The front office of a medical clinic is the adminstrative arm of the practice.
Working in a medical front office is often stressful and fast-paced. Not only are you trying to coordinate with other doctors, employees and medical staff, but you also have to assist patients with check-in, insurance and other issues. It is important to have a good flow of work to make sure your front office area is efficient and organized. This ensures that patient confidentiality is maintained and check-in and check-outs are done quickly and effectively.
Designate Different Areas For Check-In and Check-Out
If you designate one to two people to check people in and one to two different people to check patients out, you will have a faster-moving and more efficient flow of traffic in your medical office. Because of varying appointment times, check-in and check-out can clog up the front office area faster than any other component of patient care. Streamline this process with two different areas and a devoted team for each one.
Customer Service
Medical offices can be busy and because people are often dealing with health issues, stressful as well. It is important that as a member of the front office staff, you remain patient, calm and professional at all times. Never yell at patients or rudely correct them when it comes to appointment scheduling, paperwork, billing or any other aspect of the administrative portion of their care. Remember, it is your job to shepherd them through the process, so be patient with them at all times.
Collect Co-Pays At Check-In
This eliminates asking for it after the appointment, only to discover the patient doesn't have it. This results in more work for billing, and forces the office to accept little to no payment or a payment plan. If you know ahead of time, you can reschedule or work something out before the patient is seen. Be discreet when discussing co-pays, and if the patients doesn't have it, don't negotiate in the front room. Take the patient back to billing, in a more private office, where the matter can be dealt with without embarrassing the patient.
Balance the Schedule
While you don't want to overload the doctor(s) or cause people to wait, it isn't good to have too few people on the schedule either. Talk with the doctors about whether they prefer to see patients back to back or with breaks in between and schedule accordingly. You might have one of the front office receptionists do appointment reminders, so that you don't end up with a schedule full of broken or missed appointments.
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