With the medical field quickly becoming an expensive and complex industry to operate within, therapy and rehab practices are faced with the difficult decision of where to cut costs without sacrificing quality care or overworking their employees.
Because the front desk is an essential part of any medical facility, it’s often overlooked as an area that can be optimized on an operational and financial level. Let’s focus on front desk cost reduction strategies that can work for your PT, OT, SLP, or multi-specialty practice.
Front Desk Cost Reduction Strategies for Rehab Therapy
Let’s explore various front desk cost reduction strategies that can be implemented to help your therapy and rehab organization save money while also meeting and exceeding patient expectations. From streamlining processes and leveraging technology to utilizing patient outreach services, there is a myriad of ways your organization can reduce front desk costs while continuing to provide quality care to your patients!
1. Automate Your Patient Engagement Workflows
Beyond the benefits that automation can bring to any workflow, automating patient engagement in particular is a great cost-reduction strategy for front desk operations, as it reduces the need for manual outreach and allows for more efficient patient management. Imagine how much more efficient your daily tasks could be if your patients didn’t need to interact with your staff at all in order to complete their appointment!
Examples of engagement that can be handled over automated platforms, such as email, text messaging, or automated phone calls:
- Appointment reminders
- Patient feedback surveys
- E-statements
- Digital intake
- Self-scheduling
By automating these outreach efforts, your front staff can dedicate their time towards more high-value tasks and focus on delivering more personalized, positive experiences to patients that need to engage face-to-face. Better yet, by reducing the number of incoming calls to the front desk, patients that struggle to use automated technology can reach an employee faster than ever, helping your practice capture patients that may have otherwise been lost to long wait times!
If you’re not sure where to start with reducing the cost of your front desk processes, utilizing automation technology for patient engagement is a surefire way to save time, money, and resources while ensuring patient satisfaction.
2. Reduce Overhead with Digital Patient Intake Tools
One of the biggest pain points your front desk likely faces is the dreaded mountain of paperwork that patients need to fill out prior to their appointment. This comes with a slew of frustrations for both staff and patients, from delayed appointment times to manually scanning in forms – not to mention the papercuts! Fortunately, there are software solutions that can tackle these problems without cutting corners, and streamlining the appointment registration process can help reduce costs associated with the medical front desk.
By implementing digital intake tools that seamlessly integrate with your electronic medical record (EMR) system, patients can complete their pre-registration forms from the comfort and convenience of their homes (or even on the go!). This paperless technology ensures that patient data is collected accurately, efficiently, and can be processed into the system much faster than manually scanning or typing in hand-written information.
Between the money saved on paper, the time saved on manual data entry, and the increased number of punctual appointments, integrated digital intake tools can save your therapy and rehab clinic revenue in more ways than one!
3. Save Time and Labor with Online Scheduling Tools
One of the most cost-effective strategies to reduce front desk operational costs is to utilize online scheduling tools. These toolsets generally come with two primary features: the ability for patients to self-schedule using your website, and the means for staff members to easily manage appointments across multiple providers and locations.
By allowing patients to book appointments, reschedule, and cancel appointments online, front desk staff can avoid the time-consuming process of manually managing all appointment requests. This not only frees up staff time, but also plays a part in preventing worker burnout and the resulting high turnover rate that’s sweeping the medical industry.
On the other hand, patients that still do need to call in to schedule their appointment can benefit from a streamlined scheduling system behind the scene with color-coded options to help employees quickly determine the best time and place for their appointment.
Increase Efficiency with Software for PT, OT, and SLP
From online scheduling to digital intake to automated patient engagement, there are many proven front desk cost reduction strategies. But it may seem daunting and expensive to search for several third-party solutions to create these efficiencies.
That’s where Raintree comes in. With our certified electronic health record (EHR) system and all-in-one platform for rehabilitation, we help growing practices increase revenue, do more with their data, and drive higher patient satisfaction.
We boast the most complete patient portal for rehab and therapy patients, making automated appointment reminders, bill pay, and digital intake a breeze with our robust self-service technology. What’s more, we offer truly personalized patient experiences through Connect, our engagement platform that delivers embedded telehealth, lead tracking technology, marketing tools, and more!
Interested in how Raintree’s all-in-one EMR can transform your front desk operations? Request a demo with us today!
