- Use an efficient scheduling system. Chances are, your staff spends a good amount of time talking to patients about scheduling and rescheduling appointments, recording cancellations, and the like. If they’re using multiple systems or doing it all on paper, this can quickly become a nightmare. Even if you just have one person in charge of scheduling, their time and attention could be directed at something much more useful to your clinic’s operations!
- Minimize email communication. Especially when you could be dealing with sensitive Protected Health Information (PHI), email is an inefficient, risky mode of communication. If your clinic relies entirely on email, you could be wasting valuable minutes every day composing and responding to messages. Not to mention, you’re relying on your staff to follow HIPAA-compliant procedures when sending patients’ details via email. We recommend finding an alternative method of internal communication that is both trackable and takes legal requirements into account.
- Take care to maintain HIPAA compliance. In a busy office, email is not the only concern when it comes to compliance. Your office staff must be diligent about protecting patients’ sensitive data at all times. Taking the time to fully train your staff and ensure that they understand their responsibilities related to HIPAA is fundamental to any stable, thriving therapy clinic. This dedication to training on the front end can also help you avoid larger issues down the road, since HIPAA violations can create severe disruptions in the way your practice functions.
- Set up a documentation oversight system. Some clinic admins dedicate significant time to checking on therapists’ progress with documentation, especially reminding them to complete notes for payroll purposes. Putting a structure in place for communicating this to the admin team without direct communication from the providers (a checklist of sorts) can relieve your staff on both ends of this process.
Running a Smooth Therapy Practice: 4 Tricks for Lessening Administrative Headaches
There’s a lot of advice out there about how to market your therapy services, how to finish documentation faster, and even how to become a better therapist. What about the administrative piece of running a therapy clinic? We believe this is critical to your success in the worlds of speech, occupational, physical, behavioral, and Early Intervention therapy. Read on to find out what we consider to be four essentials to lessening therapy practice admin headaches for your team!
