Many people believe in the saying, time is of the essence, while some even believe that time is money. This holds true in every aspect of a business. In the medical field, doctors can attest that the difference between saving a person’s life and losing a patient has to do with time. Patients come to the clinic expecting immediate solutions to their medical problems or diseases, but in some cases, the waiting time can just be too long. The issue here does not only revolve around the doctor having an overflow of patients. It is simply because the doctor does not have enough time to cover everything on his own and go around. Many doctors today struggle on the burden of clinical documentation for not having enough time because of too many tasks versus the consistent demand for enhancing doctor-patient relationship. Outsourcing these office tasks benefits any doctor in private practice as a feasible solution for too much time spent on documentation alone. Healthcare outsourcing has been growing because of its proven benefits to the industry. So, here are the 5 advantages of outsourcing medical tasks in your private practice:
1. Focus on patient care
Private practice physicians have been challenged by the increasing demand for high-quality, patient-oriented, timely documentation. However, the increasing demand for documentation tasks has been associated with the growing concern of time pressure and low job satisfaction among doctors because they spend more time on clinical documentation than interacting with patients. They spend an average of 3 hours daily completing documentation tasks- enough to see about eight or nine more patients. By freeing doctors from administrative documentation tasks and enhancing the value of learning by practice, outsourcing these tasks has the potential to increase the key aspect of high-quality care: the doctor-patient relationship.
Getting a Healthcare Virtual Assistant® by using Hello Rache® in your private practice is an effective strategy that allows you to focus on your patient care, spend more time with them and less time at the computer. Not only it will ease the job, but it will also improve your efficiency from getting one patient to another. Outsourcing provides the doctor the opportunity to be more efficient in their day, see more patients, and spend more time with the patients to address their medical concern.
2. Handled by an expert
One of the advantages of outsourcing healthcare administrative tasks is letting an expert handle the job for you. This will give you more time for quality patient interaction, letting you achieve your main function, to diagnose and treat patients. One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing is gaining access to a large pool of skilled professionals to handle administrative tasks, like quality documentation. It is important for your practice to hire a skilled professional who is ready to take on a job of any complexity and who has vast experience and training in carrying out specific tasks. Keeping control of the core areas of your practice, but being flexible with the tasks that you can delegate, like referrals, inbound and outbound phone calls, insurance verification, prior authorization, and other back-office tasks.
3. Save time and money
Saving time and money has always been the primary reason why businesses resort to outsourcing. You can save a significant amount of money which could have been spent on hiring additional office employees. By outsourcing, you won’t have to expend more time and money to train employees. The outsourcing partner will be the one who will organize such training and other management tasks to fit your requirement as a client. Outsourcing can significantly reduce the costs for office supplies, furniture and computer hardware, which in turn allows you to reinvest in patient services, research and amenities to enhance patient care.
4. Enhances patient experience
One of the top complaints from patients is waiting time, leaving unhappy patients, who never return or complain about the customer service they received in that clinic. Outsourcing your billing and incoming calls can also help in queue reduction to improve the patient experience. Inspecting the eligibility and completing of prior authorizations, your practice can guarantee coverage and provide correct information to patients. When patients call your practice, there is a possibility to be put on hold and wait for an average of 5 to 7 minutes. Also, patients at the front desk may be kept waiting. Healthcare Virtual Assistants® can manage your incoming calls, billing-related calls and deal with appointment setting, prescription refill requests and other patient needs. Outsourcing these services can help enhance the patient experience.
The assurance of outsourcing your administrative tasks
Getting a Healthcare Virtual Assistant® to complete documentation tasks is one of the most promising medical applications of technology today. You are eliminating inefficiencies and reducing the steps that can be delegated so you can reach your optimum level of efficiency. Take advantage of technology and see how it can benefit you and your practice. Take this opportunity to spend your time enhancing the doctor-patient relationship, instead of spending too much time on documentation. Eliminate the factors that hinder your ability to perform your medical duties efficiency. Outsource and see these benefits you and your patients will gain. After all, the care you’re providing your patients is your main product. In order to get an increased satisfactory rating from your patients, you need to follow through on their visit so you can identify when they are getting the value of what they are paying for, and what better way to do that than to have more time in your hands.
