How to Conduct Productive and Meaningful Medical Office Meetings

How to Conduct Productive & Meaningful Medical Office Meetings Regularly held productive meetings can go a long way building camaraderie and enhancing medical office efficiency.

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Meetings are a great way to communicate and medical practices should conduct them on a regular basis. Just as the documentation support that medical transcription companies provide improves patient care and practice workflow, regularly held productive meetings can go a long way building camaraderie and enhancing medical office efficiency. Physicians who run a practice have to focus on serving patients as well as their business needs. Effective meetings have the power to leave the staff feeling “invigorated, informed, collaborative, and goal oriented”, and thereby improve productivity levels (www.the-rheumatology.org).

Here are some expert ideas on how to conduct productive and meaningful medical office meetings: •

Prepare a clear-cut agenda in advance: Lack of a proper plan can result in an ineffective meeting. Developing a standard, easy-to-follow agenda ahead of the meeting will allow you to cover key matters in order of importance. It will also give staff time to think about important issues and suggestions that they can bring up at the meeting. A typical meeting agenda could include: o

Introduction and goals

o

Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising from it

o

List of items for discussion in order of importance

o

Topics that staff members want to discuss

o

Upcoming events, and

o

Final thoughts

Standard items for discussion in a meeting include infection control, cybersecurity, HIPAA, and financial goals.

An article in Outpatient Surgery (August 2017, XVIII, No. 8) suggests keeping clipboard or scrap book with ideas noted on post-its, as they come to mind. Staff can also jot items down, place them in the scrap book, and shared with others.

Important topics that must be addressed or followed up, but are not relevant at the present meeting, should also be noted down.

•

Ensure that meeting frequency and duration do not affect patient care: The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends scheduling meetings regularly, during “on-the-clock” times when patient care demands are unlikely to interfere.

Meetings scheduled weekly, biweekly or even monthly will allow managers and staff to address office-related issues in a timely manner. Establish a regular place for the

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meetings. Stick to the agenda and start and end the meeting on time, focusing on key issues to be resolved.

•

Encourage participation and active discussion: Get everyone involved – grouporiented approach is best for solving problems. According to the AMA, the ideal number of attendees for meaningful participation would be between four and 12 people. The participants may vary based on the size of the practice or the setting where care is being provided. For instance, the STEPS Forward module notes that while in one setting, the team may be one physician, two or three nurses, and a billing assistant, a smaller practice can include lab or X-ray technicians in team meetings. What’s important is that everyone should be asked to take an active role by offering information, voicing concerns, or asking questions. However, see that the discussion doesn’t go off on a tangent.

•

Pay attention to time: In a medical practice, everybody’s time is valuable. So set firm start and stop times. Make sure everybody knows the meeting agenda ahead of time – post it online or on a bulletin board. Start on time. The agenda shouldn’t be too short or too long. The length of the meeting should be such that the main agenda is covered and everyone gets to voice any topics that concern them. End on time so that team members will learn to honor their time commitments.

The time element highlights the significance of regular meetings. The longer the gap between meetings, the longer the meeting will be, and the greater the chance that issues will go unresolved.

•

Record meeting minutes: One staff member should be assigned the task of taking minutes. Each person’s assigned task should be recorded, including due dates.

Minutes should be posted so that all assignees can reference it. At the next meeting, the check-back should be used to report on the status of each action item and progress, continually tracked.

•

Recognize accomplishments: Meetings are the ideal platform to congratulate someone

on

a

job

well

done

and

reinforce

the

performance

you

like

(www.medicaleconomics.com). Positive feedback will boost team morale and cooperation.

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Running staff meetings are one area where the role of physician and business owner converge, according to an article in The Rheumatologist. Going by the above strategies can help physicians improve communication among team members, improve the outcomes of meetings, and find solutions to important issues.

Partnering with a reliable medical transcription service company can help physicians manage their EHR documentation, and find more time for their patients as well as meetings and other important activities.

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