Staffing shortages continue to affect healthcare, as many industry personnel are assessing their options. In response, providers and office managers are reevaluating their efforts to attract and retain talent. Because many employees are reconsidering their professional goals and the ways in which they choose to contribute, practices are tasked with finding ways to operate with less, or newer, staff.
With employees looking to leave and practices striving to keep them, what is the best way to proceed? The options for employees to work from home, at the office, or in a hybrid model have become relatively commonplace so practices looking to retain their workers are considering flexible options.
What Reassessment Means for Your Practice
If your practice is experiencing a gap created by a lack of available personnel to address patient needs — you’re not alone. The healthcare staffing shortage coupled with a surge of patients in need of critical care has contributed to a difficult situation for healthcare practices and the industry at large. According to American Hospital Association, “An analysis of EMSI data [shows] there will be a shortage of up to 3.2 million health care workers by 2026.” As resources become scarce, practices must find new ways to attract and retain talent to effectively serve patients.
In order to forge a path forward, cultivating a strong and supportive culture is essential. Practices that promote flexible working options and recognize their staff’s efforts are on the right track, and there is more to it. Creating ease with day-to-day tasks can make the difference between an overworked, overwhelmed employee deciding to leave and a well-equipped, purpose-driven employee choosing to stay.
The Advantages of Technology
Technology is the key to creating seamless workflows that improve operational efficiency and increase cash flow. Reinvesting in healthcare-focused software like Rectangle Health’s Practice Management Bridge® can help boost employee morale because of the ease of use these solutions bring. With our platform, you can:
1. Collect more payments with less effort.
By giving patients options to pay on their own time, you can take work off of your staff’s plate. Accepting online payments not only helps you get paid around the clock; it frees staff up to focus on other tasks. Instead of answering phones to take payment information or opening envelopes to reconcile check payments, the staff is freed up to focus on other tasks while the online payment portal does the work for them. Plus, since you’re making it easier for patients to pay, they’re more likely to pay on time which means there’s less follow-up and payment chasing for you to do.
2. Post payments with just a click.
Practice staff can become bogged down by the back and forth and manual effort required to keep payment data and patient ledgers in sync. Automated payment posting in Practice Management Bridge interfaces with your current practice management system, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry and greatly reducing the possibility of human error. In a recent study that measured return on investment (ROI) from implementing Practice Management Bridge, clients surveyed reported the potential for a 30% reduction in time spent on payment collection and posting.
3. Refund effortlessly.
Refunds are part of the business, but they don’t have to be a hassle. Our platform streamlines voids and refunds, transactions that are often manual and cumbersome. Clients interviewed for the ROI study reported a 90% reduction in time spent manually processing refunds and mailing checks. Refunding can be as simple as searching for the transaction and clicking refund. With Practice Management Bridge, practices spend less time managing payments and more time with patients.
4. Automate tedious tasks.
End-of-day batching and reporting can be a headache for practices that rely on traditional but outdated protocols. Practice Management Bridge, an online, cloud-based payment and engagement hub, eliminates the need for staff to batch out transactions by automatically sending a daily batch. With our platform, reporting is accessible and customizable for smooth reconciliation and end-of-day processes.
5. Register patients online.
Digital patient registration cuts down on wait time in the office and has proven to stimulate patient payment capture. In the recent ROI study, clients surveyed reported the potential for a 5-percentage-point increase in patient payment collection due in part to digital registration tools. Collecting information such as health history, insurance, and payment method ahead of visits saves patients and staff the hassle of rushing through paper forms and juggling clipboards. These electronic forms help practices set the payment expectation upfront by creating space for patients to include their preferred payment method at the time of registration. This advancement often leads to reliable payments.
6. Communicate easily with text messaging.
With Practice Management Bridge, practices can communicate with patients via text messages and send links to collect balances online. Text-to-Pay eliminates delays and paperwork from the payment capture process to help providers receive payment quickly. Text messaging minimizes follow-up phone calls and reduces the need to take payments from incoming phone calls, freeing staff up for other responsibilities.
7. Simplify adherence to compliance standards.
Security goes hand in hand with compliance. When practices are able to utilize technology to enhance security with every payment transaction, they protect their patients and themselves. Practice Management Bridge encrypts and tokenizes sensitive information for substantial protection against data breaches and other cyber threats. Our platform helps practices by assisting with HIPAA regulations, OSHA compliance, and data breach security and response, bringing peace of mind to staff, patients, and providers.
The tools your practice needs to operate efficiently, effectively, and profitably are within reach. To foster organizational growth and support employee engagement, you can rely on Practice Management Bridge. As you and the talent you seek assess the future of work, let our technology simplify the business side of your healthcare organization.
The Rectangle Health Solution Suite
At Rectangle Health, our corporate mission is to simplify the business side of healthcare. Among other things, this means offering practices tools and technology that help to retain valued employees and attract new talent. Our Practice Management Bridge platform exemplifies our healthcare technology expertise from which so many clients have benefitted. Not only does our platform interface with all practice management systems, it also offers practices and patients digital ways to pay that accommodate their preferences. Automatic payment posting is just the beginning of what this software-as-a-service solution can do.
Among Practice Management Bridge’s many proven features, a few stand out. Contactless capabilities like digital wallet, QR code, and mobile wallet app payment acceptance reduce physical contact at the office and promote convenience, efficiency, and security. Text-to-Pay expedites the payment collection process by allowing practices to send text messages with payment links to patients’ smartphones. Digital Registration Forms improve accuracy, efficiency, and safety in the patient registration process.
Rectangle Health’s solutions can be instrumental for all stakeholders looking to make a more positive reassessment for the health of the business, its employees, and its patients.
