Did You Know?
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The Benefit of Adding A Nutritionist To Your Practice |
Are you wondering if there are any benefits to adding a nutritionist to your practice? The answer is a resounding yes! There are many benefits to adding a nutritionist to your practice! According to the World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/, obesity has reached epidemic proportions around the globe. More than one billion people are overweight, more than 300 of them are considered obese.
Studies have shown that being overweight or obese often leads to a plethora of health-related issues such as:
A doctor’s office has written in with a situation that I imagine all of us will encounter at some point in our careers as practice managers. A set of divorced parents who do not get along well put their child’s healthcare in the middle of their on-going battles. For this particular practice, the main problem is the extra work they’re dealing with. Parent A wants a copy of everything that Parent B wants and vice versa.
Of course, this is just one of many problems you may encounter when dealing with divorced parents who no longer get along. The doctor is requesting a certain treatment, but the parents disagree on whether or not it should be undertaken. That can cause unnecessary delays in the child’s treatment and a whole lot of headaches for your staff.
Standardize the schedule – Though many providers only want to work on “their” schedule, attempt to standardize the schedule and minimize changes as much as possible. This will lower the number of errors and reduce they disruption that proprietary schedules can cause. Providers may not like this at first, but a smooth schedule makes both doctors and patients happy.
As a Practice Manager, you probably know that keeping in touch with your patients is an important part of increasing the revenue of your medical practice. The more top-of-mind awareness you create, including your practice’s blog, Facebook page, printed marketing materials, in-office television, special offers on receipts and invoices, and even phone call reminders for appointments, the more your practice will reap the benefits. Patient newsletters, or e-news, is simply one more way of creating top-of-mind awareness – and it’s surprisingly easy to implement.
Patient e-news is particularly important to your medical practice because it offers an opportunity to educate patients and potential patients about medical conditions and treatments related to your specialty, as well as let them know about the full range of services offered by your practice. Patients may be suffering from particular symptoms but be frightened about painful treatments or negative side effects of medications their family and friends have shared, whether true or untrue. Patient E-News is a chance for you to dispel their misconceptions and offer attractive, or at least more palatable, alternatives.
Our last article focused on the benefits of providing patient educational materials. As a practice manager, how can you manage the dissemination of this information without overly taxing your busy staff? This article will explore a variety of methods on how to promote patient educational materials.
First, gather the educational materials you have from all sources. Then determine which are relevant and discard the rest. “Relevant” means that the materials address commonly-prescribed medications and procedures that are frequently performed by your physician(s). Material on more obscure treatment recommendations with regard to your practice should be discarded so patients don’t get inundated with information. Too much information leads to poor processing by patients.
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Benefits of Providing Patient Educational Materials |
Reassuring patients about prescriptions and procedures often falls to medical staff in a physician’s office. By the time patients have thanked the doctor and arrived at the checkout desk, they’ve had plenty of time to come up with objections and fears that need to be addressed. Addressing these concerns is important, because otherwise patients can be noncompliant with the physician’s instructions, possibly complicating their situations and definitely impacting the medical practice’s revenue.
Joining and actively participating in a medical practice referral network provides many potential benefits. As a practice manager, you can use the referral network to grow your patient base, help your physician(s) offer better care to their patients, and get great business ideas from your peers on important issues such as reimbursements and improving efficiency. You may also find support and encouragement during what are busy, tough times for many medical practices.
Paying attention to patients’ body language is not typically part of medical school curricula, so as a Practice Manager, you probably can’t look to your practice physician(s) for tips. However, patient body language is important – some studies indicate that as much as 93% of communication is nonverbal. With that in mind, here are some tips on body language awareness as it pertains to patient care.
As a medical office manager, I often wonder if anything is really getting ‘done’. On my way to the office I think of what I should do when I arrive. I should answer email, retrieve voice mail, return phone calls, plan my day and then everything will be okay. Right? It will run like clockwork and many, many tasks will get done.
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Check Your Compliace with Blood Borne Pathogen and Hazard Communication Standard |
Back in 1992 OSHA enacted the Blood Borne Pathogen (BBP) and Hazard Communication Standards. At the time Practice Managers became well familiar with the regulations, filled out the appropriate forms and did what was necessary to come into compliance. And then most practices likely forgot about them.