Your front desk is the first physical point of contact between you and your patients. It’s important that your front desk is able to work well in order to ensure efficiency for the rest of the practice as well as leave good impressions.
Poor front desk efficiency will cause employee burnout, impacting your staff’s ability to do their job functions and provide patient care. This results in poorer outcomes and less patient satisfaction.
Here are 4 ways to improve front desk efficiency for your practice:
1. Cross-Train Employees
Employee cross-training is training your employees to be able to perform the functions of other positions.
Cross-training helps your staff diversify their skillsets and understand their role in the organization. If they know how their colleagues operate, they’ll be able to better cooperate with each other and anticipate each others’ needs.
This allows for greater flexibility. Your staff will be able to fill in or assist other employees that have their hands full or are absent. They’ll also be able to better handle emergencies as all of your employees will know what needs to be done.
Should you choose to cross-train your employees, you should plan for it carefully. If done improperly, it can result in negative outcomes.
Be selective about who to cross-train as you don’t want too many generalists. Reward them for their hard work and increased contribution, and make sure to reduce their workload during the training.
2. Improve Standardized Processes & Tools
If your staff has call scripts, are trained on common patient concerns, and are equipped with better tools, they will be able to work more efficiently.
Improved processes and tools lead to fewer errors and more efficient work. It also sets your team’s standard for patient care.
For example, you could invest in better systems to track room availability and patient status. This would enable your staff to utilize rooms better and provide patients with more personalized care.
3. Leverage Technology to Collect Patient Feedback
Patients will be interacting with your front desk staff first and going to them for directions, so a good portion of feedback will concern them. By making patient feedback collection easier and more convenient, your staff will be able to improve more efficiently.
There are a variety of technologies you can utilize for easier feedback collection, like interactive touchscreens and on-table surveys. With these, your staff will be better prepared to direct patients and answer questions.
4. Outsource Your Appointment Scheduling
By hiring a virtual receptionist to schedule appointments, screen calls, and take messages for you, you will avoid missed calls and improve customer service.
With some of the menial tasks out of the way, your staff will be able to focus on more important and urgent work. Plus, a virtual receptionist for appointment scheduling or manning the phones can be available 24/7 or have any flexible schedule you require!
Improve Front Desk Efficiency with Always Answer
Always Answer has been providing clients with quality answering services since 1975. We’ll be happy to help improve your medical practice’s front desk efficiency so you can focus on more important work and improve patient satisfaction.
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