Summary
This blog discusses the challenges faced by therapy and rehab practices due to rising costs and worker overload. It suggests using cost-saving tools for patient engagement, such as Raintree’s All-in-One Therapy and Rehab EMR and Connect, to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of front desk workers. The blog also highlights the benefits of automation, telehealth, and digital lead tracking in improving patient attendance, reducing worker burnout, and enhancing the patient experience.
Take Advantage of Cost-Saving Patient Engagement Tools for Therapy and Rehab
Healthcare is a rapidly expanding industry, with therapy and rehab outpatient services being some of the fastest-growing disciplines. Rapid growth usually goes hand-in-hand with rising costs and worker overload. Outpatient therapy practices are no exception! Therapy and rehab services are thriving, but the nationwide shortage of medical professionals puts pressure on everyone staffing your practice – including your front desk workers.
American humorist Will Rogers said it best: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” Your front desk workers are your practice’s first impression, so giving them the tools they need to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently while keeping costs in check is an easy decision.
The tools built-in to Raintree’s All-in-One Therapy and Rehab EMR incorporate cost reduction strategies and help reduce worker burnout. Here are a few of the cost-saving tools Connect, Raintree’s patient-engagement platform, uses to aid your front desk personnel in making a great first impression.
Go Automated With Patient Engagement Tools for Therapy and Rehab
Investing in technology is a must for any modern business, but it’s imperative for healthcare practices in 2023. Using modern technology increases the efficiency of your office and is especially helpful in combating no-shows. Let’s look at some of the automated engagement solutions that can reduce costs and improve the functionality of your front desk.
Combat No-Shows with Automation
One of the more costly events in your office is a no-show for an appointment. You can allow your front desk staff to spend hours playing phone tag with patients who miss appointments or attempting to confirm upcoming scheduled tests and evaluations. Or you can embrace an automated communication system that takes these tedious tasks out of the hands of your front desk personnel, freeing them up to focus on serving your patients and tackling behind-the-scenes tasks.
When asked why they miss appointments, patients commonly explain, “I forgot.” Various investigations have been conducted into methods for countering this forgetfulness as a cause of no-shows. Studies focused on various methods for reminding patients of their appointments, including paper mail, emails, phone calls by staff, automated phone calls, and short message service (SMS) texts. When compared to phone call reminders, both email and SMS text appointment reminders posted no-show rates lower than phone calls.
SMS texting registered the lowest no-show rate at 19%. Using an automated SMS messaging system is a way to boost patient attendance without overwhelming your front desk staff. It not only takes a huge strain off your front desk personnel, but it also improves your revenue totals by increasing patient compliance with scheduling.
Embrace Telehealth
We’ve all been handed that clipboard with the stack of papers to fill out just to get registered for our healthcare appointment. Helping patients fill out those forms, then collecting and processing the information is one of the primary responsibilities of front desk staff. “Time-consuming” is an understatement, both for your patients and for your workers.
Imagine the ease of filling out all those forms online! If your patients have access to embedded telehealth options for completing the registration process digitally, your front desk staff has more time to focus on other tasks like increasing the quality of the patient experience for those who come to the office. If that isn’t enough to pique your interest in telemedicine, consider this: Telemedicine decreases the likelihood of a no-show by 79%! Telehealth is indeed a necessary component in the kit of patient engagement tools for therapy and rehab practices.
Connect Your Front Desk
You can cut your overhead costs and give your overwhelmed front desk staff some much-needed relief by providing your front desk with Connect, the ultimate patient engagement platform from Raintree. Say goodbye to staff shortages and worker burnout by bringing state-of-the-art automation to your practice.
Your front desk workers are good at what they do (you wouldn’t have hired them if they weren’t!). Imagine them moving from good workers to spectacular team members when you provide them with a digital solution they love! Not only will you have some seriously happy employees, but you’ll reduce the cost of operating your front desk while improving the efficiency of this important part of your patients’ experiences.
Automated engagement. Embedded telehealth capability. Digital lead tracking. It all comes together in one patient engagement platform with Connect by Raintree. Take a few minutes to learn why Raintree is the leading provider of flexible, powerful digital healthcare systems for all therapy disciplines: speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and pediatric therapy. Contact Raintree for a demo today!
Key Points
1. Therapy and rehab practices are facing challenges due to rising costs and worker overload.
2. Cost-saving patient engagement tools such as Raintree’s All-in-One Therapy and Rehab EMR and Connect can be used to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of front desk workers.
3. Automation, telehealth, and digital lead tracking can improve patient attendance, reduce worker burnout, and enhance the patient experience.
4. Contact Raintree today to learn how we can help you and your organization.
