Nick Weeks

As medical practice managers and recruiters, we hear the constant refrain of over-communicate versus under-communicate.  But how much communication is too much?

We find that many practice staff members, managers, and physicians struggle when attempting to communicate effectively via e-mail. As I’m sure my fellow over-communicators can also attest, there is nothing more frustrating than putting together a carefully crafted email with all necessary information, only to have the recipients come back with a litany of questions that are all answered in the e-mail itself.

While these aren’t completely foolproof, here are some effective e-mail tips that I have found to be helpful:

• Be thoughtful with your formatting.  

Bold, italics, and ALL CAPS can be useful, especially if you are crafting a long e-mail.  Use them to draw attention to key points. Ask yourself, “If they only read one section of this, which section do I want it to be?”  And then make that part stand out.

 This will get easier with time and, at first, is downright painful.  But you’ll be surprised how a few simple edits (taking out superfluous words, removing sentences/paragraphs that don’t actually add anything) can cut your document in half and make it twice as readable.

• Set expectations and deadlines - but make sure they’re always relevant.  

If every e-mail you send requests a response immediately, then the term “immediately” begins to lose meaning for your recipients.  Begin your e-mails by giving a realistic timeframe in regard to expected responses, and also let your readers know what you want from them, whether that’s a quick skim and basic feedback or detailed analysis.

What are some methods you find helpful when sending out e-mails to staff, managers, and/or physicians?

Articles

Many medical practice staff members, managers, and physicians struggle when attempting to communicate effectively via e-mail. Here are some suggestions.

Effective E-mails: 3 Tips for Physicians, Managers 

Like many ideas, our consulting company wasn’t founded in a garage, but on a napkin. It was the blueprint of a consultancy that would focus on small practices: house-call practices. At that time, we were all executives with a national house-call group and the thought of leaving to start our own company was both thrilling and daunting.

There was considerable risk involved as private practices, and house-call practices specifically, are a small and highly volatile sector of healthcare. But here we stand, one year later, proving that sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

They say that the first year of any new business is the toughest, and we can second that. But the challenges we faced are not unique to our company. In fact, we believe that many independent practices might benefit from hearing about some of the challenges we faced, and some of the lessons we learned along the way. For our one-year anniversary, we've decided to share three of our biggest lessons. We hope they can benefit your practice in some way:

While we originally set out to only serve the house-call market, we started getting inquiries from urgent-care centers, traditional family practice groups, and health. If we elected to work with them, were we losing our focus on the original mission? If we diversified, would we lose our identity as a unique consultancy? Ultimately, we made the decision to diversify and not only have we kept our unique identity, but our non-house call clients have created opportunities for our house-call clients.

Many practices stick to the traditional way of getting patient referrals such as brochures, events, word of mouth, and being part of a hospital. Those are fine methods but with the growing number of individuals who are getting insured that might not be enough to get ahead. One area to look at is sites that provide online appointment bookings through a third-party site. Many times when patients are looking to be seen by a physician they want an appointment that day or the next day. This is a great way to gain patients with little work of actual marketing. So, remember don't be stuck in your ways. Embrace technology.

 This can be a tough subject, especially for small practices. We understand the pride in building something from nothing, but not every idea works out the way we hope it will. It could be something as small as changing your patient management software or as large as terminating a long-term employee who is no longer productive. We’ve been there ourselves, recently re-designing our website based on feedback we received from clients and potential clients. It doesn’t mean you failed, it just means it could be done better. We’ve also learned a lot from our clients on what they need, what their concerns are, and what we can invest in to better help them.

3. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 

This isn’t a reminder to watch "The Shining." This is a reminder to take the occasional moment and have some fun. Your staff will appreciate it, and your turnover rates will decrease. We do it ourselves. We’ve organized a movie club, trivia nights, and other activities that allow us to unwind and come in the next day refreshed.

They say that the first year of any new business is the toughest, and we can second that. Here are three lessons we learned that can benefit medical practices. 

Three Tips for Struggling Independent Medical Practices 

Still carrying around that BlackBerry you've had for the last five years? Still using Microsoft 2003 on that XP machine of yours? Still think the "cloud" is a fad? You might be doing yourself and your business a disservice if you answered "yes" to one or more of those questions.

Keeping up with the ever-changing world of technology is tough. Change can be hard. It's much easier to keep the status quo and ignore all the technological advances happening around you. The problem is, if you don't adapt and keep up with technology, you'll miss out on all the advancements and benefits it has to offer.

That trusty BlackBerry took too long to embrace touch-screen technology and missed out on creating a robust app store. The result is you can't check into your American Airlines flight on your phone, you can't use Hailo to get a cab, you can't access your Google Drive documents, and you can forget about looking up restaurant reviews on Yelp. Basically, even though switching to an Android or iOS device may be inconvenient in the short-run, the long-term benefits are well worth it. You'll have to learn how to use a new tool but that took has far more uses.

Technology in the workplace can mean the difference between a successful business and a failing business. Capable hardware and efficient software will keep your office running in tip-top condition and will allow your employees to focus on their jobs instead of troubleshooting their computers.

Look into Web-based programs that can be accessed remotely and that have export features that allow you to easily extract the data you need. Productivity suites like Google Documents are free and offer a comparable experience to the costly Microsoft Office standard (Google documents are compatible with MS Word). If you have to use Microsoft Office, don't skip on more than one major update. The difference between Word 2007 and Word 2010 is probably greater than you think.

The anxiety in introducing new technology to your office staff lies in the assumption that each employee has a different adoption threshold; some will "get it" and others will struggle. That's not as big of a hurdle as it's been in the past, as technology has become more uniform. Most people have a smartphone of some design, and many have households with smart TVs, multiple computers, and other universal technologies. Like all things, it may take a day or two for your staff to become comfortable with the new work flow, but your bottom line...and talent pool...will appreciate it.

In summary, don't be afraid to try new technology. If there's a hot new device or productivity program, there's probably a reason for it being so popular. Don't turn your practice into a technological ghost-town. Think about what your competition is doing.

In regards to technology, it’s good to be a leader and it’s also good to be a follower ... just make sure you’re one of them versus neither of them.

Don't be afraid to try new technology at your medical practice. If there's a hot new device or productivity program, there's probably a reason for it being so popular. 

Keeping Up With Technology: A Must for Medical Practices

As administrators, providers, insurers, and a number of other healthcare actors attempt to generate healthier profit margins while maintaining care standards, much of the conversation is focused on the need for reimbursement increases (and there’s a case to be made for that). But many practices are ignoring real savings opportunities by not adopting tools that can reduce employee time, equipment costs, and paper expense. In fact, many of these opportunities are low-cost or free, and can modernize your office in a way that helps both patient care and business needs.

The healthcare industry has historically been a slave to the paper trail. But that’s all starting to change with the implementation of EHR systems, and the adoption of tablets by medical providers.

While these are major changes with obvious paper-saving advantages, there are also more subtle ways to make your practice almost paperless. Here are four of our favorites:


Probably the most widely known method of reducing paper usage is switching to paperless statements and automatic bill-pay for recurring charges your practice incurs. This not only saves paper, but also considerable time because the bills never reach the accounting department and therefore never need to be reviewed, stuck in an envelope, stamped, and sent out in the mail. Many banks also offer incentives to sign up for automatic bill-pay … bonus!


The amount of faxed information coming into a healthcare practice can be daunting and the cost of leasing and maintaining a fax machine to churn out copies of all those documents can get quite expensive. Consider getting an e-fax account instead. Incoming faxes can be received as attachments (PDF files) to a designated e-mail address instead of automatically being printed. This saves time when the documents need to be archived and integrated into the practice EHR system, not to mention reduces the likelihood of a fax being lost or misfiled, and also saves money on paper and ink.


Now that you have those documents in PDF form, you may need to print them and add a signature, which would defeat the purpose of the e-fax, right? Well, luckily, there are several programs, such as Docusign, that allow the addition of an e-signature to documents, which means you never need to print them. E-signatures are legally binding and save both time and money, because they can be used to sign a digital document without ever printing it.


Google Drive is a great example of a collaborative document creation tool that allows users to simultaneously work on a document with no need to print anything. Oftentimes people are worried about versions of documents being altered and saved, so they’ll print a copy of a document for a colleague to review and mark-up. With Google Drive and Google Docs, colleagues can simultaneously edit the same document, with the ability to restore previous versions in case something goes wrong. Google Drive also allows for mass document storage, so there’s no need to keep hard copies of those documents locked away in a banker’s box somewhere.

These are just a few of the ways you can implement easy changes to make your office less dependent on paper and, as a byproduct, more efficient and more profitable.
 

EHRs are not the only way your practice can cut down on paper usage. Here are four other ways practices can save paper, time, and money.  

Author | Nick Weeks

Articles

Effective E-mails: 3 Tips for Physicians, Managers

Three Tips for Struggling Independent Medical Practices

Keeping Up With Technology: A Must for Medical Practices

The More Efficient Medical Office: Less (Paper) is More