10 Productivity Tips for Medical Practice Employees

I am getting ready to launch my productivity training for medical practice employees in just over a week, so today I am giving you 10 of my tips for improving productivity for you to share with your team.

1. Set three M.I.T.s every morning. M.I.T.s are "Most Important Tasks" to focus your day. These will vary depending on your role in the medical practice and may have to do with follow-ups, insurance pre-authorization, billing tasks, referrals or any number of duties you may be assigned.

2. Zero your inbox. Make sure that all of your e-mails/tasks in the EHR are processed every day. Perform this inbox zero first thing in the morning, around midday, and again at the end of clinic to ensure patients' needs are met in a timely manner. Keep response e-mails as short as possible and make your words powerful.

3. Clear and de-clutter. Keep your desk or work area free of clutter and distractions. Having a messy work area only creates stress.

4. Look ahead. Be prepared for each patient as they arrive. This way there isn't a lot of time spent in set up or search mode while the patient or physician is waiting.

5. Tackle Mount Project. Pick one item a week from your "I'll get to it eventually" pile to tackle each week; I lovingly call it Mount Project.

6. Don't have so many meetings. Meetings are important for communication, announcements and training; avoid "over-meeting" by having no more than one meeting per week for employees.

7. Take imperfect action. The best newsletter is one that was sent, the best blog post is one that is posted. Avoid getting paralyzed by the need for perfection and take action.

8. Be creative not reactive. There is a certain degree of reactivity involved in a medical practice, but there are many ways you can create your day by accomplishing tasks and preventing downtime. Starting your day with proactive goals on paper helps you to create your day with accomplishment and have more energy to react to those items that are necessary to react to. Have a separate list for incoming tasks so that they can be prioritized and triaged as needed.

9. Arrive a little early. Avoid sitting down to work with seconds to spare. Aim to arrive 10-15 minutes early to get your day organized before it begins.

10. Upgrade your skills. Productivity, marketing, customer service - there is always room for you to learn new ways that lead to more and better productivity. The enemy of better is "this is the way we've always done it."

Comment below about how these tips work for you, and feel free to add any of your productivity hacks too!