Practice management can be tough without the cooperation and support of employees, and leadership. I have worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the past 17 years where I have held many different positions. I started my career as a practice secretary in the
Department of Dermatology and worked my way up into a supervisory role. I had a goal of becoming a practice manager, so transferred to the Department of Psychiatry where they offered better growth potential. Here I learned how critical thinking and good problem-solving skills are tantamount to failure or success.
A practice analysis is necessary to expose liabilities, uncover lost opportunities and measure staff productivity. During my first year, I tasked myself with learning …show more content…
After reviewing the front end check-in and check-out process as well as the clinician’s documentation and billing practice I found many patients did not have a scheduled appointment, which lead to a loss of revenue. This was a major cause for concern. I was not sure where the confusion was, so approached several clinicians asking to shadow their practice. After some initial resistance, I finally got a couple to agree. It is with their help I was ultimately able to develop a good understanding of how the global practice ran. I had not faced a challenge like this so needed to come up with an action plan that would work for both the front and back end staff. I came up with an action plan, which I presented to leadership. They supported my ideas, allowing me to move forward with an implementation plan.
System’s management is an integral part of setting up a solid foundation for patient care. Over the course of the next year, I introduced centralized scheduling, an electronic medical record system, and a telephone call center. Some of the clinicians and support staff were not happy. They felt my ideas were too forward thinking and didn 't understand why …show more content…
Because this was so new to me, I used reports to track the progress towards goals. I collected two years of data, pre and post change. The prior year’s data demonstrated how not having centralized systems opened us up to patient dissatisfaction, low productivity, documentation, and billing issues. The data from after the change showed an increase in all areas including staff retention. After seeing the results, staff better understood the value of the new systems. We were then able to move forward with even more change.
Understanding and correctly implementing quality improvement measures is the key to a well-functioning practice. With the help of my team, we were able to identify and apply some vital patient screening tools. These tools were used to identify anxiety, depression and alcohol abuse. We also created a safety reporting system to show medication errors, self-injurious behavior, and violence. In addition to these measures, we continued to look at our front end processes. The improvements we made helped towards patient safety, access, and wait times.
In the end, it was the team’s effort that helped us achieve sustainable and
Department of Dermatology and worked my way up into a supervisory role. I had a goal of becoming a practice manager, so transferred to the Department of Psychiatry where they offered better growth potential. Here I learned how critical thinking and good problem-solving skills are tantamount to failure or success.
A practice analysis is necessary to expose liabilities, uncover lost opportunities and measure staff productivity. During my first year, I tasked myself with learning …show more content…
After reviewing the front end check-in and check-out process as well as the clinician’s documentation and billing practice I found many patients did not have a scheduled appointment, which lead to a loss of revenue. This was a major cause for concern. I was not sure where the confusion was, so approached several clinicians asking to shadow their practice. After some initial resistance, I finally got a couple to agree. It is with their help I was ultimately able to develop a good understanding of how the global practice ran. I had not faced a challenge like this so needed to come up with an action plan that would work for both the front and back end staff. I came up with an action plan, which I presented to leadership. They supported my ideas, allowing me to move forward with an implementation plan.
System’s management is an integral part of setting up a solid foundation for patient care. Over the course of the next year, I introduced centralized scheduling, an electronic medical record system, and a telephone call center. Some of the clinicians and support staff were not happy. They felt my ideas were too forward thinking and didn 't understand why …show more content…
Because this was so new to me, I used reports to track the progress towards goals. I collected two years of data, pre and post change. The prior year’s data demonstrated how not having centralized systems opened us up to patient dissatisfaction, low productivity, documentation, and billing issues. The data from after the change showed an increase in all areas including staff retention. After seeing the results, staff better understood the value of the new systems. We were then able to move forward with even more change.
Understanding and correctly implementing quality improvement measures is the key to a well-functioning practice. With the help of my team, we were able to identify and apply some vital patient screening tools. These tools were used to identify anxiety, depression and alcohol abuse. We also created a safety reporting system to show medication errors, self-injurious behavior, and violence. In addition to these measures, we continued to look at our front end processes. The improvements we made helped towards patient safety, access, and wait times.
In the end, it was the team’s effort that helped us achieve sustainable and