Every day, medical practices face new challenges in treating patients and being paid appropriately for doing so. One of the best ways to improve revenues, decrease expenses and create better patient experience is by improving efficiency throughout the practice.
Knowing how important efficiency is to the operations of the medical practice, how can you tell if your practice is inefficient? Here are three ways to tell.
1. The office is overly reliant on paperwork.
Paperwork is a necessary evil in the healthcare world, but so much can be done electronically now. Eliminate as much actual paper as possible. Most practices have transitioned to electronic medical records, but do not take advantage of some of the extra features - Use these features to streamline information gathering and eliminate wasted time.
2. Appointments do not run according to the schedule and lead to long wait times.
Long wait and throughput times for patients are a result of inefficiency throughout the medical practice. Improvements can made to the schedule to ensure appointments are timed and spaced appropriately.
3. Staff and providers spent time looking for supplies.
Anything that staff require to take care of patients should be within an arm’s reach. This includes paperwork at the front desk, medical supplies in exam rooms and charts in the billing department. Those supplies should also be uniform in all locations - for example, every exam room should have the same supplies in the same place so time is not wasted searching.
If you find yourself saying yes to these, there are easy ways to rectify these inefficiencies by making small changes throughout the practice. NolanHCS is here to help - contact us today to find out how.