Medical Practice Archives

Why Patient Engagement Really Does Matter

The practice of great medicine includes a hefty dose of patient engagement because excellent medical care requires a partnership to achieve the outcome. The patient and/or the caregiver must be active participants in the care plan. Unfortunately, the phrase patient engagement has been hijacked. Many physicians feel as though they must engage their patients just to fulfill arbitrary rules. Don’t look at it this way. Instead, recognize it for the opportunity it is to enhance the business and optimize patient care. Make Patient Engagement Matter Guard against patient engagement activities with no value beyond fulfilling some [...]

By admin|2021-11-12T13:25:29+00:00November 12, 2021|Medical Practice, Patient Engagement|0 Comments

Do you know what your Medical Scheduler really does?

Patient Scheduling. Most physicians think is it’s so simple. A patient calls the practice, talks to a scheduler who enters the information into the scheduling application and poof - it’s done. The reality is that medical scheduling is one of the most complicated and stressful positions in a medical practice with one of the highest turnover rates. Here is what really happens during - a day in the life of a scheduler… A dynamic system of many moving parts When a patient calls a clinic for an appointment, the medical scheduler first collects some basic information [...]

By admin|2021-08-23T14:08:08+00:00August 20, 2021|Appointments, Medical Practice, Scheduling|0 Comments

Voice Assistants in Healthcare

Voice assistants are computer programs that receive audio inputs and respond with audio output in a manner perceived as listening and “answering” questions from a person. A user can ask “What is the weather going to be for today?” and the voice assistant will respond with a weather report for the user’s location for that day. Voice Assistants in Healthcare is a rapidly evolving area that is poised to dramatically change healthcare as we know it today. The use of voice assistant technology from Amazon (Alexa), Apple (Siri), Google (Google Assistant), and Microsoft (Cortana) are becoming mainstream. According to the 2019 NPR [...]

By admin|2021-08-22T19:12:00+00:00June 22, 2021|Medical Practice, Scheduling, Voice Assistant|0 Comments

Managing Patient No Shows

Managing patient no shows are a big problem, with many clinics facing no-show rates as high as 30%. This has been an even bigger problem during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every missed visit affects the bottom line. Just as important, if not more so, missed appointments don’t affect just the schedule and the revenue—they affect your patient’s health. No-shows and patient-initiated cancellations are both problematic. Cancellations are typically much more common and costly. On a gut-level, no-shows are more annoying. Every no-show costs money with decreased revenue despite continued overhead expenditures. New patients who do not show up not only [...]

By admin|2021-08-22T19:26:22+00:00June 21, 2021|Appointments, Scheduling|0 Comments

Patient Waitlists

Many patients want an earlier appointment. Many offices have cancellations and no-shows. Often offices use a waitlist to try to solve both problems, but waitlists have their share of problems, especially when not optimized. It is possible to address waitlist problems while enhancing the patient experience, however. Managing patient waitlists is an important part of having a successful practice and patient engagement. Common Patient Waitlist Workflows For health systems, there are two types of patient workflows. First, there is the practice-offered waitlist. Second, there is a patient-requested waitlist. Practice-Offered Waitlists With a practice-offered waitlist, schedulers ask the patients if [...]

By admin|2021-08-22T19:27:00+00:00June 21, 2021|Appointments, Scheduling|0 Comments

Appointment Reminders

Almost every office and hospital use patient appointment reminders. Some are poor, others mediocre, and some do a relatively good job. In the present climate, we cannot stand for anything less than great. Appointment reminders increase appointment attendance and early cancellation when needed, which opens the slot to be refilled, or at least decreases no-shows in most cases. Although these systems may work, they can be annoying–especially when the reminders do not interact with individual patients in the manner that is best for them. We must respect individual preferences and deliver on lofty expectations from both patients and providers. [...]

By admin|2021-08-22T19:27:24+00:00June 21, 2021|Appointments, Medical Practice, Scheduling|0 Comments

Phone Tree Best Practices

Virtually every patient satisfaction survey reveals patients’ dissatisfaction with getting through on the phone to their healthcare provider. Phone trees should be a helpful bridge not an impenetrable wall. Careful planning and utilizing phone tree best practices improve your system and your patient satisfaction. When is the last time you called your office phone tree? Try it out and be honest with your feelings and assessment of the experience. These issues have been attacked from many different angles – typically with limited success. From human operators whether local or remote, voicemail, polled call answering, rolling queues, and traditional phone trees. The [...]

By admin|2021-08-22T19:28:22+00:00June 21, 2021|Phone System, Scheduling|0 Comments