Leaving a room to take a phone call makes the patient feel like they are not important. However, if it is a true emergency, please tell the patient you are sorry and that you have to speak to this doctor due to an urgent matter. They will understand if you explain them the situation.
- Handle all paperwork and mail only once
How many times do you take a piece of mail, look at it, and say, “I can do this later?” Then you pick it up again, and say the same thing. Don’t look at your mail, unless you have time to take action immediately. Now, the action that is required might take longer than you thought, so get yourself a pending bin and schedule a time to finish this task.
- Finish your notes immediately
You should have an EMR system, which allows you to finish your notes while seeing the patient. The medical assistant, nurse, or PA can put in all the history information and chief complaint. They can stay in the room and put in the examination data or you can do that as well. Your system should be easy enough to click through everything, including your plan. The best systems will tie in with your practice management software. The key to the EMR is taking time to put in your templates. You should be able to pull up a specific problem and all your procedures for that problem should pop up.
You should aim to get to 90% of your notes done in the room. New patient notes might need to be finished later, but definitely get them done the same day.
- Plan your week
Use some sort of planner, either paper or electronic. Schedule all the important events coming up for the week. Write down all the people you need to call back. Have one planner and one system that you can take with you. Whenever you have a free moment, take a look at this planner and see what you can do now to save time later.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog with the last five tips for saving time. Do you employ any of the tips above? Do you have additional ways that you save time? Share with us in the comments below!
We at Top Practices are dedicated to giving you more free time while building your dream practice.
Rem/Peter
P.S. Remember, you can email us any time with any question.
