Aside from doctors and nurses, there are several more categories of healthcare professionals. A physician assistant, for example, has more time than a physician who is rushed to provide patient care, but they have specific scheduling needs as well. This is why it is vital to optimize the schedule of your PAs.
According to data from research findings, physician assistants are one of the top seven fastest-growing jobs. It is projected that the Physician Assistants field will grow by 31% between 2020 and 2030, with more than 12,000 new physician assistant job openings each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The number of PAs working in emergency rooms increases due to workforce restrictions and economies of scale. It is sometimes regarded as a sophisticated medicine scheduling procedure.
The suggestions below will aid you in making the most of your PAs as your practice grows:
1. Manage Phone Calls
When calls must be controlled, the flow of the schedule is interrupted. Calls need a process of limitations set up by physicians, in addition to phone messaging applications and slips. Together with your PAs, create a call processing guide. Distribute it to every employee. Each will be structured as follows:
• The calls they must make right now.
• The calls they must return.
• The dates on which calls will be returned.
2. Establish the duration of patient visit.
In view of the fact that new physician assistant visits can take more time than a routine visit, "seeing patients" may be scheduled in blocks of 30-minute one day each week. Knowing the average time for visiting patients per PA can help you manage your whole office calendar and ensure a more effective processing of patients.
3. Utilize Quick Huddles
You can add the scheduling of patients to your monthly meeting agenda. Hold a one-minute standup huddle with the PA, the medical assistant, and the scheduler to go through the next block of existing patients and deliberate on how to handle it.
4. Increase the number of times shorter hours are added to the schedule.
It can be challenging for physician assistants to balance their professional and personal lives. They typically spend their precious time reviewing the practice's expenses and revenue after hours, after the patients would have departed and they are required to perform this task.
5. Utilize shift scheduling tool or software.
Incorporate physician scheduling tool or software into your current scheduling system. Specific software allows patients to fix appointments online. Physician assistant scheduling software may also help you automate your scheduling process by helping to organize tasks like shift add-ons, requested time-off, shift swaps, and more. You may also provide Physician Assistants with real-time access to their schedules 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Now is a good time to implement initiatives to optimize the physician assistant schedule and emergency medicine scheduling in your organization. The sooner you implement changes, the sooner you will benefit from this exciting and rising field, not just for your company, but also for your patients.
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