Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Understanding The Other Side of Medicine “Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.” – Nelson Mandela F I E L D N O T E S 2. Build employee satisfaction to increase pa- tient satisfaction. Research shows a strong link between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and organizational performance. Almost every employee in your organization interacts with patients or handles finances. A culture of employee engagement will lead to better patient outcomes and better financial results. As a physician-leader, it is your job to help create that culture. 3. Develop financial systems to ensure timely and accurate reimbursement. Cash flow is critical to every organization, and the complex reimbursement system of healthcare can drown a healthcare business. The best organizations ensure that every charge is accurate,with correct coding and complete billing information that is submitted to payers in a timely manner. Experienced billers follow up with payers and patients to ensure timely payment. 4. Measure what matters. Are patients satisfied? How long does a patient wait in the waiting room? How long does it take to get an appointment? How quickly are you paid? Every clinic should care about the answers to these questions, but not all are tracking data to know how they are doing. It is difficult to make improvements in these areas without collecting data and measuring performance. 5. Focus on continuous improvement. The best organizations constantly strive to improve their processes and take steps to increase patient satisfaction each quarter. For example, set a goal of decreasing wait times by 10% each year. By viewing these actions as ongoing improvements rather than one-time changes, physicians and staff will keep a constant eye on how to better run the clinic from both patient health and financial outcomes. 119 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM