keep an eye out for those that can offer time-saving operations like these.
6. You’ve Got Talent
Speaking of working hours, it’s time to look at how you’re spending those.
As modern business becomes more complicated through longer supply lines, new regulations, and reporting, it also begins to bury talent with busywork.
For every moment your trained medical staff spend performing unskilled work, you’re throwing money away. A certain amount of admin is unavoidable, but in some cases, staff can spend most of their time working outside their core competencies.
Hiring secretaries or simplifying processes can free up time so that your trained staff aren’t just working but also applying their talents. That means you’re getting them at their full worth instead of paying an overhead for skills they’re not using.
7. Staff Meetings
Staff meetings offer the perfect avenue to ensure everyone is on the same page.
But staff meetings can be a double-edged sword. Make them too frequent and you’ll waste time and the idea of attending meetings will wear out its welcome.
Holding scheduled meetings, however, allows employees to discuss important matters. It’s a great chance for team members to highlight problems or emphasize what’s working.
Meetings should always have a purpose. Make sure the reason for the meeting is obvious going in. Setting an agenda even for a weekly team meeting will transform a chit-chat into actionable points.
8. Training Montage
As a medical office manager, the quality of your staff falls on you. Once you’ve employed the best people you can, you also need to see to their training.
Obviously, keeping medical training up to date will allow for better patient care. But you also need to consider your behind-the-scenes work. Make sure your employees receive full training on any systems they use – preferably as part of their induction.
Some may cite a lack of time for their poor training coverage, but the truth is that a lack of training is the real time-stealer.
9. Take Feedback
Streamlining should always be an ongoing process. Inefficiency creeps in over time, while new technologies open up fresh ways of working.
That’s why it’s important to take feedback – from your staff and your patients. As customers, your patients can tell you which elements of your service need improvement. Your staff can provide deeper insights into weak processes.
Let feedback create an iterative streamlining process in your workplace. Over time, small wins will add up to huge changes in the way you do things.
Streamlining Your Medical Office Management
Streamlining your medical office management doesn’t have to happen all at once. Bringing greater efficiency to your business is also a matter of workplace culture. Iterative changes can add up to huge benefits and put your employees in the right mindset to come up with new ideas.
Looking for more medical business tips? Be sure to follow our blog. You can also contact us today for a free quote on practice management software.
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