How Virtual Medical Office Administration Services Can Help Your Healthcare Practice

Have you ever said, ‘If only, . . .

• our referral backlog was caught up,
• our incoming faxes were sorted,
• our billing team was more confident, or
• someone could help with the incoming phone calls during our busiest hours or lunch hour!'

If you have uttered these words, then you want to listen to our episode today how virtual medical office assistants and receptionists can help your healthcare practice.

In this Episode #106 of the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast, guest expert Kyle Sherritt, VP Sherritt Services shows us how a virtual medical office assistant and virtual receptionist can improve the bottom line of your healthcare practice and improve the patient experience.

My Takeaways

Many—heck!—most healthcare practices have staffing fluctuations.

When you start your healthcare practice, you hire an entry-level receptionist and medical office assistant (MOA). You learn together how to set up your appointment scheduler, your patient recall reminders, and your fee-for-service billing.

Then, you get a little busier, but not busy enough to hire another MOA to assist the busy hours. Your new MOA is ready to take holidays, but you don’t have a relief person on board, yet.

The physician is doing most of the billing because they haven’t trained the MOA to do that, yet.

You want the MOA to step up and take on more administration roles in the clinic, but they can’t meet your expectations because they can’t walk away from the ringing telephone.

You might find that your dreams of a smooth-running office so that you can focus on your patients’ needs are spiraling out of control.

Or, maybe you have heard about a no-staff office practice for your small one-person practice. It sounds great, but you discover that you really don’t enjoy making appointment reminder phone calls yourself.

Would you like some help with that?

Sherritt Services is now providing virtual medical office administration services!

Imagine—phones answered promptly even during your peak hours and your patients receiving a warm reception without staff running off to put yet another person on hold.

Your billing is now done by your in-clinic staff correctly, without coaching from the physician now that the staff has successfully completed the Alberta Medical Billing Online Course.

These new services are brought to you by Sherritt Services, the medical office administration service provider trusted by healthcare providers for over 25 years.

Listen To The Podcast

​How Virtual Medical Office Administration Services Can Help Your Healthcare Practice | Episode #106

Expert tips with Jean L. Eaton on Practice Management Nuggets Podcast For Your Healthcare Practice.

Listen here: Practice Management Nuggets Podcast

Kyle Sherritt is the VP Sherritt Services Inc. and the Sales Director.

Kyle has contributed to the business development of Sherritt Services since 2009.

Managing Employees When They Make Mistakes – Addressing Employee Performance and Restoring the Workplace

Have you ever had an employee who has made a mistake and now you’re scrambling about what to do next?

Your business needs a set of reasonable rules and guidelines for employees to follow. This helps to create a safe and respectful workplace and protect the privacy rights of your patients and employees.

Your healthcare practice should have a written policy and procedure to guide you in your response to a privacy and security incident.

Sometimes, our employees have been directly involved in the incident. For example:

• Petty theft (personal gain)
• Snooping in patient or employee records (disregarding policies)
• Faxing a report to the wrong recipient (carelessness)
• Using patient or employee information to cause harm (malice)

When employees and healthcare providers do not meet our expectations, sanctions or discipline may be appropriate.

In this episode #105 of the Practice Management Nuggets Podcast, guest human resources expert Stacey Messner gives practical advice to clinic managers and privacy officers to navigate difficult conversations after an employee makes a mistake.

Listen To The Podcast

Managing Employees When They Make Mistakes – Addressing Employee Performance and Restoring the Workplace | Episode #105

Expert tips with Jean L. Eaton on Practice Management Nuggets Podcast For Your Healthcare Practice.

Listen here: Practice Management Nuggets Podcast

Featured Guest: Stacey Messner

Stacey Messner Will Teach You How to Manage Employees When They Make Mistakes – Address Employee Performance and Restore the Workplace

Human resources expert Stacey Messner, Leader in HR gives practical advice to clinic managers and privacy officers to navigate difficult conversations after an employee makes a mistake, addressing employee performance improvement and workplace restoration practices.

Get Stacey Messner Listen Differently Tip Sheet

Stacey Messner, Leader in HR, has been providing human resource consultation on a contract basis to businesses in the North Peace Region of Alberta since 2016.

With over 20 years of experience working in all disciplines of HR in many industries including not for profit, Stacey prides herself in providing HR services and support to leaders in workplaces who are responsible for their HR programs.

The services Stacey offers are HR advisory, training and development, workplace assessment, conflict resolution, and special projects such as job description review, HR policy manual, performance review, recruitment, and orientation programs. Stacey was born and raised in the Saskatchewan prairies and married into a Peace Country family where she lives with her husband and kids.

She is an active member in her community, loves raising a family in a rural setting, and enjoys the activities and beauty of the region.

Virtual Healthcare Privacy Lessons

You've probably heard about the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) investigation report into Babylon Health. The investigation report provides privacy guidance for vendors of virtual health solutions and the healthcare providers who use the digital health solutions. This is a great demonstration on why it is so important to ensure that you have current information management agreements with your vendors. Jean Eaton shares tips to help you keep your vendor agreements current and explains why it is important to the protection of patient information and the reputation of your business.

The OIPC issued its findings and recommendations after investigating the Babylon by Telus Health app under HIA. There were eight findings and 11 recommendations made in this investigation.

The recommendations from the Babylon Health Investigation Report can be used to guide healthcare providers, clinic managers, privacy officers, and vendors to develop and implement virtual healthcare solutions in your practice.

In the Practice Management Nuggets Podcasts, Jean Eaton reviews the investigation report and offers practical suggestions that you can use regarding

• key criteria when reviewing (or preparing) your privacy impact assessment (PIA)
• policies, procedures
• information management agreements (IMA)
• privacy and security awareness training
• data storage outside of Alberta

Read the investigation report here: H2021-IR-01 Jul 29 2021Babylon Health Canada Limited et al

Listen To The Podcast

Lessons From The Babylon Telus Health OIPC Investigation Report | Episode #103

Expert tips with Jean L. Eaton on Practice Management Nuggets Podcast For Your Healthcare Practice.

Listen here: Practice Management Nuggets Podcast