One of the biggest concerns for any manager of a healthcare practice, clinic, or hospital is patient wait times. When patients feel they aren’t a priority, that scheduling has caused them to lose much of their day, or that they can’t get the care they need when they need it, it affects your ability to help them effectively. But you can balance patient volume without sacrificing quality patient care. Here are some scheduling tips to reduce patient wait times.
Consider Staff Start Times
Is it possible to create a more flexible system that staggers your staff’s start times to spread out the duties among them better? This can provide a more fluid system to be able to see the right number of patients to provide quality care and reduce wait times in your office. Sometimes, a staggered approach to your day could increase you availability for patients.
Use Online Check-In Systems
Technology is changing our entire world, so it doesn’t serve your practice to avoid it. There is technology designed to help you better manage your patient load and intake process. Using an online check-in system can reduce the waiting room time for each patient. It also frees up your staff to conduct the other necessary duties.
Hire Non-Physician Clinicians
Another way to reduce wait times and give patients the care they deserve is to hire additional non-physician clinicians in your practice. For example, a nurse practitioner can handle a wide number of cases that can free up your time to see people who are unable to receive care from the NP. This can reduce wait times, especially for non-critical cases, which are often given a lower priority.
Encourage Portal Use and Telemedicine
Another way technology can improve your practice and increase your patient experience is by utilizing the patient portal and incorporation telemedicine. There are plenty of things that can be handled with quick information. If the patient portal can’t provide the information, a practitioner can meet with the patient online to determine the next course of action.
Can your office become more efficient by adding Non-Physician clinicians?
Contact CornerStone Medical, a top medical staffing agency in Dallas, Tx, to request an employee today.
