Tips to Improve Your Practice’s Efficiency
The modern health care system makes it challenging to establish efficiency in your practice. Inefficiencies not only cost you money, but they jeopardize the quality of care you can provide to your patients. While this is true, there are some steps you can take to help improve efficiency at every level.
From developing a set process for handling patients to investing in top-of-the-line commercial dish washing equipment to ensure things remain sanitary, there are more than a few things you can do. Keep reading to learn about how you can increase efficiencies now and in the future.
Delegate
If you are the doctor, don’t try to take on tasks that don’t require your input. Take a step back and consider what you do during the day. Also, turn to your staff to find out what you may be able to do to help them.
It’s best to delegate as many administrative tasks as possible without impacting your full understanding of how the practice operates. If your office is part of a group, and the practice administrator or manager cannot accept this new delegation, help them gain the skills and abilities needed to take over these things.
Focus Your Time on Patient Care
To increase your practice value, you need to spend a minimum of 37 hours per week focused on direct patient care. This is not an unreasonable goal. While it may require you to rearrange the tasks you take on, as the physician, most of your time should be spent with patients and providing the care they are there for.
Improve the Flow of Patients
No matter your patient mix, your goal should be to create an efficient schedule. Try to focus on offering the right care to as large a community of patients as possible. If you aren’t comfortable or feel rushed having a patient every 20 minutes, then your process needs some adjustments. If you see your first patient of the day even 15 minutes late, you will already be behind and have to play catch-up the rest of the day. Try to show up to your office early to ensure that you get started on time.
Dictate Notes While in the Exam Room
This is a tip that may take some getting used to. Also, there are some situations when it may not be appropriate. However, if you dictate notes while in front of the patient, you will save time, improve patient-doctor communication, and provide the patient with a summary of their visit. It can also help with coding and gives you more legible notes. All this is seen with no need to dictate your notes after the visit.
Avoid Having to Wait for Your Patients
Give your new patients your registration and demographic form to fill out early or mail it to them before their scheduled appointment. If the patient is filling out paperwork in the office and isn’t done when it is time to go back to the exam room, don’t wait. Just let the patient finish what they are doing in the exam room. If you happen to get in there before they are finished, offer to do it together. This lets you learn about their medical history and helps you avoid wasting time.
Use Handouts to Help with Communication
Reduce unneeded phone calls by providing your patients with handouts and brochures. This can be about their condition, medication, or anything else. These are appreciated by the patient and minimizes the disruption in your office.
If you want to improve your clinic or health care practice’s efficiency, be sure to keep the tips here in mind. This will help improve patient care, patient satisfaction, and your ability to make money from your healthcare practice. In the long run, all this will pay off and help ensure that you have the most efficient and productive practice possible and that your patients are satisfied with the quality of care received.
