Effective collaboration between healthcare professionals and your virtual secretarial team is vital. In the first of a two-part article, Stacey Burrows gives some tips.
The transition from an in-house secretary to a virtual secretarial team can generate doubts and uncertainties, especially for healthcare professionals accustomed to physical interaction.
But virtual secretaries have proven to be invaluable allies, bringing multiple benefits by streamlining workflow and maximising outcomes in medical practices.
This collaboration between healthcare professionals and virtual secretaries can be a resounding success, especially if a strong and effective relationship is established, creating a positive experience for all.
In this article, there are five practical tips that healthcare professionals can implement to establish a good working dynamic with virtual secretaries, ranging from communication and roles to administrative tasks.
Tip 1: Develop detailed handbooks for smooth collaboration
The first step in effective collaboration with virtual secretaries is to clearly define the responsibilities and goals of each party.
The development of detailed handbooks is an essential tool, as it will help to set clear expectations and avoid misunderstandings.
These manuals should be comprehensive and cover all relevant aspects of the job and agreed responsibilities, including:
- Detailed description of the tasks and responsibilities of each role: Specify what is expected of each person in each situation.
- Step-by-step procedures for key tasks: Define how the most important tasks are to be performed, including screenshots or diagrams, if necessary.
- Policies and protocols: These set out the rules and standards to be followed in the medical practice, including protocols for patient care, handling confidential information and appointment management.
- Resources and tools: Provide a list of resources and tools available for each role, including software, templates and documentation.
How to create effective handbooks
- Involve both parties: Doctors and virtual secretaries should be actively involved in the development of the manuals, contributing their knowledge and experience.
- Use clear and concise language: Manuals should be easy to read and understand for all involved.
- Update manuals regularly: Review and update manuals regularly to reflect changes in practices or technology.
Tip 2: Establish channels for clear & timely communication
Effective communication is fundamental to any working relationship and even more so between doctors and virtual secretaries.
It is essential to establish clear communication channels and define how information will be shared between the team and healthcare professional.
This will allow for smooth, efficient and safe collaboration, ensuring that patients receive the best possible care.
There are several channels of communication that you can consider, also taking into account the situation. For example, email can be a great medium for more formal communications where you need to send important documents.
On the other hand, an instant messaging app that utilises end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp is perfect for day-to-day issues or urgent queries that require faster or more urgent communication and action.
For more complex discussions or those requiring a detailed interaction, video calls are a fantastic option.
Tip 3: Hold regular meetings
Regular meetings between doctors and virtual secretaries are essential to keep not only an overview of the patient situation, but also to discuss the overall performance of the practice, evaluate the efficiency of administrative processes, workflow and compliance with established objectives.
It is also a great opportunity to detect areas for improvement, share innovative proposals, implement new technologies, optimise patient management and even to celebrate the team’s achievements.
When conducting these meetings, it is important to:
- Involve the whole team, allowing everyone the opportunity to participate
- Create a safe environment
- Use techniques to stimulate inclusion, such as surveys, brainstorming or diagrams
- Define the steps to be taken after each meeting, assign responsibilities and set deadlines for implementation.
Tip 4: Provide virtual secretaries with all the information at their fingertips
To provide exceptional patient care, it is essential that the virtual secretarial team have the tools and knowledge necessary to respond to queries accurately, completely and in a timely manner.
This means being aware of medical specialties, available treatments, appointment availability information and details of post-treatment care.
Doctors are advised to:
- Provide virtual secretaries with comprehensive training on the medical specialties offered in the practice, available treatments, patient care protocols and administrative procedures.
- Develop guides, manuals and reference documents that virtual secretaries can quickly refer to for accurate information on patient consultations.
- Encourage open communication so that they can resolve doubts, clarify information and obtain guidance when necessary.
Tip 5: Provide clear billing instructions for accurate medical billing and timely money collections
Virtual secretaries play a crucial role by ensuring that bills are sent accurately, completely and on time. This not only facilitates collection from self-pay patients, but also meets the payment deadlines set by most major insurance companies.
Virtual secretaries should be clear about tasks such as:
- Ensuring that patient information, such as name, address, date of birth, contact details and insurance policy numbers, are accurate and up to date
- Confirm that procedure and diagnosis codes are correct and match the services provided to the patient
- Follow up weekly on outstanding invoices to pro-actively identify and resolve any problems
- Keep up to date with billing regulations and fee updates to avoid errors and compliance issues
- Send weekly financial reports to the consultant, providing current facts on the practice finances, including what has been paid and also what is outstanding due for payment.
Stacey Burrows is manager at Virtual Medsec Direct. Email: [email protected]
