Urgency is fundamental to urgent care. This seems like a no-brainer – after all, it’s what propels our entire industry. But if your operational processes and workflows aren’t built for speed and efficiency, your patients won’t get the quality of care or the on-demand visit they expect, your staff will begin to burn out, and your business will suffer financially.hb
As a result, you deliver urgent care as it was meant to be delivered – with urgency.
The following are four ways you can improve your urgent care operational processes based on two decades of partnering with urgent care practices across the country.
THE FIRST WAY
One of the biggest risks to your operational workflows is the lack of, or disregard for, standard operating procedures. Your SOPs ensure that everyone on your team is operating based on a formalized, coordinated process to reduce the risk of error and improve productivity.
SOPs should be comprehensive, covering every process that every team member – from managers to staff – must follow in certain situations. These procedures should be based on industry/function best practices and should be specific to fundamental functions of your practice – both medical and business. For instance, your practice should have an SOP for blood draws, patient check-in, billing processes – and literally every other fundamental function your practice performs.
Scope – Identify the intended audience/ areas where the SOP may be relevant.
Purpose – State the purpose of document by describing the procedures that will be used in your practice for a particular function and why.
Roles and Responsibilities – Name the roles of the individuals responsible for executing this SOP.
Definition of Terms – Define the terminology necessary to perform the functions associated with the specific SOP.
Prerequisites/Supplies Needed – Include guidance regarding prerequisite training of personnel and all the supplies that should be on hand before beginning the procedure.
Procedure – Clearly outline every step of the procedure to be executed in the process. Be as specific as possible. This can be broken down into sections for clarity.
References – Documents and supplementary materials that support the procedures (policies, regulations, etc.)
Evaluation Criterion – Explain how the effectiveness of the SOP is/will be measured.
Document History – Notate revisions made do the document over time and the name and signatures of authorized staff members.
Approval – Ensure the right people are involved in the creation and revision of SOPs. Their signature to indicate approval prevents unauthorized/unqualified staff from making changes to the way your practice operates.
Standard operating procedures for your practice should be created from an agreed-upon template that guides your staff in creating new documents – specific to you practice. The list of sections above is a framework that can be modified to fit your urgent care clinic. Once SOPs are in place, be sure to provide training to ensure everyone understands your procedures and can execute without too many questions.
We recently surveyed urgent care clinics in the U.S. Only 18 percent of clinics told us they were very confident their staff is adopting SOPs within their clinics. There’s definitely room for improvement. It’s also important to review SOPs every two years at minimum as you may adopt new software, services, or find a more efficient/safer way to deliver urgent care.
Stayed tuned for complete survey results coming in the next Urgent Care Quarterly.
Urgent care is delivered in a high-velocity setting, where wasted time is reflected in dollars and patient loyalty lost. Comprehensive SOPs will remove any guesswork about the best way to complete a procedure – especially when everyone on your team is well trained. This will save your team time, enabling your clinic to see more patients per day, increasing revenue opportunities.
Your SOPs are a system of checks and balances that help you optimize all of your operations.
In our survey, we also asked how billing operations processes changed during 2021, and 25 percent of respondents told us they put new billing checks and balances in place. Use your SOPs as a way to make sure your operations are on track.
Creating SOPs is also essential for electronic documentation and billing using your clinic’s EMR/PM. Every member of your team should approach technology using the same processes to ensure pre-set workflows are used to complete registration, charting, and the collection of demographic information including driver’s licenses and insurance cards. Following SOPs to the letter will help you manage all the data you receive in the most efficient way possible.
THE SECOND WAY
A comprehensive set of SOPs is the first step for optimizing your operations, but decreasing other complexities for providers and staff can also improve your operations. One of the simplest ways to decrease complexities is through the adoption of the right urgent care technology.
For most modern practices, your EMR/PM is the core software used to help you register patients, collect demographic information, document visits, and ensure accurate ICD-10-CM/PCS codes and E/M codes. When combined with integrated patient engagement solutions that allow patients to save their spot in line and complete the majority of “paperwork” digitally, this vital technology can streamline the patient visit from first contact through discharge with automation.
THE THIRD WAY
The unsung heroes of many urgent care practices, your front desk staff has a huge role to play in your operational success. Not only do they set the tone for every patient visit, they are information gatekeepers with multiple responsibilities. These positions are often filled with entry-level personnel that have little to no experience dealing with the complexities involved in front desk operations. This could signal operational failures. Automating front desk practices can help your team manage these complexities more efficiently – and optimize your operational workflows.
In a recent Experity survey, 50 percent of all respondents told us that automating processes like online registration have had the biggest impact on their front desk operations over the last year. So hire the right person, and simplify their job with automation.
ON-DEMAND Webinar
When it comes to your urgent care operations, optimizing workflows and procedures makes a big impact on your bottom line and allows you to provide better outcomes for patients. In this webinar, we’ll discuss some of the specific areas that have a big impact on operations and how improvements affect the patient experience and your bottom line.
Your front desk officer will be accountable for greeting patients, scanning documents, ensuring signatures are in place, verifying insurance coverage, collecting payments, and keeping patients moving through the queue with less friction. It can be a lot for someone with no experience.
Not only will they be handling many operational tasks, but they must keep their cool when things get busy – setting the tone for every patient visit and communication with staff.
You put procedures in place for operational consistency. Disregarding these procedures can affect every step of the urgent care visit not only for the patient, but for clinicians and billers who count on accurate information throughout the patient journey. Be sure you hire someone who understands the importance of following the rules.
No matter how much you plan what a visit should look like, life happens. Your front desk officer should be able to shift gears when things go off track, readjust, and keep your practice running smoothly.
In urgent care, things change quickly. New technology is adopted, procedures change, policies get updated, and payers change the rules. Choose front desk staff that can learn new processes quickly – and put them in place.
An on-demand care environment isn’t for everybody. Be sure you hire someone who understands the specific success metrics for urgent care practices and is dedicated to providing the service your patients expect.
Your front desk officer sets a visit in motion. When they can check all the boxes accurately and get a patient from the waiting room to the exam room efficiently, you can be sure every next step will be more efficient, too. Additionally, arm them with patient engagement and PM technologies that make their job a little easier and improve your operations.
THE FOURTH WAY
Your staff and your patients experience your clinic different ways, and they are your ear to the ground. Ask your staff for suggestions on improving operations. Where do they see bottlenecks? What would reduce complexity for them? For patients?
Additionally, use feedback from simple, online client surveys to find out what’s working and what’s not. Use this data to make changes and improve your NPS.
Get measurable results with software and services that take the complexity out of healthcare.
