Medical Office Manager

The schedule says a patient’s visit should take 30 minutes. But the patient waits at check-in, a medical assistant crosses the office to find a supply, and the exam room sits empty while staff look for the equipment needed to prepare it. It is tempting to blame a cramped office. Sometimes space is the problem. Other times, the trouble is…

An appointment opens tomorrow afternoon. Your staffer calls the first patient on the cancellation list, leaves a message, and moves on to the next task. By the time someone calls back, the slot is still empty. The problem may not be a lack of demand. It may be that your cancellation list contains too little information to help staff match…

A patient walks up to the front desk and asks to be seen today. There is no appointment on the schedule, and every provider looks fully booked. What happens next should not depend on which staffer happens to be at the desk. A walk-in may need urgent clinical attention, help with a scheduling problem, or information about where to go.…

You have filled the front desk opening. The new staffer has accepted, and you are ready to turn your attention to training. But two other people interviewed for the job and are still waiting to hear from you. It is easy to let those messages slide when the office is short-staffed and the work is piling up. For the candidates,…

A full appointment schedule can give the impression that the practice is having a productive day. Every slot is occupied, the waiting room is busy and the phones are ringing. But a scheduled appointment does not automatically become collected revenue. Some visits arrive with problems that were visible before the patient walked through the door. The wrong visit type was…