Author: Attune Technologies

Inspiring your team to change habits to improve productivity and increase efficiency.

Hospitals and Labs are so IT dependent and yet sometimes so IT defiant. That is the case with most healthcare delivery organizations. While as a CXO, you are taking your hospital ahead by acquiring state-of-the-art technology and the latest HIS software you are also struggling with a workforce that consists of a mix of the highly tech savvy generation and the non-tech friendly. This is one of the biggest technology challenges that most hospitals are facing today.

While every hospital needs the experience of the non-tech generation, it also needs the energy of the tech savvy workforce.

Here is a list of practices you can adopt in your hospital and turn the tide in your favor.

1. Insist on Internal Collaboration Tools

While communication on paper is comfortable, convenient and something everyone is so used to, send out the message loud and clear in your organization that the management cares for the environment. Insist on the use of Instant Messenger (IM), Emails and Skype etc. for internal as well as external communication.

2. Form Groups with Influencers

Use the complex mix of tech savvy and tech scared workforce to your advantage. Having a workforce with mixed reaction to technology means while some want to embrace the efficiency that IT brings, the others don’t. Form mixed groups from this mixed workforce. Zero in on a tech-savvy employee in each group who is also popular with other employees. Train her to be the trainer. Nothing is more effective than peer learning.

3. Keep it Competitive

Nothing works like competition. Keep the learning environment competitive; in a healthy way. Have ongoing competitions between the groups formed (as suggested in point no. 2) or create a policy to reward employees when they come up with ideas for better use of an existing technology or a cost saving idea using technology. Public recognition is a huge motivator. Just ensure that it is not always the tech savvy employee who wins. If that happens then the whole purpose of the endeavor will be defeated.

4. Make it a Routine

Insist on the dominant use of IT in the hospital and make it a routine. The training provided at the time of acquiring a new technology/ equipment or software should not be a one-time-affair. It should be an ongoing routine with regular post-training tests, checking for effectiveness of the training. Link the post training effectively to the performance and in turn to their appraisal. This will induce an element of seriousness to the whole initiative, and ensure you get the most out of your automation.

5. Train Only For Specific Functional Areas

Ensure you train employees to get IT competency for their specific roles. Making everyone learn everything is sure to discourage people from participating. IT training for your employees should never include something that they are not going to use at work. For example, ensure the front desk staff are trained on the patient registration and billing modules. Even if you are planning to train the employees to multi-task, train them on relevant modules of the software.

6. Do Not Make IT Optional

To make your employees IT smart, the golden practice is to never make the use of IT optional. When given an option, humans always tend to choose something that is already in their comfort zone.Also, it gives a message to the employees that the management is flexible on use of IT in the hospital. Make the system mandatory and don’t send out the wrong message.

Use of IT is the easiest way to adopt time-saving practices and most importantly to effectively combat the shortfall of skilled and efficient manpower in the industry. Making your staff IT smart and will help you streamline you operations better for improved revenues. To know more about automation software, click here.

Simple tips to stop doing things that is taking a bite out of your revenue.

There are multiple ways to improve your revenues. Similarly there are also multiple ways in which practices are losing revenue unknown to themselves. We list out the 7 common things, which in spite of a roaring practice you may or may not be doing that are leading to revenue losses.

A quick glance through this list can sort that out for you. Here you go:

1.Not Having a Website

We don’t mean a fancy and high investment website but a basic website is an essential requirement for your practice.

More than ever, patients are now looking to web for answers to their medical questions. With some good SEO, Google will show your website right on the first page to bring prospective patients to your website – this is your first chance to gain attention. Without the patient stepping into your clinic, you get to tell them about your services, team as well as achievements. It will help if you list the rates and most importantly a simple form that will help the patient schedule an appointment.

2.Not Having Referral Tie-Ins

Why not be the referrer than the referred? Complete patient care is not something that starts and ends with a visit to the clinic. Develop tie-ins with all kind of service providers that your patients may require. Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Pathologist, Optometrist and many more. The revenue that comes in from the referrals is what you are missing. Go for it.

3.Not Expanding Your Service Mix

If you are an Endocrinologist, you know there are many specialties and super specialties that would be connected with your branch of science. Likewise for all specialties. Expand the service mix of your clinic. Many times a patient coming for a knee ache may want his wife to consult a gynecologist.

4.Not Having a Central Control

You are the brain at your clinic, the big boss. You need to be in the know how of how things are working at every corner in your clinic. There are no controls like numbers. As a practicing doctor, you don’t have a lot of time to spare for administrative concerns, yet you need to have complete control of your operations at your fingertips. A great way to track the day to day operations of your single or multiple clinics is automation. Get an automation solution based on the requirements of your clinic and train yourself to understand what the numbers spell out.

5.Not Keeping an Eye on Inventory

Treat your clinic like a mini-hospital and make sure that you practice all possible inventory control practices. Material is money. Train your staff to keep simple logs to track inventory and make the concerned person accountable for. Check the logs at fixed intervals and also have some surprise checks at times. Make sure that every procured material is accounted for.

6.Not Keeping Strict Financial Practices

Manual billing and manual ledgers invariably lead to mistakes as well as to chances of financial pilferage. When the incoming can be manipulated the outcome can be manipulated too. Get a software solution that suits your clinic’s needs and make sure that patient registration and payment is made through the software only. Every penny saved from pilferage is a penny earned.

7.Not Having an Automated Solution for Patient Registration

A software patient registration solution will not only regulate the financial practices of correct collection and correct deposition, it will also provide greater efficiency in terms of linking online and telephonic registrations, old registration recalls, better time utility and better patient relationships.

These simple tips are the foundation of good business practice and will help you streamline you operations better for improved revenues. To know more about automation software, click here.

Top Marketing Tips to Improve your Practice.

It is an incredible feeling to run your own practice, but it comes with its own stress. The pressure to generate more revenue, treat more patients and attain greater presence in your circles is really high. We understand what it means to keep thinking of innovative ways to popularize your practice and spread the word without being too much of a marketer.

While you already are doing great work, offering enhanced patient care, implementing all the right practices and marketing the traditional way, you also know that will not change much – it will not take you flying ahead to beat the competition as they are also doing the same, maybe even better.

We have been studying how some clinics are successfully able to attract more patients than others, and we have come up with 5 marketing tips for you.

1.Get Yourself on Various Directories

There are several service directories which showcase doctors and their services. From the traditional ones like Yellow Pages to the recent online directories like www.practo.com, www.desimd.com, www.doctorsdirectoryindia.com and www.medindia.net, these handbooks list the details of your practices and what you have to offer. These websites are very popular and listing your practice on them with positive feedback from your patients will list you right at the top of any google search, which is what potential consumers do whenever they want to search for anything.

2.Use Social Media Well

The world is on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and the likes are the virtual places where you can reach to create brand awareness with potential customers as well as attract good talent. Appearing on social newsfeeds often will go a long way in keeping you in the mind of the users. Interesting posts keep people interested. And people remember useful tips and their source.

3.Invest on Building a Network

Spend time meeting your colleagues and build a good rapport with them. Community meet-ups and events are some of the best places to build a strong professional network as well as to impress the community about your existence as a brand. These also present great situations for you to highlight your skills and achievements. Be ready to talk about your cases and the exemplary work you are doing.

4.Network with Allied Services Professionals

Do limit your networking only to your fraternity. Reach out to other healthcare professionals too. Complete medical care to patients does not only involve doctors. It involves other stakeholders – pharmacists, physiotherapists, counselors, pathologists and many others. Depending on your specialty, network with professionals in allied medical services and form a team – a mutually referring well-established team.

5.Develop Your Presence

Coming in the morning to your clinic, treating patients the whole day and going back home in the evening will develop your social presence. But this is an extremely slow process and might take many years for people to take notice of your practice. There are other avenues you could explore.

Write for your local newspapers, contribute articles to websites that provide content on your area of expertise, connect with your local radio and let them know that you are available for expert opinions or even call-in health shows or write for healthcare magazines. Basically, don’t wait for anyone to notice you and ask you for opinion or contribution. Step forward and offer. This will give you a lot of reach and of course patients too.

Implementing these steps will put you on the map and give a public presence to your practice. Further, streamlining your operations through automation will go a long way in enhancing patient care, allowing you to be recognized for your outstanding service.

Try these simple marketing tips and let us know what worked best for you.