7 Ways to Improve Medical Office Efficiency

But one of the major barriers to improving medical office efficiency is administrative burden, such as never-ending paperwork and other non-clinical tasks. This is why there’s an increase in medical documentation errors too. 

Interested in knowing how to improve medical office efficiency while maintaining patient satisfaction? You need to take a closer look at the strategies discussed below.

1. Map Your Workflows and Find Challenges

   A workflow map shows how your practice is handling day-to-day tasks and where the majority of the time is being spent. Why does it matter? This is a smart and effective approach to better tackle the rising administrative burden in healthcare.

   Time each step from check-in to check-out 

   From your calendar, choose a patient with a normal day visit. Clearly write down each of the following step:

   •  Who greets patient at time of check in and verifies insurance?
   •  How long until the patient gets to see the doctor?
   •  How long was the duration with the provider? How long did it take to chart?
   •  How long does it take to pay and book the next visit?

    One bad day may fool you; that is why you must do this for 10 to 15 visits on different days.
   
   Then place them in an order that you can see the slowest task to fastest task. That’s where you need the most work.

   Separate process, tools, and staffing problems

   There are three main steps to keep in mind:
   
   The process: Nobody is willing to take responsibility alone. Things get skipped waiting for staff approvals. This step needs to be fixed right away.
   
   The tools: Staff enter the same patient information into 2 different systems. Why not link the systems? The data will be in one place.
   
   Staff Hours: If your process and tools are OK, then the person who takes calls, intake, and billing is having the issue. Might be a staffing shortage issue for your clinic. You need a new hire whether you’re hiring in-house or remote.

2. Standardize Recurring Tasks With Checklists and Huddle

   Having a workflow means tasks get done the same way to help save time and make training faster. You only need a quick but simple list and a short morning talk.

   Task checklists

   Ask three different employees how they check in a patient, and you will get three different answers. But a checklist closes gaps in the answers.

   Here is a simple checklist for the front desk to use:

   Opening: Get phones and EHRs logged in. Take a printout of today’s schedule.

   Check in: Check name and date of birth of the patient. Scan their insurance card and ID.

   Copay: Collect the copay before the doctor sees them, not after.

   End: Log out of all computers before the day’s end and flag any missing forms and documents you noticed.

   Now write it out. Put it on the table.

   15-minute daily huddle

   Meet every morning with your staff before everyone gets to work.

   Talk about these three things:

   • Highlight the agenda for the day. Who’s in the book? Where will every person will be busy?
   • What are the gaps in paperwork? Are any documents missing or incomplete like forms, referrals, or insurance information?
   • Ask open questions that need quick action like; is any printer down? Did somebody call in sick today?

   Be punctual about the daily huddle and be time efficient about it too.

3. Cut Phone Volume With Self-Scheduling, Reminders, and Patient Portals

   Websites and patient portals make your medical office more efficient. Patients can easily book their appointments online. Your front-desk is not overwhelmed with non-stop phones ringing. Patients are not put on hold either so wait time is decreased.

   Patients can self-schedule and reschedule

   A patient books a visit at 10:00 AM, but the receptionist moves it and forgets to call.  

   To make it work, start with effective patient scheduling practices, so each type of visit falls in the right slot.

   However, most patients are in the habit of calling. Pabau cited MGMA data that less than 25% of their patients book online. 

   At times no one ever tells patients they have the option to book online appointments. So you can: 

   • Tell the patients at checkout that they can book online too.
   • Make sure to add a booking link or a QR code in the reminder text before the appointment. 
   • Print the link on the printed bill summary. 
   • Make sure the link works on the mobile phone too. 

   If online appointment bookings are still low, you need to learn why patient portals are not often used. Hard logins and complicated dashboards are two major problems usually. 

   But with a simple patient portal, patients can book appointments at any time. They can change slots or cancel an appointment without calling your practice.

   Two-way messaging and automated reminders

   There’s no need to wait for the patient to call back, send a text reminder for every visit. A simple reminder helps patients communicate with you easily. They can confirm their visit, or inform them about changing their time slot too.

   Two things occur. Fewer people call the front desk. Less patients forget to show up. Open slots are filled back up. That’s how you grow your medical practice with a simple use of reminder texts.

   A virtual medical receptionist can take care of the overflow at this point, so your team can focus on the patients in front of them.

4. Use Automation to Remove Repeat Data Entry, Insurance Checks, and Billing Rework

   Typing the same patient information in more than one system is a big waste of time.

   When you enter one digit incorrectly, and the claim gets kicked. but do not try to fix it with  software right away. If your process is already poor, automation will not help.

   Connect intake, records, and billing as a single entry 

   Send a text or email to the patient with their intake forms before they arrive. They can easily fill the information at home.

   When they arrive, it takes only a minute and no one has to type the same thing again.

   But if your systems do not talk to each other, you need to take a closer look at your EHR interoperability challenges first. Your goal is to write the details only once. 

   So when a medical biller handles your claims, they make sure records are clean. 

   Prior authorizations and eligibility checks

   The reason you run an eligibility check is to know if the patient’s insurance covers it. The insurance company confirms the tests, drugs and procedures allowed on the visit.

   However, you can automate this process to save a lot of time: 

   • You can see if their insurance is active for how many months.
   • The system will flag any visit that needs special approval before the visit.
   • You can watch the status of every single request on your dashboard.
   • The system will tell your staff when the insurance expires.

    

5. Delegate Administrative Tasks

   A doctor’s job is to take care of the patient. They should not waste time sending a fax. So work for the things you got the license for.

   Every administrative job a doctor does will take away the time from seeing a sick person. When you add up the lost visits, you will see that your medical office stops growing.

   Tasks to move off doctor’s desk

   Just stop doctors from doing those daily tasks just because they are used to doing them:

   • Medicine refills: An assistant can get the medicine ready and the doctor just needs to sign it.
   • Paperwork: Staff can fill the form while the doctor can check and sign them off.
   • Calls and scheduling: The front desk handles these jobs. They do not belong in the doctor’s room.

   Set clear task ownership by role

   “Can someone call Mrs. Lee back?” Everyone hears the question. Nobody does call the patient or even responds to the question.

   Similarly a medicine refill sits on the desk for three days because everyone thought someone else was doing it. Such issues happen because of lack of clear ownership.

   Every person should be assigned a daily job. Mention the name of the person and the shift they will cover. So even if someone leaves, quits, goes on vacation you’ll have a backup person ready.

6. Track Efficiency Metrics Monthly and Tie Them to Capacity

   Efficiency metrics show you if changes really worked. Without them you are just guessing the progress. 

   Four baseline metrics worth tracking 

   Here are four metrics you need to watch:

   Patient wait time: How much time a person has to wait before they actually see a doctor.

   Time for next open slot: This is the number of days a new patient has to wait to get a visit scheduled.

   Claim denial rate: This is the number of bills the insurance company refused to pay.

   Revenue per provider: It’s the money a doctor brings to his medical office for every hour he spends with the patient.

   Record your numbers for at least three numbers. After this you can take a closer look at the industry average. If after three months your wait time is down and revenue per provider increases it means numbers are working.

   Reading the numbers as capacity, not just cost

   Most owners are only concerned about the money because it helps with managing healthcare operating expenses.

   But without the right numbers you do not know how much room you have to grow your medical office.

   These two numbers will tell you exactly if you can grow your office or not:

   Visits per hour: How many patients a provider can see in one hour.

   Booked slots: The number of open slots that get filled.

   Because these numbers show you exactly how to grow your medical office from your current position.

   Is your number of booked spots low? It means you have a problem getting the patients to call. You need to book visits frequently.

   Are your booked spots nearly full but wait times are going up? Then your team is too busy. You need more help and more working hours.

7. Add Remote Administrative Support

   A good checklist and software works when the process is streamlined. If your team is delaying patient calls, or reminders they are definitely overworked.

   This problem is difficult to tackle when you are thinking of growing your medical office. You need someone who is trained and understands your specialty. Sadly, finding the right expert is like finding a needle in a haystack. Which is why medical offices face healthcare staffing shortages.

   Signs the limit is capacity

   Your team may follow a proper checklist. Your EHR systems are well-connected too. But the work keeps adding up every time.

   You need to watch for missed phone calls, bills that sit for days and weeks. Then take a careful look at your numbers. A full calendar does not mean you are efficient if wait times are longer.

   Delegate tasks to remote staff

   Not every medical office work needs to happen inside a physical building. A remote assistant checks insurance, sends visit reminders, and fixes late bills. They can work from any location and work in your time zone.

   That’s why a virtual medical administrative assistant is perfect for such tasks. They work inside your systems, log into your software and get things done.

   Here’s what they can do for you:

   Task list: Prioritize admin tasks for the day and get things done on time.

   Working hours: Make their working hours clear, when they are online and how fast they must reply to messages.

   Success measures: They must make sure every insurance plan is checked two days before the visit.

   Protect patient data

   A good healthcare remote staffing support follow these three things before they start their work:

   • Make sure they are aware of the patient privacy laws.
   • They have access to the system they will use to complete the tasks.
   • Sign a BAA before at the time of onboarding.

   Compare the cost with in-house hire

   A new hire costs more than just their pay. You have to calculate their health insurance, equipment cost, training cost, training cost and the hours spent managing them.

   The goal should be: comparing the cost of outside help to another in-house hire. The right choice will be clear to you.

   If the remote assistant is going to save you more money, look into remote staffing support for both the front and back office. If the local in-house hire cheaper option goes in that direction.

   Either way you will make a decision using real numbers not on a gut feeling.

   Where to Start 

   You cannot try all 7 strategies to improve medical office efficiency at once. Start with the first one and then make your way down. Make sure you have on time visits, less retyping, fewer calls. Always take a good look at your numbers once a month. 

   Improving medical office efficiency is more about being streamlined so fix your processes. Then focus on your tools. New hires come in the last when your team is overworked. Follow this, and your staff will have their time back.