Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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8 0 O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 4 ommends that the staff who coordinates with physicians' schedulers "should be personable. In fact, it should be one person. There's no bet- ter way to boost efficiency than for them to get to know one another," to be able to ask about how a family member's doing or chat about weekend plans. When you make visits to physicians' offices, bring your scheduler along. Another way to build a relationship with your physicians' office staffs is to invite them over for workplace socializing. "We're planning to schedule quarterly events at which schedulers can meet our whole staff," says Ms. Ertel. "We'll review changes on our forms and insurance contracts, but we'll also feed everyone, hold a raffle drawing, even offer massages. Students at local massage schools need experience hours to get their cer- tifications, so we'll invite them over to do chair massages." Staff get to relax while students get their time in: the definition of a win-win. A couple of additions to your staff can also help to increase the effi- ciency of patient intake. Ms. Ertel's center created the position of med- ical records coordinator to pore over pre-admission charts and con- firm that all necessary information and test results are there. "They don't need to be a nurse to get the pieces together," she says. In fact, an investment in this hire saves you the expense of assigning a nurse to handle the task. In the business office, a pair of insurance verifiers "are the busiest people in our facility," she says. They spend the day calling insurers to determine each patient's co-pays and deductibles, and then send each patient a letter detailing his or her financial obliga- tions ahead of their surgeries. When putting your people to their ideal use, don't overlook the effi- ciency of enlisting the patient. "We have a policy of no-patients-wait- ing-in-the-lobby," says Ms. Ertel. "We give each arrival a clipboard with the printout of the pre-admission forms and ask them to verify that everything is correct." Instead of having your front desk staff take P A T I E N T M A N A G E M E N T OSE_1406_part2_Layout 1 6/13/14 11:41 AM Page 80