Leverage Teamwork As A Physician

In most physician outpatient practices, there is at least one staff member who works in the office. Even though the physician is capable of operating the office alone, it is not the most efficient way to serve the patients. The staff is hired to enhance the workflow and efficiency of the practice. Ultimately, a medical practice gains revenue by seeing patients. The more patients are seen and taken care of, the more financial compensation is generated. Although many physicians consider serving patients is more important than earning a living, without the financial support, the medical practice cannot be sustained.

In our recent coaching session, Dr. G shared with me about wanting to have at least a thirty-minute lunch break every day. There were times when patients arrived an hour earlier than their appointments, and the staff would ask Dr. G if they could start rooming the patient. If that happened during the lunch period, Dr. G would feel obligated to see that patient and skip lunch.

The other concern Dr. G had was that she did not always get patient records to review prior to seeing a new patient. That led to delay in assessment. Sometimes the patients did not know why they were sent to see Dr. G for her specialty. Dr. G believed that since getting records was the responsibility of the staff, she assumed that the records would arrive at some point, without questioning the staff.

To have an efficient team in your office, it is important for all your staff members to understand what they are there for. Specify what the responsibility of each role is. Be as detailed as possible. You hired someone to work in your office, not just for another warm body. They are there to work in a way that is collaborative such that you get to spend your time doing things others cannot do – to see patients and develop a treatment plan.

Going back to Dr. G’s example. If the patient’s appointment is at 1:30 pm and he arrives in the office at 12 pm, there is no obligation for Dr. G to see the patient shortly after he arrived. Dr. G can choose to do that if she wants to. If the staff was instructed that Dr. G takes a lunch break every day from 12 pm to 12:30 pm, then the staff will not even question if they should bring the patient into an exam room more than an hour earlier than their appointment time.

This applies to patients being late too. This is where you need to be very specific. If an established patient’s appointment time is twenty minutes, and a patient is late to their appointment for 20 minutes, you can choose to see that patient or to reschedule that patient. It is important to communicate with the staff what you set your policy to be. If you try to accommodate everyone who is late, or see everyone earlier than their appointment time only because they arrive earlier, then patients may start coming at times much different than their scheduled time and expect to be seen. Not only is this not efficient, it may also cause chaos in the office. This is not fair for those patients who are on time.

For certain specialties, as a consultant, it is important to review the patient’s records before seeing the patient. This is ideally done before the day of the appointment. This is especially important for an oncologist, for example. If a new patient is coming to see me for colon cancer, it is crucial to review records about the diagnosis, surgery, pathology, stage and everything else related to the cancer. When the records are reviewed in advance, the physician does not have to spend time during the patient’s visit to review the records – sometimes they may be several hundred pages long (the longest record I received from one patient was over 5000 pages).

Yes, it is the staff’s responsibility to get the patient records for you. At the same time, do not expect them to get the records for you at the time frame you want if you do not specify when it is the latest you want them and how important it is for you to review the material in advance.

Leverage your team. Staff members are there to enhance your efficiency. They have different roles and different abilities to execute their tasks. It is important to be as specific as possible so they understand exactly what to do. This will also minimize confusion and misunderstanding. Remind your staff members why they are there. Emphasize collaboration rather than competition. When you work well with your team, you are more efficient. You can put your focus in patient care.