When you’re bringing on new office staff, they need to jump on board the workflow in your office, and they need to do so quickly.
There are so many details in a fast-paced office environment, and it’s easy to miss a few as you train new staff. Using practice management software, you can make the training process easier for your new employees so that no details get left behind.
Well-Trained Medical Office Personnel Help Your Practice Succeed
Medical practices rely on their skilled front line workers. Office staff are responsible for making and adjusting appointments and ensuring that the flow of the day goes smoothly. They manage billing procedures, working with both patients and insurance companies to keep track of paid invoices and declined payments. Office staff also maintain files with patient information, such as diagnoses and medications. They’re a critical communication link between patients, medical staff, and insurance companies. When an office staff person leaves, you want to make sure that there’s a seamless transition between old and new staff so that none of this important information gets lost during the transition time.
Clarifying the Staff Person’s Role and Responsibilities
When you bring on a new staff person, you may be able to hand that person a training manual. Often, your office manager or another staff person may be tasked with training the new office staff. It’s important to clearly define the new staff person’s role in the practice.
Does the new employee have specific responsibilities that are not paralleled by other staff? If so, you’ll need to find someone who can provide training on these responsibilities or, to ensure that critical information gets transferred, you may want to consider having the new hire shadow the staff person who is leaving. In the first months of the job, it’s important to have regular staff meetings so the new employee feels part of a team and can communicate about any uncertainties and frustrations.
Best Practices and Protocols Keep You On Track
How does your practice manage patient information? What happens when an insurance claim is declined? Having a series of office best practices and protocols will help existing and new staff work efficiently and reduce errors. For example, when you have a protocol for cross-checking codes for insurance claims and reviewing declined claims to look for errors, your office’s error rates should remain at a low level. Without this quality control, staff may make errors and forget to follow up on declined payments, making your office less efficient and reducing your cash flow.
Practice Management Software Helps Standardize Office Practices
If you’re working to develop best practices and a standardized set of office procedures, practice management software can help. This software comes with its own set of procedures that help your office flow smoothly. For example, your software will send out appointment reminders and generate missed appointment letters if your patients fail to show up. It will also help you manage your finances by bringing up the patient’s balance and insurance eligibility when the patient arrives for an appointment. At the end of the day, you’ll get a summary report to help you with your reconciliation.
If you’re trying to refine your office management processes, try our trial version of PracticeSuite’s practice management software. Your office staff will appreciate this streamlined approach to managing billing and other patient information, and if a staff person does leave, your software will become a key part of your training process and will carry your office procedures forward.
