Most industries today are embracing some form of automation in order to streamline workflows and improve convenience. In healthcare, we have the opportunity to do the same.
Medical practices are interesting in that while their primary focus is on patient care, they must also complete several administrative tasks each day in order to stay operational. These administrative tasks are where much of the automation in healthcare can come into play to create more efficiency. Let’s explore how this works.
How does automation create efficiency in medical practices?
When practices automate administrative tasks, there are many ways it improves efficiency. First, automation saves time. When there is less need for staff to complete manual tasks, they can focus on higher-level tasks like patient care. This, in turn, increases productivity practice-wide.
Next, automation can reduce errors. Automated systems reduce the likelihood of human error when it comes to data entry or task performance. This saves the time and money that is needed to correct errors.
Automation also streamlines workflows. By eliminating bottlenecks and reducing manual handoffs, tasks are able to be completed in a more timely manner. This creates smoother operations in the practice and faster turnaround time for tasks.
Next, automation improves patient experiences. Automation offers self-serve options such as online appointment scheduling, patient portals to access medical information, and electronic prescription refills. This ability to complete tasks without waiting on a staff member at the practice increases patient satisfaction by enhancing convenience.
Automation can provide data-driven insights. Using automated systems makes it possible to generate data and analytics that allow practices to identify trends, track KPIs, and make decisions driven by that data. With these insights, practices can improve processes and enhance performance.
Finally, automation saves money. Having operations streamlined and reducing manual labor allows practices to save costs associated with staffing, errors, and inefficiencies. Also, automation can lead to faster reimbursement and improved revenue capture.
About the author,
Crystal Stanton
Crystal is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Henry Schein MicroMD. Content creation, social media management, and SEO optimization are just a few of her areas of concentration as she seeks to educate clients and prospects alike about the simple, customizable, and connected solutions we offer at MicroMD.
7 Administrative Tasks to Automate for An Efficient Practice
There are obviously numerous benefits to be realized when practices automate administrative tasks. Here are seven tasks that you can automate to begin seeing improvements in efficiency:
1. Appointment scheduling
Enabling automated appointment scheduling provides patients with 24/7 accessibility. They can book appointments at any time, even outside of regular business hours, increasing convenience and leading to greater patient satisfaction. Additionally, this reduces the administrative burden on your staff. Manual appointment scheduling is a time-consuming task. By automating scheduling, staff can focus on more critical tasks, such as those directly related to patient care.
2. Patient registration and intake:
Automating patient intake reduces waiting times experienced by patients when they arrive for their appointment. By automating this task, patients can provide their information electronically ahead of time and arrive for their appointment ready to be seen. Plus, automating intake improves data accuracy. When patients enter their information electronically into a program that will directly transmit that information to a practice’s software, the risk of data entry errors is reduced. This keeps records accurate, up-to-date, and complete so that providers have all the information they need.
3. Insurance verification:
Implementing automation for insurance verification reduces the burden on your administrative staff be reducing the lengthy process that is manually verifying insurance. This streamlines the process and frees your staff’s time up for other matters. Additionally, automated insurance verification is typically a quicker process with more rapid results, allowing insurance coverage to be verified in minutes or even seconds. This quicker turnaround prevents delays in the process of scheduling appointments or beginning treatment.
4. Appointment reminders:
Automated appointment reminders are particularly effective at reducing the rate of patient no-shows. Timely reminders sent by text message, email, or phone call remind patients of their upcoming appointments, as well as give them the option to cancel or reschedule if needed so you aren’t left hanging. Reducing no-shows also leads to cost savings. When office staff becomes aware that a patient can no longer make a scheduled appointment, they can seek to fill that vacancy, minimizing wasted time slots to optimize revenue potential and improve financial performance.
5. Prescription management:
Using an e-prescribing system allows for drug interaction checks, allergy alerts, and dosage recommendations, helping to reduce medication errors and adverse reactions. Additionally, refill requests can be automated with many e-prescribing systems based on specific criteria and patient preferences. This saves time for both patients and providers by eliminating the task of manual prescription refills.
6. Patient communication:
Automated patient communication systems can send instructions for follow-up care, guidelines for post-procedure and recovery tips. They can also remind patients of the need to schedule follow-up appointments, allowing for better health outcomes. Plus, automated surveys can be sent to patients to gather feedback about their experience, satisfaction level, and areas for improvement. This feedback helps practices to grow and enhance quality of patient care while also improving satisfaction ratings.
7. Reporting and analytics:
Some automated reporting systems will provide insights into financial metrics such as revenue and expenses, as well as reimbursement rates. This allows practices to determine where they can improve their financial health. Additionally, some automated reporting systems allow practices to more easily participate in regulatory programs, such as MIPS. By automating data collection, reporting, and submission processes, practices can streamline these efforts and avoid penalties.
Automating administrative tasks in your practice is a great way to free up your staff’s time for tasks more closely related to patient care. When your staff is able to spend more time focusing on the patients, this will also improve patient satisfaction.
Beginning the automation process can feel intimidating, but here at Henry Schein MicroMD, we are dedicated to helping you increase practice efficiency. We are proud to offer incredible vendors whose products can streamline your workflow, such as SmartAction for AI-enabled automated patient scheduling, MMDengage for automated scheduling, patient intake, appointment reminders, and communication, MicroMD EPCS Gold for e-prescribing, RevOps for automated financial analytics, and Alpha II to help with automating your MIPS participation.
To learn more about any of these services or to get started, visit micromd.com or call 1-800-624-8832 today.
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