For Healthcare Professionals Only
Many dermatology practices feel overwhelmed by the number of phone calls they get, whether from patients, pharmacists, or referring physicians. One group from our research sample had average on-hold times of 20 minutes. It’s a problem not only for patient service — most patients won’t tolerate being kept on hold forever or getting busy signals — but for overall efficiency.
The resources spent on this second, phone-based patient flow are resources diverted from patients who are in your office. The key to getting call volume under control isn’t merely or primarily a matter of hiring more staff, adding more lines, or buying an automated telephone attendant. Phone volume is best controlled by figuring out why the calls are coming in and doing what you can to reduce the need for phone calls in the first place.
Although it’s great to know how many total calls you get, it’s more important to know why the calls are coming in if you want to effectively reengineer your processes. That is the only way you can know how to control them.
Ask your operators to keep track of how many calls come in each day in given categories. For example, give operators a sheet listing scheduling, prescription refill, clinical question, billing, and so on, and ask them to note each call they get for each reason. It is important to get this deep level of information about your practice because these numbers will help you learn where you are — and are not — doing a good job managing your practice’s call volume.
Once you know why patients are calling your practice, you can look for ways to serve them other than making them call in — or, at the least, handle their requests with the first call. This is not to say that you don’t want to hear from patients or other callers. Instead, the goal is to serve them even better. It is not convenient for patients to call you, get put on hold, and then wait a day for an answer to questions. Nor is it convenient for you to be constantly interrupted with phone calls and to hire countless staff to manage the traffic. You don’t want to eliminate calls, but you can get rid of the poor management techniques behind many phone calls. Too often, dermatology practices knowingly or unwittingly set themselves and their patients up for a frustrating game of phone tag.
Dermatology practices often set themselves and their patients up for a frustrating game of phone tag.
Here are some examples of how that happens and how to avoid it. — Take a few weeks and record all of your clinical calls in a log book. Then, group the calls into areas of concern. Take the top 10, and look to see if you are addressing those concerns during the visit, as well as addressing them in written education materials. If, for example, your osteoporosis patients are calling to discuss whether they can play tennis, you’ll know that it’s important to address exercise in detail during encounters.
At the very least, make sure every patient gets the following information during the visit:
Industry-wide, 40 percent of all refill request calls are from patients who had an office visit within the past week.
During, or at the end of the appointment, ask the patient if she has questions about the visit and the care she is receiving. Remember, the more you can do for the patient during their visit, the better off they are — and the better off you are.
Scheduling — Schedule appointments before patients leave. Many patients can be scheduled for their next appointment while they are still in the office. That means they don’t have to call in, which reduces call volume and the likelihood that patients will forget to schedule appointments later.
Still, in many practices, staff actually encourage patients to call in later. Why? The schedule book is not set up that far out. Maybe physicians have not yet submitted vacation schedules, or maybe there is just a rule that no appointments should be scheduled more than two months out. Whatever the reason, this is a missed opportunity to improve patient compliance and reduce phone volume in one fell swoop. Of course, if you do schedule appointments for more than three weeks ahead, it’s wise to give those patients a reminder call 24 to 48 hours before the appointment to prevent no-shows.
Refills — Many refill calls are from pharmacists who can’t read the prescription. If this is true in your practice, you might want to invest in a system that will print out legible scripts.
Also, be proactive. Industry-wide, 40 percent of refill request calls are from patients who had an office visit within the past week. Why? Physicians tend to prescribe to the length of the time between visits, assuming they will refill at the next exam. If they fail to do so, the patient is forced to call in with an emergency request. Physicians or other providers should proactively address the patient’s needs for refills at each exam, rather than waiting for the patient to call in.
If a physician is spending more than an hour a day on the phone, try to control that time. Physicians deserve to eat dinner with their families, too, and phone calls cut into personal time very easily. If a physician needs to talk to a patient on the telephone for 10 or 15 minutes, then that patient probably should be seen in the office.
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Disclaimer: The material above has been prepared by Physicians Practice. It has not been reviewed by the DermQuest Editorial Board for its accuracy or reliability. Reference to any products, service, or other information does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation by members of the Editorial Board.