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Practice's
Ask an Expert
is a question and answer forum featuring
leading practice management experts who may or may not be
employed by Physicians Practice. On average, Physicians Practice
receives 250 questions per month from physicians, office managers,
office administrators and others. Have a question about the
operation of your practice? Visit www.PhysiciansPractice.com.
Your question will be answered within three business days.
All questions below were answered by Elizabeth Woodcock of
Physicians Practice.
Q
What should be our goal for returning
patient calls? How long should it take us?
A Ideally, you should return
patient calls immediately, but within no more than two hours.
If you can return calls quickly, you not only have happier
patients, you also reduce the number of return calls you have
to handle-that is, calls from patients calling a second time
when they are impatient for an answer. In many practices,
these return calls account for up to 25 percent of the total
phone traffic.
No matter your norm, let patients know how long they should
expect to wait. Setting expectations also will reduce the
number of repeat calls.
Q
I spend too much time on paperwork
and not enough time with patients. How can I, and other physicians,
be more efficient?
A It is crucial that physicians
spend as much time as possible with patients, not only because
they like it better, but because it’s physician time
with patients that pays the bills.
The best way to quickly maximize the amount of time the physician
can spend with a patient is to look for ways to reduce the
amount of time the physician has to spend on non-clinical
administrative tasks before, during and after a patient visit.
Use staff or mid-level providers to do all tasks not directly
relevant to physician-level, clinical care. Remember, though,
that physicians are their own best advocates when it comes
to documentation and coding.
Do you spend time tracking down charts, filling out long forms
instead of using templates to order diagnostic tests or going
through a medical staff directory to find a referring physician’s
telephone number?
Is there a relatively modest change that can be made in your
facility’s floor plan, or can a nursing station or computer
terminal be moved or redesigned so it will save physicians
a few extra steps? The cost to make such changes can be recouped
several times over if doing so makes more efficient use of
the time of a billable provider.
Check with vendors to see if there’s a way to shorten
or simplify the way physicians interact with the practice
management system. Easy-to-access electronic templates for
progress notes, prescriptions, referrals or other forms can
encourage your physicians to use electronic instead of handwritten
forms. If that saves time for the physician, then it’s
a good option to explore.
If possible, spend half a day observing your physicians as
they interact with other staff before and after patient visits.
Take notes of what tasks they perform, how long each task
takes and how long it takes for them to walk to or prepare
for the next task. Note times by the minute. You might quickly
see a way to improve a simple process that is eating up your
physician’s time.
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