Work-related stress seems to be the top instigator impacting health care costs for organizations. Heavy patient loads, smaller staffs, and higher stress levels is the main cause of stress among the healthcare workers, and it shows in their work life experience. Stress in the workplace seems to be the major reason healthcare workers planning to look for a new job to combat the work related stress.
Industry Facts State:
| More than a third of healthcare workers plan to look for a new job in 2014 |
| 82% healthcare workers said that they would be open to a new position if they came across the right opportunity |
According to an independent report, the stress points within organizations is the major cause of dissatisfaction within the healthcare industry. Next in the row is health care costs, followed by absenteeism and workplace safety.
Implement effective work stress management to improve the revenue:
As a physician, it is important for you to address the work-related stress issues of your staff. Addressing the work stress requirements of your employees can go a long way toward improving revenue and increasing patient satisfaction in a medical practice. Neglecting this can lead to unsatisfied staff, which ultimately affects the way they treat patients. A group of unsatisfied staff at your practice can affect patient satisfaction ultimately resulting in reduced patient flow and lower revenue.
Although preventing the work-related stress at your practice does not directly affect the level of patient satisfaction, it could not be left upon to be managed on its own. You need to take care of the requirements of your staff in order to run your healthcare facility smoothly, which ultimately reflects in increased revenue. With effective strategies to prevent work-related stress at your practice, you can see more patients and reduce stress for both you and your staff and boost your profitability. Afterall, a low-stress office is more productive and more pleasant for everyone: employees, doctors, and patients.
Scenarios leading to work related stress at your workplace:
Let us understand some stress-inducing scenarios that might cause dissatisfaction at your practice, and some practical solution which might help reduce the overall stress amongst your employees.
Work Overload: The non-stop pressure at the front desk, with barrage of telephone calls, arriving and departing patients, appointment scheduling, updating records and insurance information, etc. cause tremendous amount of stress to the front office attendant, leading to poor performance and chaos at the front desk
Solution: By reconfiguring the front desk, you can reduce the work load of your front office attendant and improve productivity. If the work load is more, you can divide the responsibilities amongst other staff, or have one or more staff handle the telephone operators, manage the check-out process, and collect copays. Electronic health records can also speed things up.
Role Conflict: Giving tasks to your support staff with no proper office equipment is an example of role conflict. If the office is not fully equipped, where the equipment is unavailable, not at its place, or badly in need of repair when needed; the workers are bound to face issues in their working leading to stress. Stress worsens if the problem is not addressed even after being reported to the management.
Solution: Invest in office equipment when needed to smoothen the work process at your practice. If your front-line staff can't function effectively, your practice will ultimately end up running into losses.
Role Ambiguity: If the scope and responsibilities of the job of your staff is not clear, they may face work-related stress due to role ambiguity. It is important for your staff to know what their coworkers, office manager, or doctors expect of them, and the standards by which their work will be evaluated. Uncertainity at work is one of the major cause of stress and job dissatisfaction amongst your employees.
Solution: Keep a written documentation of job descriptions for your employees to be certain that they know what their responsibilities are. Also, keeping record of periodic performance reviews and updating it regularly helps to keep work-stress related to role ambiguity at bay.
Retention Worries: Many staff undergo stressful situation worrying about their future and job security. It is important for the physician to conduct one-on-one conversations with employees to uncover what they like best and least about their jobs, and what they'd like to change.
Solution: Conducting exit interviews with departing employees can pinpoint deficiencies in your practice that have been underestimated or overlooked. Afterall, flexibility on management's part is required to smoothen things and reduce work-related stress.
Medicalbillersandcoders.com has been successfully providing medical billing services for over a decade now across all 50 US States. With a vast array of services available with MBC, our clients can easily concentrate on patient scheduling to optimize their revenue. Our clients rely on MBC for well informed decisions, improved communication between physicians; tracking and reporting; assistance with medication safety, and sustaining quality of healthcare, so that they can concentrate on improved patient scheduling strategies at their practice and stay fully committed to their profession.
