Strategies to manage high patient volume at your office

As far as the recent report goes, the hospitals and practices are to anticipate a 4% higher patient volume compared to what they saw in the previous year.

Patient volume in healthcare plays an important role in the growth of the healthcare industry. High patient volumes are not something uncommon these days, especially since the dreadful days of the pandemic.

Ever since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, we have traced an unprecedented rise in the number of patients coming in. Situations even went out of control in one too many healthcare practices and medical units, so tough it was to handle the increased patient volume. Though most of the practices demand an increase in their patient volume or the total patients they see, and they are improving on their abilities to manage the increased patient volume, on most occasions they have been found inefficient to handle the patient volume after a sudden rise of it.

High patient volume, and rather an unprecedented rise of it, is more a bane for a practice that is not prepared properly, than being a boon for them.

Major difficulties in handling high patient volume in the healthcare industry!

High patient volume is really desired by healthcare practices, but only some can handle it. Handling an increase in patient volume becomes really difficult sometimes for the practices if they are not equipped to handle it. A sudden increase in the patient volume may result in overburdening the medical staff, postponing of the tests and treatment, long queues for checkups, and in worst cases, it can also lead to a breakdown of the healthcare unit.

Some of the most prominent difficulties when it comes to handling high patient volumes are:

• Staff shortage - Staff shortage is the primary challenge that the high patient volumes result in. The medical staff is being less each day and this has started to take a whole new turn since the days of the pandemic outbreak. One out of 5 medical staff has resigned after the Cold-19 pandemic broke out. Furthermore, reports say that 18% of the medical staff has quit their jobs during the pandemic season. All of these are leading to a huge shortage of medical workers, which will further aggravate if the practices do not choose efficient, digital medical software and solutions. The improved medical office, patient, and practice management software from reputed providers like GrowPractice, helps practices work properly even with limited staff.

• Lack of fast patient appointments - Patient appointment is the earliest of the interactions that the patients have with the practices. So, it is important that the patient appointments happen fast and smoothly, without any hassles, otherwise, it can have adverse effects on the overall patient experience that the patient sums up in a practice. Now, with an increase in the patient volume, patient appointments and the process in which they are done, become all the more crucial. Here, it is important that the medical practices equip themselves with efficient medical software solutions from GrowPractice, which will help them schedule patient appointments faster, minus the difficulties that were there in the earlier manual appointments.

• Lack of fast patient check-ins and intakes - Patient check-ins and intake processes form an integral part of the patients' journey. Furthermore, these processes also bear the ill-reputation for being extremely time-taking. The patient intake process requires the patients to fill up forms with their own medical data, consent forms, demographic, social, and clinical data, insurance forms, payment details, and more. On the other hand, patient check-in is the process that allows the patients check-in at the practice. These processes were earlier executed manually, and hence, required a considerable amount of time. However, with the advanced digital ways that are brought by medical office solution providers like GrowPractice, the practices can now help the patients fill up the digital intake forms even before they arrive at the medical practice. Besides, the patient check-ins can also be fast and digital, with GrowPractice software and systems.

• Lack of accurate medical records - Medical records are documents that are really important for the patients and practices. These records consist of patients' personal data, including their clinical condition and a detailed history of their illnesses, and more. As medical records are patient-sensitive information, they are often referred to as PHI or protected/personal health information and need to be as detailed, accurate, and secure as possible. However, taking down PHI in detail and with full accuracy is not only tough during rush hours, with an increase in the patient volume, but can also go dreadfully wrong at times, which hampers the practices. Therefore, it is essential that the practices take to embrace the improved medical tools and software systems that GrowPractice brings in, which will help them keep the medical records intact and maintain their security.

• Increasing mistakes in medical bills- The medical bills stand as a crucial document for both the patients and practices because the bills bear the sole proof of the charges or the amount that is to be paid in return for the healthcare services. However, in most cases earlier, as the medical bills were drafted manually, the bills contain errors. Nearly 80% of the medical bills and around 50% of the medical claims contained errors. However, this is rapidly decreasing with the help of the efficient digital software and tools that GrowPractice brings to the medical industry and the practices to adopt.

All of these difficulties faced by the practices lead to a reduction in the patient collections, a decrease in the patient inflow, and a blotch on the reputation that the practices hold, and the practices of today simply cannot bear with these, and still grow. Therefore, the practices now need to work fast and well on patient management so that they can efficiently manage high patient volume at their offices.

Smart ways to manage high patient volume in healthcare!

If you are wondering to tackle high patient volume in healthcare practice, then you need not worry because here are some proven strategies that have helped do this effectively for the practices. Here they are:

Digitalise patient appointment bookings

Patient appointment bookings need now to be done digitally, simply because the era we are living in, is too fast to catch pace with. Digitalized patient bookings will happen smoothly and without the requirement of a whole lot of staff, which will immensely speed up the practice operations.

Manage patient bookings, rescheduling and cancellations online

Not only bookings, the rescheduling of patient appointments, and cancellations also lie high in importance. These processes, therefore, can easily be made digital to enhance the practice operations, making it first for managing high patient volume. This will help practices save a lot of their time and will also prevent the reduction in patient flow along with cutting off a considerable portion of no-shows. GrowPractice's improved solution has helped practice reduce patient no-shows by 89%.

Work on improving patient workflow

Patient workflow is important for the patients. It is the flow of the patient's journey that helps the practice assess their patients and how most of them behave. This workflow can now be customized as well, with GrowPractice, which will help practices work in a way that the patients can avail of everything they want without any hassles. This would significantly help them manage an increased patient volume too.

Make patient check-ins and intakes online

Intakes and check-ins of patients require a considerable amount of time. However, this can hugely improve with GrowPractice's advanced medical software that enables patients to fill up their paperless intake forms from the comfort of their homes and helps them check in promptly. Report results reveal that 80% of the patients prefer completing pre-visit registration paperwork before they visit.

Record patient data fast

The patient health information (PHI) needs to be recorded fast and kept secure. The latest survey reveals that 78% of the patients want a secure online method to access their medical history and share the same with their providers. This means that the practices will need to have secure systems, which record the patient data fast, and without any errors. GrowPractice extends advanced medical software, which automatically records the patient data and integrates with 65+ EHR/PM, thereby speeding up the practice operations and making it secure and HIPAA-compliant.

Stay flexible in terms of collections

The patient collections in a practice need to be flexible because we are now living in an era where most of the patients are looking to pay digitally while some others may still choose cash. Flexibility in payment methods will ensure faster and more satisfactory results for the practices.

Some other tips to manage high patient volumes at the medical offices of the practice would be:

• Monitoring staff performance closely

• Hiring smart and tech-savvy staff

• Monitoring practice performance

• Offering telehealth services

• Monitoring patient feedback and review

GrowPractice's medical software solutions foster easy handling of high patient volume!

GrowPractice is well-known for the digital medical office software and patient and practice management solutions it provides. Trusted even by the US federal government agencies, GrowPractice is making the handling of high patient volume in healthcare effortless with the range of efficient software solutions it is providing the practices. Right from patient appointment scheduling to conducting patient check-ins, and intakes, transforming patient workflow, making billing and payments hassle-free, and more, GrowPractice is enhancing patient engagement and radically improving the overall patient experience and the rate of patient satisfaction. So, don't wait any longer, hurry up and go for the trusted medical software solutions from GrowPractice to furnish your practice with the essentials so that it can start managing high patient volume without a second thought.

GrowPractice has already started to empower practices with a 48% increase in patient retention and a 20% increase in the collection rates!