Over the last eight months, Sierra Regional Spine Institute in Reno has reviewed its workflow and made several changes to help improve efficiency and cut costs. Penny Forbes, practice administrator, describes three of the most successful changes made by the organization.
1. Reassign staff responsibilities to maximize productivity. We reviewed front office job duties in both our physical therapy department and our clinic. We noticed the support staff in PT had several hours during the day that were "down time" hours. This position requires the employee to be present throughout the day to handle calls, scheduling and billing, but this employee is efficient and was often left with little to do for various periods throughout the day.
In contrast, on the clinic side our front office supervisor often runs out of time because her duties include editing dictation, daily scanning, helping with phones, check out and supervising five other staff members. She also covers each member of the staff when one is out on vacation or sick leave. During this coverage period the dictation and scanning duties are often delayed.
So we assigned the daily scanning to the PT front office staff member to fill her down time, and freed up the clinic supervisor who could then continue to cover not only in the front office but we were able to extend her reach to the x-ray desk and even to the clinic. We have thus enabled our employees to multi-task at a greater level without hiring additional staff.
2. Reduce work hours. Our next change to aide efficiency was to reduce work hours. We observed that during the time between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 pm on Friday afternoons, our employees were extremely non-productive. Many employees would ask to leave early on Friday as well. So we decided to send everyone home early on Fridays, which forced the employees to be more efficient the balance of the week. The same work is being done, with two hours less a week than before. Thus, we cut our payroll expense (by approximately $30,000 per year) while maintaining work flow.
3. Provide better work space. Our practice has six physicians and four mid-level practitioners. At any given time we have four providers and six medical assistants in a very small area sharing nine patient rooms. To alleviate some of this crush we scanned all of our paper charts, pulled out the metal file system and have converted this area to a work space for our medical assistants. We rotate the MAs out of clinic on days the MAs don't support clinic patients, thus opening the clinic work space to those who do. In the end, we have effectively removed unneeded bodies from clinic, which has opened up space for providers with patients to work more effectively.
Learn more about Sierra Regional Spine Institute.
Read more guidance to improve spine:
- 5 Tips to Improve Recruitment of Spine Physicians and Staff
- 5 Tips for Benchmarking and Controlling Staffing and Labor Costs in Orthopedic and Spine Practices
1. Reassign staff responsibilities to maximize productivity. We reviewed front office job duties in both our physical therapy department and our clinic. We noticed the support staff in PT had several hours during the day that were "down time" hours. This position requires the employee to be present throughout the day to handle calls, scheduling and billing, but this employee is efficient and was often left with little to do for various periods throughout the day.
In contrast, on the clinic side our front office supervisor often runs out of time because her duties include editing dictation, daily scanning, helping with phones, check out and supervising five other staff members. She also covers each member of the staff when one is out on vacation or sick leave. During this coverage period the dictation and scanning duties are often delayed.
So we assigned the daily scanning to the PT front office staff member to fill her down time, and freed up the clinic supervisor who could then continue to cover not only in the front office but we were able to extend her reach to the x-ray desk and even to the clinic. We have thus enabled our employees to multi-task at a greater level without hiring additional staff.
2. Reduce work hours. Our next change to aide efficiency was to reduce work hours. We observed that during the time between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 pm on Friday afternoons, our employees were extremely non-productive. Many employees would ask to leave early on Friday as well. So we decided to send everyone home early on Fridays, which forced the employees to be more efficient the balance of the week. The same work is being done, with two hours less a week than before. Thus, we cut our payroll expense (by approximately $30,000 per year) while maintaining work flow.
3. Provide better work space. Our practice has six physicians and four mid-level practitioners. At any given time we have four providers and six medical assistants in a very small area sharing nine patient rooms. To alleviate some of this crush we scanned all of our paper charts, pulled out the metal file system and have converted this area to a work space for our medical assistants. We rotate the MAs out of clinic on days the MAs don't support clinic patients, thus opening the clinic work space to those who do. In the end, we have effectively removed unneeded bodies from clinic, which has opened up space for providers with patients to work more effectively.
Learn more about Sierra Regional Spine Institute.
Read more guidance to improve spine:
- 5 Tips to Improve Recruitment of Spine Physicians and Staff
- 5 Tips for Benchmarking and Controlling Staffing and Labor Costs in Orthopedic and Spine Practices