Ready to boost efficiency in your orthopaedic practice?
Managing and running an efficient orthopaedic practice requires a combination of business skills and operational know-how. But even the most talented specialist can falter when it comes to dealing with logistics and scheduling.
Setting the foundational framework for clinical and practice management is critical to the long-term success of any orthopaedic practice. Here are some top tips your specialist practice can implement to boost efficiency.
Create a robust framework for your practice
As a busy orthopaedic surgeon, it can be challenging to find the resources to actively create a framework for successfully running and growing a specialist practice. And the danger of not setting out a good operational plan from the start is ending up with inefficient workflow habits that lead to stress and burnout, which consequently can put your practice – and wellbeing, in jeopardy.
When Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Stuart Kirkham, a renowned specialist in Sydney’s North Shore and Norwest regions started his medical practice, he wanted a medical software program that could manage appointments, invoicing, billing and correspondence – all in one easy to use solution.
In order to build a practice based on agility, smart scheduling and security, turned to Bluechip, MedicalDirector’s specialist practice management software solution, since the start of his career in 2000 as his go-to solution.
“Bluechip was able to do all of those things, and it ticked all the boxes for me,” he said. Plus the interface was so easy to use. So, I decided to choose Bluechip as my practice management solution – and I’ve been using it ever since.”
“In the beginning of my career, there were six or seven doctors working with me, and it was my idea to suggest using Bluechip,” Dr Kirkham said. “I had heard of Bluechip through word of mouth, and it had a good reputation, so I did my own enquiries to decide whether the solution was right for me.”
Train and manage staff with the right solution
Orthopaedics is constantly evolving, with advancements in patient treatment and clinical administration meaning there’s little downtime for specialists and their team. The better your staff are trained, the more efficient your practice will be, leaving you and your team to focus on delivering patient-centric care.
However staff don’t necessarily need to be sent to external courses to get the benefits of efficiency-boosting skills. You can use small increments of downtime in your administrative and practice management team’s schedule to offer small training tips, like learning how to manage better referrals, insurance processing, or smarter scheduling habits.
Not only does this increase the skillset of your team, it also frees up time elsewhere within the practice. Over time, these efficiencies give you and your team a little more breathing room, and keep the admin tasks from piling up.
Learning how to use a tailored specialist practice management solution, can be also be an effective way to make administrative tasks easy and less time consuming for staff. For instance, once implementing Bluechip, Dr Kirkham realised that set up, training and support was very smooth, as the software was user-friendly. He also found continuing to use Bluechip over time was fuss-free, as Bluechip has been easy for his staff to use.
“Implementation at the time was very smooth, there was a fair amount of instruction offered, but after a few months we didn’t actually need any additional help,” Dr Kirkham added. “The secretaries and staff could easily understand how to use it without assistance. In fact, over the last 18 years of using Bluechip, I’ve hardly had to ring MedicalDirector for support – even though unlimited support is provided. And should the need arise, I know I always get prompt, reliable service and attention.”
Manage patient flow for a stress-free practice
Today’s fast-paced specialist practice demands more efficient and streamlined ways to manage a busy workflow while enhancing the patient experience.
Once implementing Bluechip as his practice management solution, Dr Kirkham found there were a lot of everyday specialist workflow challenges Bluechip addressed, like effectively managing patient flow for the day.
“I can see who has arrived in the waiting room through Bluechip, and I can see how many patients are waiting to see me without having to get up from my desk. This is really helpful for me because if I am going overtime with a patient, the software helps me see whether I am holding up other patients.”
Another great benefit Dr Kirkham found is information accessibility. He could log into Bluechip at his desk, while his staff can log in at another desk, and everyone can access the same information at the same time, in a secure environment.
“I would recommend Bluechip to specialists because it can handle all of your practice needs, including invoicing, correspondence and appointments,” Dr Kirkham said. “And with everything colour-coded, I can see at a glance how many appointments I have in a week. I can also quickly see how many surgeries, post-op patients, how many follow-up patients are seeing me versus new patients – and all of this is easily categorised.”
