with a lot of surgery centers who were facing the same issue. We've
found that oftentimes when we call our vendor to get them to add a
new question to our forms, they've already done it for others and
therefore can simply add it to our system for no additional charge.
You also want a company that is easy to access when you have
questions or need someone to troubleshoot. Our rep stays in touch
and is constantly asking us what we need from the software to make
it easier for staff and patients to use. I love that we can easily pick up
the phone and have them answer questions. One thing we've found to
be helpful is that several employees working for our current software
provider have a clinical background, which means they really under-
stand what we need in our bustling center.
Schmoozing the schedulers
Once you have a system in place, how do you get buy-in from your
patients and surgeons? The best way to do this is to go straight to the
source: your surgeons' schedulers. After implementing our new system,
we did an education session and luncheon with the surgeons' office
staff to get them to understand the importance of directing patients to
use it. We hold these types of luncheons when there's a new update or
other new information to share with them.
We also got creative. To encourage our surgeons' schedulers to
remind patients to use the software, we held a contest that pitted
them against each other. We sorted our 12 to 15 office schedulers into
3 categories based on the number of patients they bring in: fewer than
10; 11 to 20; and 20 or more. Then, we tracked which teams had the
most patients fill out the online paperwork before the day of surgery.
We visited the winning offices to deliver a trophy and a dozen gour-
met doughnuts. It was a simple game, but it really helped encourage
the schedulers to talk to their patients about the importance of the
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