Archives: Patients
Keeping Up With Changes via Telehealth
We’ve emphasized in the last few of our blog posts the importance of healthcare optimization to patients and practices. We also highlighted the impact that Covid-19 has had on these elements within our healthcare systems. As we face a second...
Time is Money… Literally
Time is money is a bit of a cliché, but when it comes to physicians that is often very much the case. After all, a physician’s main resource is their time and unfortunately for everyone no amount of goodwill or...
Full Utilization of Your Care Team
An important aspect of not only practice efficiency, but also individual provider efficiency is proper utilization of resources. In today’s post, I want to look specifically at physician extenders, and how their role can impact everyone at the practice. From...
Patients are Demanding More, and We Can...
You would think that having such a vast network in healthcare would mean that I am spot on with all health maintenance appointments. Nope. In fact, receiving regular mammograms is not my core area of competence. About a year ago,...
Busy versus Optimized: Your Provider’s Schedule
Providers care about healthcare optimization for the same reason all high-performers seek optimization in their respective fields- an unyielding desire to accomplish as much as possible each day. Optimization is defined as “the action of making the best or most...
Scheduling Controls and Data to the Rescue
1998, is the last time that I personally scheduled a patient’s appointment while working in a doctor’s office. I am here to tell you: we were winging it. The practices I worked in were well-respected and well-run organizations, so the...
Optimization: Where do we start?
The healthcare industry is always striving for optimization, but what does that really look like? In our upcoming series, we want to give you the complete run-down on how different aspects of your healthcare organization can be promoting the goals...
Scheduler Stories: Given the Finger
I served as a scheduler at a surgeon's office from 1990 to 1998, and as you might imagine, I experienced my fair share of interesting patients and crazy stories. One such story occurred almost 15 years ago, during a typical...
Wave Scheduling Woes: Inherent Problems and the...
It’s been practiced consistently since the early 1980s as a solution for increased patient volume and the need to make practices more efficient. Wave scheduling, where physicians schedule multiple appointments at the top of the hour and then see patients...
Debunking the Myth of Best and Worst...
Tuesdays and Thursdays are the most popular days to schedule a doctor appointment. Monday mornings are particularly busy because of weekend ailments. Late afternoon spots have the longest wait times. Avoid these days and times at all costs: they’re the...
Why pry? 3 reasons to make follow-up...
The Medical Group Management Association reports that the average rate of no-show appointments nationally in the healthcare industry is around 5.5 percent. It further states that 63 percent of practices tracked missed appointments and cancellations. However, it also finds that...
Patient complaints: be aware and you’ll more...
You see it all the time. A patient squabbles with a receptionist. Or a nurse. Or a physician. Sometimes even with another patient. Though they may seem to be all-too-often occurrences, patient complaints are more infrequent than you might think....