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Office Management
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OFFICE MANAGEMENT
The practice has tried an automated attendant telephone service, however after months of utilizing this service and several modifications and reattempts at utilizing telephone attendance we have found a far greater success and a 20-30% increase in patient scheduling rate utilizing live operators rather than computerized phone attendant solution. Despite the simplicity of attendance solutions and offering patient’s a simple choice of nurse appointment today, billing, etc, it is our perception that many patients and referring physician desire quick human contact and easily become frustrated with any type of automated solution. Currently all phones are forwarded from each office via the voice over internet solution over our own T-lines to a central call center at the central office staffed by highly skilled and proficient operators that provide a myriad of functions and delegate calls to each area. In addition, the operators answering every single call quickly prior to placing any call on hold which quickly gets the patient to a human voice. The operators route calls to live personnel in other departments such as nursing, pre-certification, billing, collection, management, and administration to quickly handle calls efficiently. This has enabled the practice to effectively handle up to 2000 calls a day in an efficient manner.
Scheduling is made easy as possible for referring physician, they may request emergent consultation, urgent consultation, same day scheduling, or next available, and may request a particular physician and/or a particular office location. In addition, a referring physician may speak to the on-call physician anytime 7 days a week, 365 days per year utilizing our call service or other healthcare providers such as a pharmacist. Most patients require a request for consultation as this helps to eliminate any illegitimate patients or patients with underlying medical conditions not requiring neuroscience expertise. Established patients may request a same day office visit or follow up, or may talk to the triage nurse to see if they require urgent or emergent attendance by one of the physicians. The physicians template their schedules with administration depending on their desires and needs. In addition, each physician is allowed slots for add-on patients and this has significantly improved patient and referring physician satisfaction. Furthermore, practice clinic schedules are staffed based on patient demand and referring physicians demand.
The front desk is the start of any patient visit. Established patients may take their comprehensive history intake form home with them when they leave the office and may fill it out prior to presenting for their next visit. In addition, at each visit the patient is given a 45 paragraph consent for treatment form which is reviewed with the nurse and staff and physicians, and signed outlining the various policies, procedures, and general guidelines and expectations of the practice regarding patient care and professional interaction. Patients in the waiting room are kept abreast of the wait times by the front desk manager. In addition, certain patients may be seen sooner at the discretion of the physician under certain circumstances such as a patient being brought in on a stretcher for evaluation and/or patient on oxygen with limited supply in their canister, and a myriad of other extenuating circumstances which further improves patient and referring physician satisfaction.
The patient flow has been improved with the institution of wave scheduling which allows for slots that may become available due to failure to keep appointments, etc, has allowed for a steady flow of patients and the ability of the physicians and staff to be busy seeing and evaluating and treating patients between 9:00 and 5:00 Monday through Friday at the five office locations.
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