Your medical practice is only as strong as its weakest
link—employees who lack training and make your practice look unprofessional can
negate all of the effort and hard work from the rest of your team. Lack of
training causes low productivity, an unsafe work environment, and increased
expenses. Frequent mistakes not only cause patient frustration, but also
coworker frustration: the coworkers have to clean up the messes that untrained
employees create. Untrained employees can lead to serious financial and legal
consequences. For example, a survey showed that 44% of the participants admitted to having shared sensitive company information
because they “wanted to bounce ideas off of people”; 30% did so because they
“needed to vent”, and 29% stated that they “did not see anything wrong with
it.” These statistics show just how risky it is to have an untrained employee
who can easily commit HIPAA violations for which you will be held responsible.
When patient PHI has been compromised, the practice can face overwhelming
financial penalties—and can even face
criminal charges, depending on the nature and severity of the violation. A
recent study shows that security
breaches cost the healthcare industry $5.6 billion annually. The OCR has
capped the fine for a severe HIPAA violation with no intent to correct at an annual maximum of 1.5 million dollars;
however, even a fraction of this amount can seriously impact the financial
stability of any practice.
Aside from HIPAA violations, untrained employees can cost you in many other ways:
Accidents or injuries while on the job: not only can an untrained employee injure himself while working, and seek financial compensation from your practice, but they can also create risky situations for other employees or even patients. Furthermore, accidents can lead to broken equipment, wasted supplies, and many other negative consequences. All such adverse incidents must be remedied and documented by the practice manager.
Bad customer service: every employee represents your practice. If an untrained employee provides bad customer service, displays a negative attitude, or is unable to answer common patient questions, it makes your whole practice look unprofessional and can cost you patients. When patients leave your practice due to subpar customer service or unknowledgeable staff, more often than not they will let their frustration be known to their friends and family, on social media and on Google reviews—leading to you losing even more patients and credibility.
Not collecting enough money from patients: If your untrained employee is a receptionist who is scared to ask patients for their co-pays or unable to explain patient balances, you will lose a significant chunk of money that should have been collected at check-in. Patient responsibility amounts have been climbing, and are now at around 23% of all A/R—and these balances are the hardest to collect if not collected at the time of service. If your untrained employee is a biller who improperly verifies a patient’s insurance—or does not verify it at all—and the patient gets seen, the practice loses money on that patient, whether by not collecting any money at all or by spending time and resources collecting it.
Not billing properly: no matter how amazing your providers are, how friendly your front desk receptionist is, or how caring your nurses are, your practice will not be able to operate if your billing department is not bringing in the revenue that you have worked so hard for. For example, an MGMA survey shows that better performing practices in primary care have an average Days in A/R of 23.54 days, as opposed to other practices who average 39.56 days. If your untrained billing staff is not following up on claims efficiently, many of your claims run the chance of being denied for untimely filing—causing you to lose large amounts of money.
Additionally, more so than in any other field,
employee mistakes in healthcare can be deadly. Medical errors have been found
to be the third leading cause of death
in the US, with over 250,000 deaths per
year caused by such errors. Some of the most common mistakes made by
untrained healthcare employees include medication errors, infection issues, and
charting or documentation mistakes. As we all know in healthcare, if it was not
documented, it didn’t happen. This mistake may seem minor and easy to
correct—if caught. However, if an untrained nurse forgot to document an allergy
that a patient had, and the patient had a severe allergic reaction to the
course of treatment provided, your medical practice as well as the individual
provider treating the patient is now at risk of a malpractice suit—which comes
with attorney fees, incurred financial losses, a damaged reputation, and higher
malpractice insurance premiums. And this is only one way in which a
documentation error by an untrained employee can lead to dire
consequences.
Each of your employees directly represents your
practice. The costs of not training your employees are too high for this to not
be a priority for you. If you do not already have one in place, implement an
onboarding and training process for all new employees—a general one for all new
employees which introduces them to your practice mission, vision, core values,
and goals, as well as a role-specific training process for each new employee to
learn the intricacies of the position for which he or she was hired. Ensure
that your training does not stop at new employees: existing employees need
continuous training as well. Find a way to make it fun as well as
informative—no one wants to sit through the same boring training routine over
and over again. Although a new onboarding and training process may take some
time and manpower to develop, the benefits of having such a program in place
will be worth the effort exponentially when every employee at your practice is
knowledgeable, professional, and on board with your practice’s vision and
goals.
For assistance in setting up your practice’s onboarding
and training program, contact Leading Management
Solutions to set up a free consultation.
About
the Author:
Sonda Eunus is the
Founder and CEO of Leading Management Solutions, a healthcare management
consulting company (www.lmshealthpro.com). Along with a team of experienced and
knowledgeable consultants, she works with healthcare practice managers to
improve practice operations, train employees, increase practice revenue, and
much more. She holds a Masters in Healthcare Management and a BA in Psychology.
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