Patti Peets, Director of Revenue Cycle Management at CareCloud
Twitter: @CareCloud
When it comes to improving a practice’s financial outlook, small changes can have a massive repercussions. In turn, finding ways to work more efficiently can help you and your team better patient results while also putting yourself above the competition. By leveraging health care IT software, not only will efficiency improve, but practices will be able to work smarter. Here are 5 ways to improve your workflow efficiency.
1. Minimize paper work
According to Physicians Practice, just filling out the proper paper work ahead of a routine check-up can be a time-consuming affair. Not only is filling out forms physically labor intensive for your administrative staff, but this can add to patient wait-time as your team readies itself.
Moreover, when it comes to accessing patient information, a paper record must be physically transported with the patient or across your practice. This takes precious time and can also lend itself to the possibility of human error.
With digital records, patient information like age and other demographics are auto-populated when filling out forms or records, and these can be accessed within your network as needed, eliminating the costs and lost time associated with physical records.
2. Keep patients healthy
Preventative care is another critically important tool for making your practice’s workflow more efficient, because it may be a way of limiting superfluous or unnecessary appointments. By offering educational resources to your patients, you may be able to encourage healthier lifestyles, which in turn can decrease the need for continued treatment in some cases.
Similarly, by opening up channels of communication between your clinical staff and customers, simple consultations and questions may be answered remotely. These measures can decrease your team’s workload and allow them to focus on high-value tasks.
3. Give physicians the tools to personalize
Another reason EHRs and other digital platforms are so powerful is that they give doctor’s the tools to familiarize themselves with patients through personal notes and health history. This can be another way to limit the amount of time spent on a given appointment, but it can also be a way for you and your team to add a personalized experience for patients.
To grow your business, making sure you are offering an enjoyable, friendly atmosphere is of the utmost importance. Utilizing EHRs to provide a more intimate visit to the doctor’s office may lend itself to improved outcomes through more detailed, specific treatment plans. It can also have a positive impact on your patients’ overall levels of satisfaction.
4. Avoid costly billing mistakes
While digital tools can bring about changes on the clinical side of your business, they may also be able to help when it comes to back-office operations. Filling claims can be a detailed and time-consuming job, and billing mistakes can result in denials and more work for your team. By employing the right software, administrative tasks can become sleeker and easier.
5. Improve collaborative efforts
The American Academy of Family Physicians reported that improved communication can have a strong impact on your employee’s levels of satisfaction, as well as make it easier to deliver high-quality care. In the same way that digital correspondence can be beneficial to your patients, instant messaging, data sharing and other tools are offered through the best EHR software, to the benefit of internal communication. According to AAFP, these measures can reduce stress and improve collaborative care within your team, as well as make daily operations more efficient and time-effective.
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