5 Ways to Improve Patient Scheduling

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5 Ways to Improve Patient Scheduling

• Most medical practitioners try and squeeze in all
  patients scheduled, yet often it backfires
  leaving patients unattended with long waiting
  hours resulting in administrative inefficiency
  and poor patient satisfaction. Patient care is
  primary to augmenting the revenue of ones
  medical practice. Clinical, as well as
  administrative efficiency, can be enhanced by
  employing 5 crucial ways to improve patient
  scheduling
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• 1. Initiate Direct and Open Access
• Use digital media to interact and build
  awareness. An appointment calendar where patients
  can log in, check, and book their own slots
  -helps reduce staff workload. Automated reminders
  to patients are more acceptable than staff calls
  that could be seen as intrusive. Permitting
  online visibility to physicians notes, patients
  updating own records, offering visible tracking
  of their medical progress help for better
  physician-patient interaction and thus makes for
  more efficient scheduling of patient visits.
• 2. Employ the Modified Wave Schedule
• The modified wave schedule as against the
  traditional wave schedule is much more efficient
  and patient-friendly bringing patient
  satisfaction. This schedule keeps patient waiting
  time to a minimum.

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5 Ways to Improve Patient Scheduling
The way it works is by double-booking patients
for the first slot of each hour, giving the
physician time to catch up if they are running
late. The earlier wave schedule had all patients
coming in at one time, but the waiting time was
long. This may involve a bit more of
administrative strategizing, but in the long run,
benefits both patient and physician. 3. Enrich
Patient-Physician Engagement To reduce QA time
and also staff overloading, providing pertinent
health information to ones patients by employing
digital media, makes patients more aware of their
health problems and involves them into learning
more. Getting patients more involved in managing
their own health, especially the ones which
require minimum care interactions ensures patient
satisfaction and is now termed as patient
engagement. Patients who can monitor their own
condition online, have access to their own lab
results, are in constant touch via email with
their physicians- all this goes a long way in
helping physicians in improving patient
scheduling of the more chronic cases. 4.
Delegate Clinical Support Responsibilities
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5 Ways to Improve Patient Scheduling
If physicians provide enhanced training to their
staff, then certain basic protocols, pre, and
post-physician meet, can be handled by the staff,
creating better time management for physicians.
Filling forms and handling medication-related
instructions and follow-up appointments can help
free the physician, thus effectively dealing with
reduced waiting time of the next patient. Also,
prescription refills online can be better handled
by trained staff. 5. Perfect the Peak and Valley
Strategy Understanding seasonal variations of
disease occurrence can help strategize patient
scheduling. During the low season of patient
inflow, use the opportunity to schedule patients
with more critical problems, so that more time is
spent on understanding their problems and setting
up tests, or re-evaluating their medications,
etc. Additionally, training and workshops for
staff during the low season will go a long way in
enhancing patient engagement. Integrating the
above 5 points into your medical practice will
ensure better patient scheduling and
satisfaction. To know more about our medical
billing and coding services, contact us
at info_at_medicalbillersandcoders.com/888-357-3226.