The last few years have pushed many physicians to their limits, and this situation shows no signs of slowing up. But your physicians don’t have to reach this point. There’s always a solution, you just need to know how to find it and how to apply it. The simplest solution, of course, is to bring a medical office assistant on board or, as you’ll discover later, a virtual medical assistant.
What is a Medical Office Assistant?
Physicians spend a lot of time working their way through exhaustive piles of administrative workloads. And, given that they see around 11 – 20 patients per day, there’s a significant amount on pre-appointment preparation to take on. For a physician, this is a difficult situation to be in. After all, this is the time that you should be focusing on patient care and research. The perfect solution, therefore, is to delegate these administrative duties to someone. And that’s where a medical office assistant can shine.
A medical office assistant will typically come to your practice and work a 9 – 5 shift, allowing your physicians to relinquish their administrative backlog and transform the level of care your patients receive. Often, depending on the size of the practice, a pool of medical office assistants will require to meet the demand. Regardless of whether you need just one or five medical office assistants, they can make a real difference to the way in which your practice operates.
What are the Duties of a Medical Office Assistant?
The administrative burden on the shoulders of physicians is clearly huge. This is why a medical office assistant (or potentially a virtual medical assistant) is such a necessity. Administrative duties are wide-ranging, so it’s important that you work with an expert in this field. With a medical office assistant added to your team, you can start delegating the following duties almost instantly:
Managing appointment schedules:
The backbone of any successful medical practice will be one that runs its appointment schedule like a well-oiled machine. However, given the sheer number of patients being seen every day – with a single physician seeing up to 20 on average – it’s next to impossible for physicians to take on this duty. Luckily, appointment scheduling is one of the keenest skills that a medical office assistant will possess. This means that they can take care of filling appointment slots, generating appointment letters, and activating SMS reminder alerts for upcoming appointments.
Updating the EMR:
For each consultation that a physician conducts, it’s crucial that the corresponding notes are entered into the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR). But, for a physician, this can be a time-consuming process, and one which can interfere with consultations. Bringing a medical office assistant on board eliminates this problem. More than capable of transcribing audio recordings of consultations, they can quickly enter these details into the EMR and ensure that the patient’s record is accurate and up to date.
Process patient queries:
Patients are always anxious when it comes to their health. And this means that they will send a lot of queries in the direction of your physicians. However, the majority of these queries don’t need to be handled directly by the physician in question. Instead, queries relating to prescription refills, appointment times, and clarification of next steps can all be dealt with by a medical office assistant. And, even if they can’t, these can always be submitted to a physician to provide feedback. Most importantly, this allows the physician to concentrate on the duties that only they can do.
Handle medical coding and billing:
Among the most critical responsibilities in healthcare, medical coding and billing stand out as time-heavy tasks. But they are also crucial duties, ones which the success and growth of your practice rely on. There’s just one challenge: finding the time to navigate the intricacies of medical coding and billing. This is where a medical office assistants can really start paying for themselves. Armed with a vast knowledge of medical coding and a deep understanding of the nuances of health insurance, they can effortlessly shoulder this burden.
Email management:
Physicians have to contend with a substantial number of emails throughout the year, highlighting the significance of efficient email management. While many emails might be straightforward, there will always be a number which relates to intricate and urgent matters e.g. scrutinizing diagnostic reports and modifying existing medication regimes. And a medical office assistant can prove invaluable in these scenarios. From categorizing emails through to improving visibility by prioritizing urgent emails, and removing spam, these assistants can transform your inbox.
Assisting with virtual appointments:
Telehealth has experienced a rapid rise in popularity over the last few years, and it appears to be here to stay. However, virtual appointments are, with an ever-aging population, still proving to be a problem for many patients due to technical issues. And a physician doesn’t have time to troubleshoot this at the start of a consultation. But a virtual medical assistant does. Perfectly placed to offer advice and get patients online, a virtual medical assistant can reduce the number of missed appointments.
Upgrade Your Practice with a Virtual Medical Assistant
You may have noticed something interesting with all the duties listed above: there’s no reason why these can’t be completed from a remote location. So, instead of relying on a local employee who commutes to your practice every day, why not choose a virtual medical assistant? The very definition of a modern business solution, a virtual medical assistant delivers everything their traditional counterpart does, but with a wide range of additional benefits.
What, though, is a virtual medical assistant? Well, as part of the virtual assistant revolution, a virtual medical assistant provides you with an exciting recruitment option. All a virtual medical assistant needs to connect with your practice is a PC and an internet connection. For them, there’s no need to battle through the commute. While for you, there’s the opportunity to open your practice up to a global pool of talent.
The demand for virtual assistants is set to continue growing, so now is the perfect opportunity for your organization to bring a virtual medical assistant on board. And here at Hello Rache, we are only too happy to make that a reality. With a wide range of talent available, and ready to start at a moment’s notice, we can connect you with the virtual medical assistant who’s right for your organization.
To find out more about how Hello Rache can transform your team with a virtual medical assistant, click here to get in touch with us.
