For years, physician practices were on their own when it came to managing the business side of their practice. Software and contracted experts eased much of the burden, but the burden of maintenance, hiring, training, and keeping employees still fell on the physician’s practice.
Times have changed.
In that old legacy approach, the service provider acted like a lifeguard: you get their attention when you’re in trouble. In the new model, providers are more like a swim coach. We’re right there beside you in the water, offering support with every stroke, so you’re always staying afloat.
It’s a new model, based on partnership.
The legacy approach: consumer model
You spend a big chunk of money in exchange for licensed software, services, and some customer support. You’re a customer – it’s transactional. The vendor you work with will give you your money’s worth, but the responsibility to acquire the resources is on you.
The new approach: partnership model
Today, the service provider should be proactive in the relationship. Instead of selling you services and hardware and waiting for you to ask for the help you need, a service provider can be an advocate for your practice.
Because, as a physician and business owner, you don’t need any more demands on your time.
How does this partnership model affect your daily business? Let’s break it down:
Patient engagement
Gone are the days of chasing patients down for appointment confirmation and outstanding balances. A rich database and analytics allow you to reach the right patients at the best time – resulting in higher acquisition and retention.
The legacy approach: passive patients
Responsibility for patient engagement fell squarely on the shoulders of your admin team. The patient’s role was passive – and often elusive. The tools at your disposal: paper, postage, telephones, and tenacity.
- Reminders sent via postcard or phone message
- Appointment confirmation pursued over the phone
- Bills sent by hand, on schedule
- Payment processed via check and cash
The new approach: empowered patients
With online patient portals and smartphone apps, your patients are able to schedule their own appointments and pay bills with a few clicks.
- Schedule + reschedule appointments
- Pay premiums
- Sign documents
- Update health info
- Request prescription refills
Tech
The transition to digital has revolutionized business operations for any medical practice. A network of cloud computing and real-time support helps you reduce operating costs and focus on more valuable work.
The legacy approach: hardware
You’re ultimately responsible for the performance of your data infrastructure – and finding a place to store the necessary machinery.
- Patient record maintenance
- Initial investments in servers, which are not cheap
- Creating physical space for those servers
- Hiring tech support to run periodic maintenance
- Tedious manual updates for software and hardware
The new approach: network services
By joining a connected partnership network with a cloud-based platform the burden of information management is removed from your staff’s shoulders.
- Open, connected network for patient file access
- Monthly subscriptions instead of initial investments
- No physical servers required
- Automatic maintenance and upgrades
- Integrated platforms for scheduling, revenue cycle, and reimbursement
Staffing & Coverage
Schedule coordination and hiring shouldn’t take energy away from other vital functions in your practice. Establish systems that can process any staffing situation at any time.
The legacy approach: slowing down for adjustments
When schedules clash and staffing wanes, someone needs to turn away from their usual tasks to manage these hiccups.
- Manually scheduling clinic coverage
- Managing staff training and re-triaining
- Filing vacation day balances
The partnership approach: managing changes in real time
The tools of a cloud-based platform allow staff to process their own requests while algorithms work out the tricky scheduling tasks.
- Staff login for scheduling requests
- Automated onboarding processes and protocol
- Smart schedules assigning coverage
- Mobile app for easy staff access to scheduling info
Oversight
Quality control, maintenance, updates… These are no longer obligations for your practice to suffer on its own. Start reducing employee fatigue and boosting your collection rate.
The legacy approach: ad hoc solutions
Research, regular intervention, and crisis management were all standard parts of the job description for a practice’s admin team.
- Researching updates to coding and federal protocol
- Contracting experts for IT as needed
- Managing unexpected service outages
- Scheduling customer support for hours on end
The new approach: service liaisons
Instead of tracking down the right person in a moment of need, practices can expect a service provider to assign individuals tasked with ensuring your practice’s success for various services:
- Assigned Customer Success Manager
- Quality consulting
- Medical credentialing
Conclusion
Managed services for physician practices can now be a matter of supportive networks rather than isolated technology purchases. Established practices can hand off hours of rote tasks to a service provider. New practices can enlist a practice advocate to help build up more efficient workflows from the ground up.
This new paradigm extends from service providers to your practice and to the patients themselves. Cloud-based services mean 24/7 support for cutting-edge databases – and lower overhead. Lower buy-in, and less maintenance.
With quality care services and performance platform partnerships, team members at Quatris Healthco are specifically assigned to be individual liaisons for each physician’s practice. Your success becomes an explicit part of our mission, and this requires more than products alone.
Explore the network of technology, specialists, and managers standing by, ready to help your practice thrive.
