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Time management is essential to creating and maintaining an effective practice. A common complaint shared by many patients is the wait time involved in a routine appointment. What are the time zappers of so many health care practices and doctor’s offices? It is the amount of time spent on unnecessary tasks. Here are some of the things you can do to improve efficiency and decrease time wasters that will help improve patient satisfaction and cut down on time and cost.
An important factor in improving efficiency is streamlining patient visits. One of the challenges is the bottleneck that occurs in patient flow. When staff members are left in the dark about what rooms are occupied and what rooms are empty, time is wasted and spent waiting around until they know. As a result, patients are left sitting in the waiting room instead of getting escorted to empty exam rooms.
There are several ways hospitals and offices counteract this problem. Some hire special coordinators who have the job of managing patient flow. They are responsible for streamlining the incoming and outgoing of patients so that the bottleneck problem is alleviated. Communication is enhanced between staff members and everyone knows what rooms are available because the coordinator’s job is to assign exam rooms to patients.
If your practice doesn’t have the space or budget to hire an extra employee, then you might want to consider adding visual status displays such as lighting systems or exam room flags to the office. These help to easily inform staff if there is a waiting patient in the exam room or if the room is empty. The benefit of exam room flags and lighting systems is that they do not rely on verbal communication to get things done. They also significantly reduce unnecessary time.
Exam room flags are particularly beneficial for those looking for an affordable, easy and low-tech solution to cutting patient wait time. Exam room flags come in a variety of colors that are customizable for your specific needs. For example, white exam room flags may signify to your staff that someone needs to be escorted, gray exam room flags may tell staff that a patient is awaiting a nurse or doctor or a green exam room flag that the room is prepped and ready for the next patient. Consistent use of visual displays like exam room flags is a sure-fire way to significantly decrease wait time.
Improving the efficiency is important part of maintaining a successful practice. Eliminating the time it takes to coordinate exam rooms means that more time can be spent doing more important things. When using exam room flags staff can immediately determine the status of a room, for example and that time instead can be spent delivering quality care to patients.
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