Podcast #2: How Can Clinics get Ready for Flu Season

Here is Cortico's second podcast from our own Arun and Ashley, discussing how clinics can get ready for flu season.

You can access the podcast audio here.

Podcast Transcript

Arun 0:00
Welcome back to the second episode of the podcast. Last week, we talked about growing medical practices and the importance of telehealth and Google reviews in a pandemic world. And we also touched on the importance of preparing for flu season. And today we're going to talk more about getting paranoid. I'm Arun from Cortico, and I'm here with Ashley from Cortico. Hi, Ashley!
Ashley
Hi, Arun!
Arun
So let's jump right into the conversation. We're going into the busiest time of year, and we've got situations like; phones will be ringing at the front desk, patients will be stressed out. There's still some COVID fears and tension, I think, that will lead to. Anyhow, we're expecting the clinic environment to be very chaotic, especially in person. So during the busiest time of year, what advice can you give to an MOA to provide quality customer service during flu season?

Ashley 0:55
I would recommend having a leader; a leader that is going to conduct your front desk. Reinforcing the importance of customer service is crucial for healthcare. You're going to have patients in pain, you're going to have patients coming in for advice, you're going to have patients that are just wanting to come in to heal. So providing quality customer service and being calm during the stressful time of the year it's important, it's really important. And it's going to make patients keep coming back to your clinic.

Practicing a calm environment. I find that patients do not respond very well to a chaotic environment. So making sure that the front desk is calm, collected, and providing quality customer service to these patients. I'm a true believer that if you give out good energy, energy is going to bounce back on you. So, if you provide a calm atmosphere, your patients are going to be calm. You're going to have a calm waiting room. And going into that clinic, it's going to give me reassurance that this is a good environment, that I really want to use this walk-in clinic. That's pretty much it.

Arun 2:34
I guess that orchestrating the front desk kind of ties into orchestrating the waiting room, right? And keeping things calm, and keeping patients easy to manage, for example.

Ashley 2:48
Yeah, patients will be easier to manage, and they're going to be more responsive to the front desk when it comes down to wait times or any clinical procedures.

Arun 2:58
On the operation side, do you have any advice for managers or admin persons to prepare for the flu season?

Ashley 3:07
I recommend clinics to start preparing maybe at the end of summer or transitioning into fall. You don't want to wait until the last minute when you're ordering your flu vaccines, because they're going to be all out and you're going to have patients not wanting to get a vaccine at your clinic because you don't have it available. So they're going to go elsewhere. So I suggest clinics to contact your local public health unit, find out when the vaccines are going to be available get the order forms back or fax to your office and pre-order those vaccines. What else do I recommend?

Just making sure you're stocking up on perishables like swabs, local anesthetic needles, syringes, topicals, your vaccines. Also, ahead of time once you do find out when those vaccines will be available for you, advertise. Put up signs in your waiting room, in your exam rooms, outside your clinic, inside your clinic, it's important for your patients to know that these flu vaccines will be available. That gets patients to pre-book their appointments. Connecting with your local pharmacies, faxing them and letting them know that your clinic is going to be administering flu shots going into the fall, these are the dates that we're going to have the flu shots available.

Also, if your clinic is not using an online booking system, I highly recommend clinics to start using an online booking system. It's going to be so much easier for your patients to be booking their vaccines and you can use cluster-book appointments. I usually recommend having a flu clinic from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM and having a flu clinic from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM. Why? Because you have your complex patients coming in the morning, and then you have that after school rush. Organizing it like that, you're going to get more patients coming and using your clinic because it boils down to organizational behavior, and strong scheduling.

Arun 5:46
Those are a lot of really useful tips. And I'm wondering, have you tried any policies or practices that helped to keep everything organized? Because that's a lot of different points to be doing for an MOA or for a manager. So how do you think what helps to keep everything organized helps the MOAs manage their workload?

Ashley 6:08
I went through trial and error. When I was an operations manager, I tried to find out what the right policies and practices are. And I found that the importance of opening your clinic is to maybe have like a 10 minute team huddle, including your doctors, your MOAs, nurses, and whatnot. I believe leadership and teamwork is key. It's never a one man show, you want to make sure everybody's on board.
Also, I highly recommend office managers to divide up the tasks for your MOAs. So I find that if you divide up the tasks, it creates a well rounded team dividing and conquering all tasks.

Arun 7:22
Well, in my experience, from going to clinics as a patient, I've noticed that walk-in, self check-in features, for example, telehealth features, help to take away some of the workload that MOAs would traditionally deal with. I wonder how you see the MOA's role evolving in the near future?

Ashley 7:48
Good question, Arun. Back in the day, when I was recruiting for doctors, I also had to perform a lot of administrative duties along with clinical duties. I found the clinical side of things, it was more enjoyable for me assisting the doctor, assisting in procedures. Do you want to interject?

Arun 8:27
Well, I've been there as well. I've also worked in medical clinics at the front desk, and actually have even worked in the clinic today. And I noticed that, as patients are coming in person, they're calling on the phone. It can be stressful, and I was realizing that we're burdening MOAs with a lot of clerical work. And really, we should be eliminating that and enabling them to be involved in clinic management and patient care.

Ashley 8:56
I 100% agree with you. And I feel like, if we take away some administrative tasks from these MOAs, that is going to devote them to pay attention to more crucial tasks. More in the clinical aspect of things. Softwares that are going to manage patient engagement and booking appointments, in the office, or over the phone, or via video, having those available to your community is going to alleviate, long lineups outside your door, that's going to alleviate your patients being on hold. Having that option of booking an appointment using your smartphone, as opposed to being on hold for two hours, it's just common sense for any clinic to use telehealth.

Arun 10:01
Wow, thanks for sharing all that. That's a really in depth answer. And it sounds like you're really familiar with planning out and being prepared for flu season. And of course, this flu season is going to be stressful, because we'll return to in person appointments sometimes. And COVID numbers are rising besides. So, do you have anything else to tell clinics about how to run more smoothly during the flu season?

Ashley 10:27
I honestly truly believe that preparation is key during any difficult circumstances. I truly believe that, if your clinic is not prepared for flu season, or going into a busy season, you're going to be facing a lot of challenges. That's going to cause a lot of pressure, or tension, and stress within your clinic. To overcome that, preparation is key. Contacting your public health unit, finding out when those vaccines are going to be distributed, putting up flyers in your waiting room, exam rooms, outside your clinic. Just calling all your local pharmacies and letting them know that you're going to be administering flu shots from one period to another period.

And if you have not already, I highly recommend implementing some sort of online booking system for your clinic. That is going to give the option for your patients to book online, which will end up relieving those phone calls and putting patients on hold. So providing that option for your patients to book online is going to relieve a lot of administrative duties, and that is going to give the option for the MOA to provide quality patient care, and to assist doctors when needed.

Arun 11:44
Alright, Ashley, thanks a lot for being here and talking about this. We're Arun and Ashley from Cortico Health Technologies and thanks for joining us today!