Managing a clinic is no mean feat. Juggling the needs of a healthcare institution, from providing all the necessary resources to handling patients with care and enabling your staff optimal working conditions, requires a certain set of skills but is often not enough. If for any reason, you find your workplace in want of an efficiency boost, read the following tips, and check out how you can optimize the work of your clinic.
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Inspect the flow of patients
You might want to take a step back and observe the workflow of your clinic as a whole. For example, select a sample group of patients and track their progress from the moment they enter the clinic to the moment they leave.
Understandably, it might take a couple of weeks. However, this single investment of time will yield workable information on the total number of patients per day, the number of first-time patients, the days with the least and the most total visits per week, and the average time it takes for the patient to undergo the process of treatment.
What are the benefits that you are looking for here? A successful inspection will reveal the possible choke-points where time gets wasted. Improving or completely eliminating the choke-point will instantly improve the total treatment time, as your clinic is as efficient as its least efficient part.
Reduce the scheduling slog
Scheduling can become an efficient mess. Manually calculating the most efficient scheduling timetable is time- and resource-consuming in itself–which is one of the reasons that automation in healthcare first deals with that.
Offering online scheduling and automating the whole scheduling process deals will save you loads of time that can otherwise be allocated on less administrative, more medically-relevant tasks. Even the patients themselves will appreciate this change.
Utilize technological trends
The newest trend in healthcare management, without a doubt is automation; the software Clinicminds.com offers great tools that can help you with that. At first glance, automating mundane tasks like paying the bills, refilling prescriptions, and accepting payment does not save you heaps of time; however a total overview of time and resources saved on a grander scale even from such tiny administrative chores sums up to become a substantial amount.
All of this is without mentioning the automation of keeping structured medical records, video meetings, invoicing. As of this moment, automation is the single greatest efficiency boost out there. It is vitally important to keep your staff trained and up to date with the newest automation tools.
Foster inter-staff communication
As another step in enhancing your clinic’s efficiency, you might want to set up regular daily staff meetings. It does not need to be anything too formal or grandiose; even a simple 5-minute chat can suffice to communicate the daily plan for the management of resources and time.
Regular meetings also prevent hold-ups due to miscommunication or lack of communication between different departments. A clearly formed out plan for the day prevents confusion and minimizes logistical mistakes–the final product of which is, of course, a more efficient clinic.
Delegate tasks out of the clinic
Most of us remain stuck in the concept of dealing with the patients when they enter the clinic. Another major boost in efficiency comes in delegating petty tasks for the patients to do before they come to the clinic. For example, filling out intake forms takes precious time away from the appointment, right?
Well, sending out intake forms via automated communication means to the patients for them to fill out before they come for their appointments can substantially reduce the administrative bog down of your work day. This way your staff can complete non-medical tasks like verifying insurance policies and checking out various forms while the patient has not even walked in the clinic yet. Now we are talking about efficiency!
Nota Bene
Crisp clinic management and high efficiency go hand in hand. A firm grasp over the daily workflow of the clinic leaves a lasting impression on your patients, which increases patient retention rate and brings in new patients. Stay on top of your efficiency, and you’ll stay on top of the business.
