Low staff productivity can cost you a fortune, but proactive planning and smart strategic initiatives can promise you a smooth sail.

Thanks to the digital revolution in the healthcare industry, many physicians are feeling much more productive and less exhausted than ever before. Benefitting from technological breakthroughs such as Big Data, EHRs, mHealth apps, smartphones, and AI-embedded smart medical devices, physicians’ productivity has increased manifold. However, there is always room for improvement and there are always challenges involved when it comes to implementing technology. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, worker productivity has significantly reduced since 2007,[1] despite the increased use of health technologies. While this decline can be attributable to the retirement of highly-skilled baby boomers, it might also be because of the company’s failure to invest in productivity-enhancing tools or failure to measure productivity correctly. Apart from these, the more perturbing reasons include lack of optimizing EHR, failure to automate the routine repetitive tasks, inadequate training, and the tendency to over-focus on productivity and patient volume while completely ignoring staff morale.

Battling Low Staff Productivity In Independent Practices

Whatever the reason may be, any drop in productivity at your practice is just not acceptable. You must plan ahead of time, functioning like a well-lubricated machine, with a focus on delivering high-quality care while reducing associated costs and streamlining administrative efforts. Discussed below are a few of the smartest moves to battle low staff productivity in independent practices:

Smart Use of EHR

Yes, EHR does boost productivity, but it does not do it magically. For EHR to be a success at your practice, you must leverage all of your workflows to optimize the technology. You must actively engage with your EHR vendor to develop workflow-specific training for you and your staff. At the same time, you must take advantage of time-saving features of EHR including mobile apps, e-prescribing, electronic superbills, preventive health reminders to address care gaps, integrated prescription discounts, and much more. Moreover, you can identify an EHR super-user who can undergo extensive training and serve as a valuable internal resource in times of despair.

Automated Administrative Tasks

Technology is also particularly useful for managing administrative tasks at medical practices. Practices lose valuable productive time when their staff wastes time in repetitive manual tasks. Instead, if you deploy a variety of solutions to ease the administrative burden, you can not only boost employee morale but also better engage with your patients. For instance, you can send automated appointment reminders to the patients based on their preferred method of communication. Similarly, patients can be allowed to check-in via tablets and kiosks, pay bills online, and even schedule their appointments online. I know what you might be thinking – won’t all these changes be a little too overwhelming for the staff to digest? Agreed. The best solution is starting small, one change at a time, to see how your staff and patients respond to it.

Positive Work Environment

It goes without saying that fostering a work environment that is conducive to productivity actually does boost staff morale. Additionally, using acoustic panels to reduce noise distractions can significantly improve focus and concentration, creating a quieter, more comfortable workspace that further enhances overall productivity. A happy staff is more productive, 31% more productive to be precise[3]. You can take a number of measures in this regard such as frequent training, increased workplace education, improved relationship between superior-subordinate staff, adequate staffing, sharing positive feedback, and offering both financial and non-financial incentives such as bonuses, promotions, and vacations.

Certified Coder on Board

The average hourly wage of a certified professional coder is $18.42, which is not at all a bad deal[2]. If you decide to go ahead with this deal, it will only cost you $38,000 per annum and you’ll be insured against denials and recoupments both. Now that does not outdo the chances of some payers still denying some services, but it sure does minimize the risk. So, in case a service is denied, the coder can well-explain to others as to how to prevent the same mistake from happening again in the future. Fewer denials mean more cashflow at hand which you can reinvest into time-saving technology and additional FTEs to eventually boost productivity and prevent employee burnout. Alternatively, you can deploy a medical billing software that scrubs claims for you while streamlining your overall billing process, saving you both time and money.

Positive Work Environment

It goes without saying that fostering a work environment that is conducive to productivity actually does boost staff morale. A happy staff is more productive, 31% more productive to be precise[3]. You can take a number of measures in this regard such as frequent training, increased workplace education, improved relationship between superior-subordinate staff, adequate staffing, sharing positive feedback, and offering both financial and non-financial incentives such as bonuses, promotions, and vacations.

Minimal Distractions

According to a study, an average employee can waste more than eight hours a week on activities that are unrelated to their job. What you need to understand is the fact that distractions come in various forms and the most common of these are smartphones and other similar devices. You can combat this issue by creating a zero-tolerance or break-time-use only policy. Other distractions that you need to address range from emails and meetings to other co-workers themselves.

Battling low staff productivity and boosting it at an independent medical practice requires the right people working in the right direction in the right environment and with the right technology. What you need to do is align your priorities that will move the productivity needle and help you focus more on rendering value-based care. In due process, you will also be able to minimize physician burnout, that’s a promise.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/lpc/prodybar.htm

[2] https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Certified_Professional_Coder_(CPC)/Hourly_Rate

[3] https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/the-link-between-happy-employees-productivity