Five ways to boost productivity in your healthcare practice
Looking to increase productivity in your healthcare practice?
A well-run healthcare practice, whether it is GPs, dental, or other specialized care clinics in Singapore, can ease workloads for healthcare practitioners and deliver better quality of care and patient experience. Implemented correctly, it is indeed possible to achieve greater employee satisfaction while improving bottom-line growth for clinic owners.
Here are five ways to improve productivity and efficiency in your clinic:
- Improving delegation and communication
- Gathering data and focusing on high-value tasks
- Using automation to reduce workload
- Modernising your technology infrastructure
- Leverage on cloud software solutions
1. Increase clinic productivity by improving delegation and communication
During periods with high patient volumes, the clinic assistants and health practitioners, such as doctors and dentists, may be stretched and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of patients and administrative tasks. Miscommunication may occur and tasks fall through the cracks. Creating task lists and delegating tasks within the team can do wonders for productivity growth as it enables the team to have a common source of reference and quickly understand the next actions to be taken by them respectively. Clinic assistants will be cognizant of their specific duties and healthcare practitioners can focus on patient care and thereby be more productive with their time.
2. Increase clinic productivity by gathering data and focusing on high-value tasks
Knowing how the team is spending the daily hours at work can offer great insights into increasing productivity. Whilst you might not want to be seen tracking every moment of your employee’s time at work, you might want to ask yourself some of the following simple questions. How much time are they spending on the respective daily tasks at work? Which of the low-value administrative tasks can be possibly automated?
Gathering the data can provide you with insightful information on the efficiency of current processes and allows you to identify areas for optimisation. It will also help you understand the workload and capacity constraints of the team.
3. Increase clinic productivity by using automation to reduce workload
More healthcare practices are looking towards adopting technology and automation to allow them to scale and grow. Leveraging on tools can help to improve the speed of work done, reduce bottlenecks and ultimately improve your clinic’s productivity. According to a recent Salesforce survey, 79 percent of respondents said automation tools have increased their productivity. In the healthcare sector, automation will help to enhance a seamless patient experience while simultaneously freeing up the team from tedious, repetitive tasks.
Some of the common tasks to automate in the clinic are:
- Appointment confirmation and reminders
- Patient queue management
- Claims’ processing (eg. insurance, MediClaims, CHAS)
- Payments’ settlement and reconciliation
- Invoices and billing
4. Increase clinic productivity by modernising your technology infrastructure
The tools and technology that support your team in their day-to-day work should not impede the workflows. If they do indeed affect work productivity, it may be time to consider modernising your technology infrastructure. As the healthcare industry begins taping on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and new innovations in healthcare delivery, you may consider also equipping your team with similar technologies in your Practice Management System (CMS) and enable them to work smarter.
One of the biggest benefits of an updated healthcare information systems in the market today is interoperability, the ability for systems to exchange and make use of information. Interoperability between health information systems and formats improves productivity by accelerating information sharing. In addition, it enables your team to handle patient data as efficiently as possible and reduces the need to manage duplicated patient data in multiple systems. Helm allows you to manage all your patients’ data and journey in one single place, so that you can focus on delivery the best patient experience.
5. Increase clinic productivity by leveraging on cloud software solutions
Healthcare providers are increasingly moving their systems to the cloud to reap the benefits of improved operations workflows and greater computing power at economical costs. With an on-premises practice management system, you run the risk of potential system downtime due to hardware malfunctions. Find out more here about how cloud-based solutions can provide more benefits that would lead to increased customer satisfaction.
Focus on training the people
At its core, improving productivity and efficiency is about helping the team perform their duties faster and smarter. Attempts to reap productivity improvements hinge on the team’s willingness to adopt and learn new technology and processes. Dedicating time to upskill them guiding them to be more adaptable to system processes and process improvements will go a long way in securing productivity gains.
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