It’s always good to review your staff structure because what might have worked 3 years ago may not work now. Some other issues may be that there is now a new software program, too many staff members duplicating the responsibilities of others, or another physician assistant or nurse has been added to the staff.
One suggestion is for each staff member to record their work activities and the time they spent starting and completing each activity. At the end of the week, add up all the hours you spend on each particular task. For example, if the nurse, receptionist, and medical assistant are all making referrals, count the number of hours spent making referrals. This will determine if an office has too many or not enough staff members. It will also determine if one staff member can possibly do the referrals while the other staff can focus more on other areas of their work.
Most offices find that the front office job is usually understaffed. Answering phones, registering patients, checking in on patients, collecting money, entering data into the computer, and making appointments is usually left to one or two people. Staff members are generally asked to help each other when necessary, but each job description must be detailed and specific, and each task must have one person with ultimate responsibility.
Another area of concern is the overload of phone calls. Consider adding additional flexible scheduling hours to see more patients. This way, staff won’t be doing more work over the phone instead of going to an appointment, which means less revenue and more costs because the doctor can’t get paid to see patients over the phone.
Some insurance companies can also be very difficult to work with. Consider ditching those types of plans if it costs the doctor more time and unnecessary paperwork. This would free up more time to fight with the carrier for approval of certain services or to get paid for them.
It can be like musical chairs with patients waiting to be seen in exam rooms. Use a system of colored flags on the exam room doors to indicate when a patient is in the room and ready. You could also use some sort of clip to indicate which room the doctor should enter next. This keeps patient flow and appointment times more accurate.