Improving Practice Workflow and Accountability

Quacking Up

How can Dr. Ben improve workflow and accountability in his chiropractic practice?

Ben smiled reassuringly at his patient, snapped the file closed, and headed to the office. “I think I might need a translator for this patient,” he said.

“Of course, Dr. Ben,” Pam assured him, picking up her phone.

Ben headed back down the hall with long strides, but when he had finished with the patient, he returned to talk with his office manager. “So, Pam,” he began — and then stopped while she answered a phone call and handed a clipboard of forms to a new patient.

“Sorry about that,” Pam smiled. “What can I do for you?”

Ben lowered his voice. “Would you say things are going smoothly in the office? I noticed that you were able to provide a translator immediately and it looks as though you have everything under control.”

“I pride myself on looking like I have everything under control,” Pam assured him. “And mostly I do, even if sometimes I’m like a duck.”

“A duck?”

“Gliding along the water on top and paddling like crazy underneath,” Pam laughed. “Seriously, I think things are going pretty well. We have issues. What chiropractic practice doesn’t? But overall it’s good.”

“What issues do you see?” Ben pursued the question.

“Sometimes we have to search pretty hard to find the information we want,” Pam said promptly. “I’m still waiting for that new software we’ve been talking about.”

Ben nodded. “I just haven’t gotten around to it.”

“And it would help a lot if staff could really know what their daily workload was going to be. Everyone just comes in and waits for me to tell them what to do. If I don’t have time to tell them anything, they don’t do anything.” Pam’s eyes widened. “I think they’d rather be able to take ownership of their work and get the satisfaction of accomplishing things and being part of the team instead of just hanging around in case they’re needed, but the work just isn’t set up that way.”

“The work just doesn’t happen that way,” Ben said. Pam’s face alerted him that he had raised his voice and he lowered it again. “Like the translator — we don’t know ahead of time when we’re going to need him.”

Pam looked doubtful. “I’m not so sure that’s true. I mean, it’s not like Mrs. Vargas suddenly didn’t understand. Maybe we should have a note in her file. Maybe we should ask people when we make the appointment. Maybe we could even cluster the appointments of people who might need a particular translator.”

Ben frowned. “I feel like we’re getting off track here. Isn’t this just one little thing?”

“Yes,” Pam agreed, “but every day is made up of those little things. We do some stop gap thing to solve a problem and after a while it becomes what we do. It’s hard to hold people accountable when they never know what they’ll be accountable for.”

“I see your point,” Ben said. “It’s like what my wife calls ‘workflow.’ You’re telling me the work isn’t exactly flowing.”

Pam smiled. “I’m not sure that’s what workflow means, exactly, but yes, I guess that’s another way of saying we’re just paddling like crazy under the water.”

How can Dr. Ben improve workflow and accountability in his chiropractic practice?

Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Here’s another blog on chiropractic office workflow.