Eliminating the "Duh" Factor
The medical community is quickly coming to the conclusion that the future is now. Changes that only a few months ago were “sometime out there” are all of a sudden staring providers in the face. Managed care is no longer somewhere down the road. It has arrived, like the newborn baby in the basket, at the front doorstep of many providers.
A year ago, few people would have believed that it would happen this quickly. Words such as “struggle,” “risk,” and “strategy” are now commonplace in provider discussions.
One of the byproducts of all of this change is the realization that many business offices are not equipped to cope with what is happening. Large lumps of un-worked accounts are stuck out in hard-disk limbo.
Cash flow, or lack of cash flow, is measured daily. And business office employee’s heads are swimming, trying to figure out now to cope.
In the rush for reform, one area that is often overlooked is the proper training and retraining of business office employees.
More than ever, hospitals and physicians are concerned about their image. They want to present the best “face” possible to the public. Their “face” is the front-line employees who often are not up to date and cannot adequately respond to suddenly complex and varied situations.
Changes in policies and procedures do not easily translate into positive results when employees have not been trained in the intricacies of the brave new world they now inhabit.
The “duh!” will often escape from the employee’s mouth.
Soon thereafter, the patient will inevitably come to the conclusion that the employee is at a disadvantage, and the following two things can occur:
- Cost providers a ton of money,
- Create confusion on the part of the patient and the provider, and
- Make the provider look really bad in the patient’s eyes.
Well-trained employees present a professional image that:
- Puts the patient at ease,
- Maximized recovery, and
- Insures that eh work “Duh!” is never uttered in your office.
We can help you avoid “Duh!” problems. Contact us for a program specifically designed to help your employees.
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