Practice Priorities
Life is busy both in and out of the practice/your business and most DPMs/practice owners struggle to find a balance without falling short somewhere. If this sounds familiar, keep reading. If not, then good for you! Maybe you should write the next Pro Tip!
In every aspect of life, productivity (checking off the “to dos”) starts with prioritization What needs to get done now, what can wait and what can be delegated or outsourced.
If your clinic schedule is suddenly inundated with new patients (a great problem to have) but you are not seeing an increase in reimbursement/cash flow, instead of continuing a hamster wheel marathon, prioritize making a plan to find out why and rectify the issue. When patient volume increases, many doctors find it difficult to keep up with charting. Getting behind on notes, means (or should mean) a delay in claims submission (please finish your chart notes before you bill) and thus delayed reimbursement (or sometimes no reimbursement because of timely filing. . . YIKES!). The solution is to finish your notes within 48 hours of visits. But, how?
- You may need to hire an additional medical assistant to help keep patient flow moving and allow you time to complete notes at the end of clinic sessions.
- You could also hire and TRAIN a scribe or use an AI scribing program to chart for you.
- Or, maybe you are not as proficient as you could be in charting with your EHR and need additional training to discover more efficient workflows.
In any case, it must be done.
Are you finding it difficult to be present with your partner or children because of work that follows you home (like charting at nights and on the weekends)? If so, re-read the paragraph above and fix it. You will always find it beneficial to carve out administrative time among your clinic hours to catch up on notes, review A/R, and to keep a finger on the pulse of your practice. In other words, to keep work at work. Your family will thank you for it.
Finally, prioritizing focus is key. Spending 30 minutes of uninterrupted time on one task is far better than two hours playing mental pinball and not completing any single one. I carved out 30 minutes in my calendar to write this. . . You’re welcome:)
