Issue 11 - September 2003

Team tips by Susan Hoy
Efficiency: Critical to creating a ‘good experience’

What makes a practice go from ordinary to extraordinary? Making sure that each patient has a good experience when visiting your office. That “good experience” results from well-defined procedures, smooth-running systems and a perception of quality care and service.

Here are some tips that can help you and your staff go to the extraordinary level of chiropractic excellence:

• Schedule realistically. Nothing gives a patient a bad experience more than waiting too long. Train your staff to schedule according to your treatment time — and the needs of your patients.

Scheduling is more than writing names into the calendar. Help your CA learn who your “speed bumps” and your “speed demons” are and schedule them at the proper times.

• Be proactive. Start your day with a huddle and solve your scheduling problems before they happen.

• Anticipate. Before a patient comes through your door, ask your CA to pull travel cards, files, report of findings and x-rays — all the paperwork and tools you need to do your job when the patient arrives.

• All hands on deck. During peak patient times, every staff member must be focused on patient service — not paperwork!

• Be efficient. Here are a few tricks your CA can use to become more efficient: Set timers so that no patients have to wait unnecessarily; utilize a color-coded flag system to help with staff communication; identify a hot-seat area so you don’t have to wait for a patient. Remember, seconds count.

• Communicate. Develop a method of communication so that you are not interrupting each other. Use routing slips, check marks, circles and signals to keep patients moving during peak times.

• Designate check-in/check out areas. Separating the check-in and check-out areas avoids creating a bottleneck.

• Do a time study. If you are not sure about your patient-flow system, analyze it. Write down the time the patient arrives, the appointment time and the time your patient actually leaves your office. Determine where the inefficiency lies and take steps to correct the problem.

If you and your staff are not working efficiently, you create the perception that you are either too busy or not very organized. Your practice must work at peak performance in order to create good experiences — not just for the patients but for the staff, too.

Susan Hoy is an award-winning team trainer and consultant. She can be reached at 215-674-0130; suzzhoy@aol.com; or through her Web site at www.beefitupnet.