As summer nears many families will be enjoying time together, parades and barbecues. At the same time, many in the medical care field continue to serve families in need across the U.S. Some staff take advantage of summer holidays to schedule an extended weekend. Practice administrators know it is not uncommon for staff and physicians to add a few days before or after a holiday weekend in addition to the holiday itself. For staff managers it is important to ensure that coverage is provided around major holidays and staff vacations. This means clinic planning and effectively coordinating staff and physicians to balance time off with the needs of the practice.

In addition to time off, practices must contend with employee turnover. MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) cited annual average rate of employee turnover at 20% for receptionist and medical records staff. Moreover, one out of three employees will leave their job within the first year of employment. This finding was consistent with large and small practices. Both of these situations can impact your practice revenue and productivity. This is especially true when you have staff holidays and turnover in the billing office.Now Hiring

When a staff person does leave there are many additional tasks to fill the role temporarily and to advertise and hire a new employee. Hiring specialty skills may require a recruiter which can add an additional $10-$20k to the process. Once the employee is on-board the work begins with HR and training. Even if other members are able to help do the job the additional responsibility can tax overloaded schedules and remove leadership from revenue producing activities. Add on the cost of morale, institutional knowledge and consistency of culture in your organization and you may just want to throw in the towel!

An alternative strategy for many clinics is outsourcing the revenue cycle management. The advantages of outsourcing are many and having a scalable business partner for regular or short term needs is key. Outsourcing with ORI provides an “entourage” of expertise, resources and staffing that help maintain a consistency for staff time off and staff resignations.

Your clinic business flow and seasonal fluctuations can also be a big consideration for outsourcing. Factors such as seasonal sickness, flu outbreaks and end of year insurance benefits expiration all impact patient counts. When a practice relies on their internal team it can take weeks to get caught up. Making your have coverage is critical to maintaining a high level of service during these periods.

Outsourcing brings the bandwidth that allows shifting of resources to accommodate seasonal fluctuations and growth spurts. ORI relies heavily on workflow technology to ensure staff are efficient, accurate and productive. Without the proprietary workflow tools the reliance is on staffing.

ORI will conduct a staffing productivity evaluation and comparison as part of an outsource assessment. Contact ORI to make and appointment and have your clinic assessed and learn about options for outsourcing.

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