Find Your Patient Flow State

Poor patient flow management can result in long wait times, unhappy patients, and a negative impact on staff satisfaction and revenue. 

Improving patient flow is a win-win for patients and providers.

The goal of a healthcare appointment is to sync the patient and care provider. When managed appropriately, appointments make good use of both parties’ time. Patients don’t wait long, and providers enjoy efficient schedules.

 All of this makes for a smooth-running, happy practice—a win for everyone, right?

In order for this to happen, healthcare providers need to coordinate a variety of physical and human resources, from nurses and techs to exam rooms and equipment. Effectively facilitating a healthcare appointment is a complex task, with the end goal of optimizing patient flow.

What is patient flow?

From the moment a patient walks through your door to the minute they leave the building, they become part of an intricate series of movements known collectively as "patient flow."

Patient flow, or the patient progression through a healthcare facility, involves the medical care, physical resources, and internal systems needed to get a person from admission to discharge, all while maintaining quality care and patient satisfaction.

Each appointment has multiple moving parts

To understand the intricacy of patient flow, consider the simplest scenario: a single and very basic patient appointment.

 For this individual appointment:

• The patient checks in with the front desk staff.

• A nurse completes patient intake in an exam room.

• Next, there is an exam with the care provider.

• Finally, the appointment concludes at the checkout desk.

This single appointment consists of four distinct events that must all flow smoothly. From a patient’s perspective, coordinating these four steps might seem simple. But from your standpoint, it’s a complex process to be orchestrated alongside an entire queue of patients—some of whom have exams of varying lengths or who may not arrive on time.

All four events for each patient must be stacked, staggered, and managed so that you don’t end up with a bottleneck of patients at any point—in the waiting room, exam room, or elsewhere. Also, unexpected staffing or resource limitations may pop up on any given day. Juggling all of the details on the backend is complicated.

Poor patient flow can send patient and staff satisfaction spiraling

When patient flow is poorly managed, the effects cascade. Long wait times lead to unhappy patients who seek out other providers. And, in the world of online reviews, you might find that disgruntled patients also spread the word about their less-than-satisfactory experiences. 

Inefficiencies in the office also impact staff and, in turn, revenue. If your team is constantly dealing with unhappy patients, hectic and constantly shifting schedules, and inconsistent workflows, their satisfaction will drop and you may struggle to retain employees.

With dissatisfied staff and patients and poor referrals, your revenue will take a hit. For the sake of your business, it's important to get the patient flow right.

Patient flow predictability = provider nirvana

So, what are the best ways to improve the predictability of your patient flow? The answer is: communication and automation.

Essentially, your practice should equip patients with everything they need to make it to their appointment on time and to show up well-prepared. Much of this can be accomplished through proactive communication, and you can automate all of it.

If you let a patient know exactly when to arrive, what to bring to ensure the appointment can proceed, and how long their appointment will last, they will know you value their time. They’ll be more likely to show up on time and that factor alone will boost your schedule adherence—a win-win for the patient and provider.

Automating also helps you do this without overburdening your staff, ensuring that sending patient reminders and updates happens on time, every time, without adding to anyone's workload.

What should I automate?

The takeaway so far: If a piece of information will help your patient show up on time, communicate it—and if it's something you have to do for every patient, automate it as well.

 Some patient touchpoints that can be helpful to automate include:

• 24-hour advance appointment confirmations

• Suggested arrival times, updated as the day unfolds

• Appointment reminders

• Facility directions

• Educational info

• Pre-arrival intake forms

• Check-in paperwork

• Post-appointment surveys

By equipping your patients with all the tools they need, you can minimize the number of curveballs you deal with. As the team does less appointment juggling and question-answering, every member of the staff can carve out more time to focus on delivering an exceptional patient experience.

Internal transparency and communication are critical

A final component to streamlined patient flow is the internal communication among your staff. A team that understands how to schedule, queue patients, and handle late arrivals and no-shows will keep things moving along on time.

 Here are some points to keep in mind:

• Provide visibility of patient flow: Use a tracking tool so your staff always knows where patients are in their appointments. This will help ensure each patient is moved to the next step in a timely and efficient manner.

• Keep everyone in the know: Your patient flow process only works if everyone follows it. If one staff member isn't informed and makes changes, a domino effect will ensue. Train everyone initially and refresh their knowledge as needed.

• Maximize consistency: Document workflows and train and guide your team to keep everyone flowing together.

With the right tools, improving your patient flow can happen behind the scenes

If you want the tools to make all of this happen seamlessly so you and your staff don’t have to think about it each workday, DOCPACE can help.

Sign up for our free patient flow report to gain a better understanding of your patient flow and identify where you can make immediate improvements to streamline your processes. Your patients and your staff will thank you!