Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

Blog

Essential Keys To Maximizing Your Time At The Office

Lynn Homisak PRT

We all know that once time is gone, it’s gone. No amount of gold, extreme force or powerful incantation can bring it back. Since we can’t save it, the best we can do is to make the most productive use of the time that we get. In the words of copier company CEO Michael Altshuler, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you are the pilot.” Take control by incorporating these four time management ideas into helping you innovate and renovate your practice.

1. The quickest way to save time is to delegate. Are you still doing tasks like leaving the treatment room to get a night splint, filling an injection or applying simple bandages when you have staff that can do those tasks for you? One frustrated staff person recently told me her doctor will actually leave a treatment room to answer the practice phone on not one but too many occasions.

My first thought was: how rare would it be to see commercial pilots offering beverages/snacks or giving seat belt demonstrations or a bank president sitting at the teller’s window to make change for a customer’s $20 bill? The airlines and the banks hire other people do those tasks. Likewise, doctors should only perform jobs proportionate to their level of education/expertise. Take note of which tasks you might be comfortable delegating and assign them to the least paid (trained) employee who can do the job effectively. Spending too much time charting notes? Train/hire a scribe. Everyone (you, staff and patient) wins when you can focus your time and energy on doing productive work that only your doctor’s degree allows.

2. Think about which two of the top ten activities on your “to do” list will produce the greatest payout. Then follow through on those activities. When it comes to using time wisely, we all have good intentions. Enter the familiar “to do” list. I am a huge advocate of lists because I see how effectively they can structure and prioritize time.

In addition, accomplished tasks are therapeutic and increase morale. The problem is we either only tackle the small, insignificant ones (because they’re the easiest), we cram so many things on our list that it just becomes too overwhelming or we put them off altogether. The result? Things that really should get done never do get done or we push them into the dark “list abyss.”

Take a large task that you know has profitable rewards and break it into smaller pieces. You will find that even a few bursts of progress each day can still result in impressive, satisfactory outcomes.

3. Poor communication = wasted time. There are so many effective ways to bridge the (all too common) communication gap. I challenge you to start simple and schedule quick, five-minute huddles each morning. Kill two birds with one stone and do this while you’re having your coffee. Use this time to review daily activities and get everyone (doctor, receptionist, clinical podiatric medical assistants, biller and office manager) on the same page.

Going through the patient schedule together as a team can help avoid duplication of work, create a more anticipatory clinical staff, shed light on potential openings in the schedule, determine daily paperwork and identify outstanding patient balances. It is really amazing how far your team can go and how much you can accomplish when everyone rows in the same direction.

4. The most important thing is not to use technology more but to use it more efficiently. There are so many tools today that can make our jobs easier. While we all want the latest and greatest tool, I hear more about time-induced headaches regarding email overload, malfunctions, costs and extra training required than I do about the efficiency benefits gained. Doctors purchase their electronic medical records software with all the bells and whistles, but only utilize one or two components (e.g., billing software) and fail to take advantage of the other worthwhile features. No wonder it seems like a waste of money.

Automated patient reminders, for example, save a tremendous amount of staff time and reap similar (sometimes better) outcomes. Instead of resisting it at every turn, at least listen to the pros and weigh them against the cons because love it or hate it, technology (like time) will not hold still for you.

The first step toward getting to a better place is to decide you are not going to stay where you are. “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” Time waits for no one.

 

Advertisement

Advertisement