When you got your first job as a therapist, you may have realized there’s a lot more to the role than just seeing patients. Sure, your impact on those in need of therapy may be the most important part, but there are lots of other moving pieces that make a clinic run well. A lot of that depends on you! From completing documentation thoroughly and on time to managing a packed schedule, you do much more than interact with patients.
In our opinion, the most critical element of efficiency in a therapy clinic is communication: between therapists and patients, but more importantly, between therapists and administrative staff. Your position in this communication equation is critical. At TheraPlan, we’re all about making your job easy and efficient. Having watched clinics of all sizes deal with internal confusion and conflict over the years, we’ve come up with a few suggestions to avoid such roadblocks.
We highly recommend you build a solid relationship with your clinic’s admin staff, whether you work in the clinic every day or you’re a home-based therapist who just calls in for specific requests now and then. Here are a few reminders about the significance of the professional connection you have with your admins:
- Admins are often the ones who follow up on billing claims and ensuring that you get paid! Your income is dependent upon the speed and accuracy with which claims are submitted and tracked. If admins are responsible for this, you’ll want to ensure that you keep an open line of communication with them and do your part to make this as easy as possible for them.
- They can act as patient liaisons for important tasks like scheduling. Seemingly simple tasks, like getting patients to confirm or commit to appointment times, can feel the most overwhelming. If your week is packed and you can’t seem to find time to reach out to patients you need to hear from, why not enlist the help of your admin team? Depending on your clinic’s protocol for scheduling, this could be a great way to ease your daily workload.
- In order for all of the above to be possible, you should set the tone for communication early on. We suggest doing this in the following ways:
- Answer emails and provide them with anything they request (i.e. credentialing requirements) ASAP. Remember: admins are the link between you and your clinic owner! Having a ‘paper trail’ is important if you ever encounter a miscommunication.
- Give them plenty of notice when you need a favor. Your front desk staff is likely swamped, so it may be unreasonable to expect they can provide a quick turnaround.
- Ask questions so as not to appear demanding. Everyone likes to feel they are being helpful. So presenting your needs as a question can be a great tool. For example, saying “I’m having trouble verifying this patient’s insurance. Would you be able to help me?” is better than “I need you to verify this patient’s insurance for me.” If you don’t know your admins on a personal level, this is all the more important.
- Use TheraPlan’s message center for quick communication about patient arrivals, rescheduled appointments, paperwork needs, and more. We believe in straightforward and simple communication so much that we built it into our EMR. Instead of having to send internal email for every little thing, you can stay inside our application and just shoot a message to a fellow user. They’ll get a notification no matter where they are working inside TheraPlan, or upon logging in the next time.
Every professional environment can benefit from conscientious communication, but especially a therapy clinic. Due to the nature of your work, it’s possible to go days without seeing your colleagues face-to-face or spending significant time with them. Being proactive using the above tips can help set a precedent for other therapists and show your admin team that you appreciate all they do to make your job possible.
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