A loss in productivity can result in increased staff frustration, patient turnover, and a decrease in profits. Unfortunately, many optometric practices are making critical mistakes that are slowing down their office workflow and hampering productivity.

In this post, we list five common office workflow mistakes made in optometric practices and how to fix them.

Stop Making These Office Workflow Mistakes

Old School Scheduling Methods

Using the phone to schedule and confirm appointments takes up an average of 10 hours a week. And, other outdated scheduling methods, like using appointment books or spreadsheets slows down your office's workflow and halts your staff’s ability to be productive in your optometric practice.

With a web-based scheduler connected to the patient portal and practice management solution, your practice can enable your patients to schedule their appointments on their time. Additionally, using a patient recall system to remind the patient of the appointment will free up your front desk to focus on the people in the office.

Calling to Check Eligibility

Calling payers to check a patient’s eligibility, limits limiting the number of  face-to-face interactions your front office has with each patient. Using a clearinghouse solution for claims management gives you access to hundreds of payers to quickly check a patient’s eligibility and helps reduce claim rejections.

Calling To Prescribe Medication

When you’re in the exam room, your focus should be on the patient, not on calling a pharmacy to prescribe medication. Move your patient through the appointment faster by using an EHR with an embedded ePrescribing tool to instantly manage a patient’s medication and allergy information, and securely fill prescriptions.

Collecting Paper Pre-appointment Forms

Paperwork slows everything down and manually having to enter the information can result in avoidable errors. To speed up your office workflow and decrease the patient’s waiting room time, encourage the use of a patient portal that electronically transfers patient demographic information into the practice management and EHR solution.

Juggling Multiple Software Solutions

Juggling between systems, user names, and passwords to complete a task can waste a lot of time. When you consolidate your optometric practice software under one all-inclusive, cloud-based EHR solution, your practice can increase efficiency and decrease costs and administrative work by giving your staff everything they need to do their job in one solution.

Want more tips to improve your workflow efficiency? Download the "Practice Efficiency" eBook.