What Practice Administrators Need to Do Today to Succeed Tomorrow

Keeping employees committed to giving quality care while staying on top of patient satisfaction and safety are just some of the day-to-day responsibilities of practice administrators. Surgeons and physicians can relate more effectively to their patients if they give them more access to care and information. Building a practice with a high-performance culture does not happen overnight, and for many practices there are plenty of pieces that fit into the puzzle of high performance. For any practice to succeed, practice administrators need to be asking how to make employees work at an optimal level while keeping them motivated and engaged.

High-Performance Culture

What does it mean to have a high-performance culture? If your goal is only to be impressive on paper, there is a good chance you are missing the opportunity for your employees to be high performing. Having a high-performance culture means every employee wants to go above and beyond and not settle for mediocrity. Building this type of culture is time consuming and can get pushed aside. Medical practices are so busy that high turnover can be common. Hiring people in a hurry to fill a void will leave you with an underperforming staff.

Actions

Think about your actions and how they affect the entire practice. Implementing an effective performance management process using clearly defined standards to differentiate high and low performers is one of the best actions you can take to build a high-performance culture. The physicians and surgeons in the practice should work together to set up standards. Larger practices often struggle to achieve a cohesive communication system. Employees might be working specifically for a certain physician and may not communicate with employees who work for a different physician or surgeon, potentially leading to confusion or mistakes that could affect patients. But if the entire practice has a set of standards in place for the organization and quality of care, there are fewer chances to make mistakes. For example, the entire staff should be given literature on the policies and responsibilities for the practice as a whole, and then for the specific physician they are working directly for as well.

Giving your employees the tools they need to succeed is empowering for them.

This may sound like a lot of work, but giving your employees the tools they need to succeed is empowering for them. They will not be confused about their roles in the practice or about the roles of their coworkers. A lot of time and effort goes into making a practice function efficiently. Not only are the employees being held to practice standards, they are also being held to individual physician standards. Consider your actions: have you given your employees what they need to be successful? The key to your own success means knowing how to create competent employees who are representative of your practice. Understand and recognize that first impressions count, and patients will notice if there are deficiencies.

Digital Defense

Implementing an electronic medical record (EMR) system can save time and money, and help prevent mistakes. The deadline for physicians to adopt and make Meaningful Use of EMR systems was 2015. For those who did not, “Medicare reimbursements will be reduced by 1% with the deduction rate increases in subsequent years by 2% in 2016, 3% in 2017, 4% in 2018, and up to 95% depending on future adjustments.”(1) In addition to being a cost-saving measure, EMRs have the potential to add more protection for patients as well as physicians. EMRs have the potential to change the entire landscape of healthcare as we know it. We have already seen an increase in medical apps that people can use on their smartphones, as well as other digital tools for tracking health and fitness, so the idea of our health records being digitally accessible is not unusual. What patients do have an issue with is the idea that their medical records can become easily accessible through the use of an EMR system.

The benefits of EMRs and the various devices and apps used to access them are many. Sharing patient data with authorized providers can facilitate faster, more comprehensive treatment of patients. Utilizing tablets and other devices in the exam room can educate your patients and facilitate better patient-physician communication.

Safeguards for EMR systems include access tools such as passwords, PINs, and encrypting information. Passwords, user names, and access controls can prevent unauthorized access to medical records more thoroughly than traditional paper methods; it is far more difficult to break into a secure system than a locked file cabinet.

Within the next few years, more physicians will be utilizing tablets and mobile devices in their medical practices to access patient records, medical apps, and clinical information. Joining with and benefitting from this trend requires that your practice be in compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule to safeguard patient information in a digital age.

Training

Training employees starts with your hiring process. You’ve extended an offer to a new employee and now have begun the onboarding process, including reference and background checks. This part of the onboarding process is incredibly important and should never be overlooked. When hiring someone for your practice, you might have contacts or recruiters that can connect you with potential candidates. Although this is a reliable way to ensure you are getting quality candidates, it does not mean you can skip the references or the background check. Unfortunately, candidates can lie about previous employment and even their education. You do not want to leave any stones unturned when hiring a new employee.

Once everything checks out you must give the new employee a start date, leaving enough time to relocate if you are hiring an employee who is moving to your geographical area. You might have to discuss what start date works best for you and for the employee. On the day your new employee starts, you want to wow him or her with just how efficient your office is. Have information ready that will answer common questions, and provide an employee handbook to outline the protocols of the practice.

Do not underestimate the power of shadowing and training.

Then you must train the employee in the style that is specific to your office so he or she can meet the needs of your patients. This training process should take anywhere between a few weeks to a few months. Do not underestimate the power of shadowing and training. Pairing your new employee with a seasoned worker is one of the most valuable things you can do to strengthen the bond between employees and create a culture of competence throughout the practice.

Retention

Healthcare depends heavily on its people to carry out its mission. Because of this, a lot of practices suffer if their practice administration isn’t working effectively. Taking steps to retain employees can reduce the issues faced by employees and administrators.

Educating employees means boosting their leadership capabilities and encouraging a strong working environment. “Educating” can mean how you train and approach situations with the staff. Educating also means supplying physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses with opportunities for continuing medical education, whether you are supplying seminars in house or paying for them to attend seminars off-site.

The better you know your own practice, the better you will be at marketing it to prospective employees.

The practice will be busy throughout the day, leaving very little down time for employees, so clear and constant communication is essential. Job responsibilities break down into two groups: clinical and nonclinical. Clinical staff should have a set of policies in place to follow, and nonclinical staff members should have their own set of policies as well. The office should run smoothly on a day-to-day basis. One of the best ways to retain employees is to ask key questions during the interview process to make sure they are going to be a good fit for the practice.

The better you know your own practice, the better you will be at marketing it to prospective employees. Provide training for new employees to give them the skills they need to excel and increase value to the practice. New employees appreciate this training, and it will give them a probationary period where they know they are learning the ins and outs of the practice.

During the interview process you can get a better feel for the type of person you will be hiring by asking specific questions. Ask candidates about their accomplishments in their previous positions and the amount of time it took them to complete tasks. You should see if they prefer jobs where they were given a lot of responsibilities or more highly structured positions with more supervision. Employees who are engaged have greater commitment to the practice, and they go above and beyond their basic job descriptions.

Think of staff meetings as an investment.

Having weekly staff meetings will increase office morale and keep employees interested in their jobs. Think of staff meetings as an investment; you want to keep your staff informed about what is going on in each department. Set up an agenda for the meeting in advance so everyone knows what topics you will be covering. Including them when it comes to decisions for the practice is another way to keep staff engaged. Maybe you’re thinking about switching to a new EMR system or about creating a practice website—discuss this with your staff members so they can give feedback. Don’t just listen to their feedback; utilize it to better the practice. Be consistent with your communication; employees want to know that if a problem arises you will take care of it in a timely and professional manner.

Developing guidelines for your staff to follow on a regular basis can and will cut down on major issues that could arise. For example, have regular check-ins with physicians and mid-level providers to see if they are satisfied with their jobs. Job satisfaction has a lot to do with the quality of care being delivered to patients.

Learning is an ongoing process for all healthcare professionals, and staying current on topics in both treatment and prevention only helps a practice approach their patients. The entire process from check-in to check-out is reflected in patient satisfaction and retention. The practice is also a business, and giving patients excellent customer service is just as important as appropriately diagnosing and treating them. Relating to your patients and supplying them with quality care and service depends on effective practice administration.

Conclusion

A high-performance culture starts with communicating effectively with clinical and nonclinical staff. Communicating and scheduling regular team meetings are simple ways to make the office run more efficiently, giving every member of your staff the opportunity to be successful.

Reference

1. Electronic medical records deadline: will I be assessed penalties for not using an EMR system? Medicalrecords.com ; www.medicalrecords.com/physicians/electronic-medical-records-deadline . Accessed December 2, 2015.