If you own a medical practice or oversee the running of one, you will know that the more efficiently it is run the greater the profit margin you will have. But you will also know that trying to be more efficient can sometimes be a challenge, especially in a busy practice.
However, by improving efficiency in the practice, you will improve not only your bottom line but also patient satisfaction, which is vitally important in today’s fiercely competitive market. Below are a few easy ways to make your medical practice more efficient.
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Offer More Online Services
If you allow your patients to book their appointments online, you can free up office staff who will not need to spend their entire days on the phone. Your administrative team can then spend more time taking care of patients who are in the practice, which will ultimately help to improve patient satisfaction.
The ability to schedule their own appointments is particularly appealing to many younger people who prefer to book online rather than talk on the phone. This means you are likely to gain new patients.
You can also cut down on patient time in the practice with an online service. Think about the time your new patients spend on their first visit filling in the necessary paperwork. Why not email the forms to patients in advance of their first appointment so they can be completed and returned to the practice before the visit? This is a terrific way to reduce unnecessary time in the practice at this first visit. All the patient information can already be input by your admin staff on receipt of the form.
Send Text Reminders
Automated text confirmation of a booking coupled with reminders can also help to provide your administrative staff with more time to give to other parts of the business. It also puts the onus on the patient to confirm their appointment when the text reminder goes out.
Outsource Where Possible
Outsourcing is a fantastic way to save money, provided you do it carefully. According to the experts at Find-A-Code.com (icd codes software), you can outsource your medical coding and billing and save your business precious time. Outsourcing this aspect of the business to a reputable medical coding and billing company is also a wonderful way to save money. You don’t have to hire specialist coders and billers and you do not need office space for them. Companies that specialize in coding and billing will typically hire certified individuals with a wealth of knowledge and experience, thus ensuring a higher level of accuracy when filing and submitting claims for payment. With more accurate claims, your practice is unlikely to have issues with rejections or denials.
Set Up an Incentive Scheme
If you want to increase the productivity levels of your staff, a great way to do this is by introducing an incentive scheme. Nevertheless, a good incentive scheme should not be based on an increased workload alone. Encouraging employees to work faster is pointless if they are neglecting accuracy and quality.
Provide good training and introduce a reward system that is based on quality work from your staff. Provide competitive salaries that are based on performance and skills.
Delegate Simple Tasks
Just because you are running the practice does not mean that you need to take care of everything. Make a list of tasks that need to be done daily, weekly, and monthly and see which ones you can delegate to another member of staff with some free time. Doing this will help to free up your time so that you can focus on managing the practice and increasing profits.