Ways to reduce the long working hours of practice managers and administrators?
We usually use the adjective "hard" to describe decent work done. Therefore, work time is traditionally associated with hard labor, pressure, etc. All of these make good work sound industrious. Regardless of the industry, we work in, most of us are pressurized or overburdened when it comes to working. It is just the same thing if we look into the medical industry.
Much like all the other industries, the medical sector of now is changed a lot from what it was earlier. This change was driven largely by the boom of the internet and the emergence of the latest software and technology that is benefitting all. The medical office tools, software, new-age systems, and technologies brought by trusted medical office solutions providers like GrowPractice are drastically improving the work and boosting the workflow of the medical offices of practices. These solutions are also helping the medical practice managers and administrators to avoid the burnouts they most complain of, as a result of the long working hours that they often have to put up with.
Working hours are long and a huge worry for the practice managers, administrators, and staff!
We have all witnessed the Covid-19 broke out and the majority of it pass, which almost shook every industry that is there now. However, it is the medical industry that had to bear the major brunt of the pandemic.
With the start of the pandemic as patients, in masses, were admitted to the hospitals, practices, and other medical centers that are there, medical practice managers and administrators had to deal with the whole of it till the very end. It is for the tireless efforts of the practice managers and administrators, and the burned-out executions of the practice staff that we have survived the deadly pandemic. However, as a result, situations have been really tough for the people who are in the medical profession, including the doctors, nurses, medical staff, practice administrators, managers of practices, and more.
Survey results state that 18% of the medical staff resigned to date from the time when the pandemic began. Many other surveys reveal that 1 out of 5 medical staff quit their jobs during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Though the list of the causes for their resignations are many, it is their working hours that can be viewed as the most obvious of the factors.
According to recent survey reports, around 51% of the employees feel completely drained out after an average day's work, which usually happens a few times in a month or more. Besides, it has also been seen that over 20% of them feel emotionally drained after their usual work week.
All of the working professionals go through their tiredness and many of them are even marred down by burnout. Among the respondents, over 52% were burned out in the post-Covid world, which has gone up from 43% of the professionals, who reported burnout.
Among all of the industries, the medical industry, which belongs to the emergency sector, is one of the most prominently vulnerable sectors that faces a significant chunk of burnout. Survey reports reveal that burnouts, on average, ranged between 30-50% before the pandemic, which rose to be ranged between 40-70% in the wake of the post-Covid19 period. These burnouts not only result in anxiety, piling tension, and worries but can result in numerous other critical conditions as well. Besides, if proper precautions are not taken, it might even be difficult for the patients to be reverted to the regular/normal, pre-burnout state. However, if such patients happen to be the practice managers and administrators, there would be no end of worries then.
However, we can avoid such a happening. In fact, it is the duty of the medical practitioners, doctors, practice staff, and everyone associated with the healthcare industry to combinedly care for each other. This will ensure no such calamity falls upon the healthcare industry. However, to minimize burnout of the practice managers, practice administrators, and others involved in practices, it is important to reduce their long working hours.
Now, if you are wondering how to do it, or asking for some workable ideas to contribute your bit to the medical industry, then check out the next section.
Smart ways to trim down the long working hours of practice managers and administrators!
The practice managers and administrators shoulder a huge responsibility of ensuring that the practice working fine. With this he/she also needs to note down whether the practice is profitable, treating patients well, working the staff overtime, managing optimum revenue cycles, paying the staff well, using the latest methods of treatment, attracting and retaining patients well, and more.
It is mostly a sad story for the practice managers and administrators, who for their heavy workloads, often have to work post the time that is designated for them, just to ensure that the work is completed. In this course, over 90% of the practice managers/administrators have to work overtime, as per the latest reports. However, most of them are not paid for the overtime work they do. In fact, statistical reports reveal that only 10% of them receive their overtime payments. Working to the brim of being burned out and not even being paid properly is not what a practice manager or an administrator should be subjected to.
If you are worried about yourself or the practice managers, practice administrators, and others working at your medical practice and are really curious about the ways you can adopt to cut short their long working hours, then we hope you are not too late. This is because here we have brought you some smart and easy ways that you can follow to reduce their long working hours at the practice.
So, let's dive into them without any more of the delay:
Hire smart and effective practice staff
The practices or medical care centers stand on their workforce. Now, if the practice staff hired cannot properly follow information, and is not smart or tech-savvy enough, then it really becomes a challenge for the practice managers and administrators. It becomes hard for them to train, which puts enormous pressure on the managers and admins of the practices as well. The only solution that will help them get past their long working hours and endless worries is the hiring process, which needs to be rigorous. A meticulously designed screening at the time of the hiring of practice staff would make it easy for the practice managers and administrators later on.
Ensure proper training is in place
A proper training period is mandatory for every industry let alone the healthcare sector. A strict and informative training, full of assessments, help the practice managers and admins be aware of the potential of the staff. Moreover, rigorous training also helps the medical staff be used to the floor workflow and informed of the real cases, thereby making them aware of what they need to face in the sector that they are working for. All of these would also help the practice managers and admins stay at peace because as soon as the training period is over, they can rest assured of having a batch of seasoned medical staff, and need not be too much worried.
Automate the workflow
The workflow of medical practices is largely automated today. As automation technology is benefiting a significant number of industries, it is also important to note that the medical industry is not an exception. The practices of the healthcare industry have a whole number of processes that don't really need manual labor and can be much more efficient with automatic software. Such medical office, patient, and practice management software solutions are brought in by GrowPractice, which is one of the most reputed medical office software solution providers. From patient check-ins to maintaining the patient queues, reminding patients, and filling patient appointments and cancellations, you can also approach them for automatizing the work at your practice.
Install cutting-edge medical office software systems
Medical software systems are on the rise in the healthcare industry. A medical practice contains numerous desks of work, where a range of activities are performed. The patients' journey in a medical practice begins with patient appointments, patient intakes, patient check-ins, doctor visits, patient diagnoses, tests, patient reminders, feedback and reviews, and more. All of these required a significant amount of labor from the medical staff, doctors, and nurses earlier, but nowadays everything is fulfilled with the all-new, cutting-edge medical software that is used in medical practices. GrowPractice brings a wide range of medical office, patient management, and practice management software as a solution to all the time that was invested earlier in practices and put a stop to the malpractices and errors in the medical units. Besides, the GrowPractice solutions for the medical practices are also helping the patients and the practices by improving patient attraction, and patient retention, and making the overall quality of medical care better.
Ensure the medical office solution is an integrated whole
Medical office software, when used, is often found to be lacking in terms of integration with one another. Integration is a genuine issue that more and more practices face. Besides, with numerous other devices and facilities like the EHR and PM software that a large number of patients use to monitor their health, many software often gives up their capacity of being compatible with a vast majority of this software. However, this is not the same case with the GrowPractice software, all of which are compatible with over 65 of the top EHR/PM software that is in use today. Using properly integrable software solutions, one that GrowPractice, brings, will lessen the worries of the patient managers and administrators and reduce their working hours too!
Place proper patient feedback and review practices into practice
Feedback and reviews are something that is constantly improving the industries of today. The culture of collecting feedback and reviews from the customers is not only helping the customers feel valued and trust the organization, but is also refining the overall process, and boosting customer satisfaction. Such a process also helps to reduce the burdens of the practice managers and practice administrators of the medical practices that are currently in operation.
The medical practice management software from GrowPractice are helping to solve numerous issues of the practices today, and are making the patients' journeys short and memorable. Moreover, they are also taking down the overall time taken by the practice managers and administrators and helping them rest assured.
Place proper patient feedback and review practices into practice
GrowPractice boasts of reducing the practice staff time waste on phone to over 75%. It is credited for saving 500+ hours per provider to date. Here's how it is doing it via its game-changing medical practice management software:
Instant patient appointment bookings
Facilities for booking, rescheduling, and canceling appointments
Flexibility of patient payment options
Quick, secure, and easy billing
Fast patient check-ins and intakes
Quick and easy patient feedback and surveys
Easy and customizable patient workflow
Secure and HIPAA-compliant two-way texting methods