Thursday, July 12, 2018

5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Practice's Administrative Burden


"Administrative tasks are such a great use of my time!" said no provider ever.
Many smaller medical and behavioral health practices try to do everything themselves.  Because of this, it is inevitable that problems will arise.  Managing operations, answering phones, scheduling, billing, responding to patient and other provider requests, refilling medication requests, reviewing notes and other documentation and on and on and on can be exhausting and downright burdensome for staff.  In the worst scenarios, it may even overshadow your core purpose of providing care.

The good news is that there are a few things you can do to help reduce the burden on your providers, clinicians and other staff.  By doing so, you will alleviate a lot of the stress and burnout so often found in smaller practices.

A previous discussion among MGMA Members Community provided some valuable feedback with tips on how to streamline operations to reduce the burden.
Here are 5 tips they recommended:
Hire competent staff– A competent workforce can work miracles.  With so much required of practices these days, a small practice should invest in experienced and competent staff to handle the administrative work.  This would allow providers to focus on enhancing the quality of care rather than burning up their time on daily administrative-type tasks.  Be sure to provide thorough training to increase efficiency and coordination.
Prioritize and delegate– Sometimes workflows and tasks get away from us over time so it's important to take an assessment of what work is being done and by whom.  Review what type of administrative tasks you have, then determine if they are actually necessary.  If yes, decide who's responsibility they best fit under (provider, clinician, staff etc.), if there's a better way to do them and when they should be done.  Take the time to stop, refresh, rethink, reorganize, prioritize and divide.

Avoid postponing tasks– When providers postpone administrative tasks for later in the night or on the weekend, generally they end up not getting done.  After you determine which tasks actually need a provider's response, purposefully and consistently carve out a little time in each day for them to focus on those tasks you need them to handle.  
Use an effective EHR software solution- One of the beautiful things of the right EHR solution is that it will reduce your need for a large administrative staff.   EHRs can shift time-consuming, manual tasks into quick, stream-lined ones.  They weed out bottlenecks in workflows, create increased efficiency and reduce burden.  Systems that work with your existing workflows and practices can be installed more quickly and run more smoothly with less training time needed.

Seek the advice of a mentor– Competent providers who have experienced successfully managing large workloads over a period of time are a great resource.  They can provide advice on how to streamline operations, delegate administrative duties, and help you devise a strategic plan to increase productivity.
By redefining and organizing the administrative tasks in your practice, you'll be better able to focus on providing the exceptional service you desire for your clients, while remaining profitable and preventing staff burnout.

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