Make Your Waiting Areas Work for You

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Start Making Your Waiting Areas Work for You

Or Start Engaging Your Patients from the Jump

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Start the coordination of care between patients and providers as soon as they enter the waiting areas for their appointments

Improvement strategies range from a friendly receptionist to cleaner lighting to increasing patient engagement

The goal is to make the patient experience more friendly and personal while helping patients stay within your provider network.

Executive Summary

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Background Declaw the Dragon Lady Declutter the Paper Storm Décor (Nothing Clever Here) Denounce Standard Care Demystify Your Goals Action Plan Summary and Questions

Agenda

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Studies show that the staff friendliness influences a visit more than any other factor.

A patient’s first point of contact is your receptionist and the other front office staff. This tends to be an intimidating area for the patient.

Declaw the Dragon Lady

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Encourage the receptionist and the rest of the front office staff to be: Friendly Empathetic Patient Helpful

Without happy patients, the practice cannot exist

Declaw the Dragon Lady

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Once the patient is at the reception area, they are overwhelmed with notes, rules, and paperwork taped to or placed on the desk area.

Encourage each office to create a welcome packet that can be sent electronically or is handed to the patient when they check in.

Declutter the Paper Storm

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If that is not possible, create an announcement booklet that each patient receives upon check in.

Uncluttered areas look more inviting, professional and calming.

Make sure your first impressions are favorable.

Declutter the Paper Storm

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The waiting area needs to be clean, well lit, clear, and inviting.

The waiting area needs to be as clean as the examination rooms. Dirty or well worn tables and chairs reflect poorly.

Décor

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The lighting needs to be bright, but not retailer bright. Patients should be able to read your paperwork easily.

Chairs and tables need to be placed with walkers and wheelchairs in mind. It should be easy for any patient to reach any section of the seating area.

The color scheme should be warm and inviting. Replace outdated decorations, photos, and color schemes.

Décor

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Show the patients that the old way of patient care is dead.

Change the energy of your offices.

Explain in layman terms what your health system does and why the patient should care.

Denounce Standard Care

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Treat the patients in a humanized and personal way.

Create a culture of on time, on point service.

Eliminate the old stigma of health care.

Denounce Standard Care

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Explain very clearly and concisely to patients: What the path and goal of

their treatment plan is How in network providers

contribute to this process How ancillary providers like

DME/Pharmacy contribute How their office staff can

guide through this process

Demystify Your Goals

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How to Execute This?

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Create a continuity of care through all your network providers Customer Service Training Onboarding Forms that can be

reused by the patient throughout network

Consistent Messaging in Waiting and Exam Rooms

Patient First Mentality

How to Execute This?

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Require all personnel who deal with patients to undergo basic customer service training: Rule #1- Employees who are

treated well in turn treat your patients well

Rule #2- Employees who treat patients well in turn get treated well by most patients

Several consultants that we can recommend

Customer Service Training

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Create a series of forms that apply for every office and make a copy for the patient to use at other offices.

Saves time, reduces stress of seeing a new doctors, and empowers the patient.

Becomes a “selling point” when recommending referrals

Consistent Onboarding Forms

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Patient Navigation should start during the patient’s down time in the waiting and exam rooms.

Explore a customized, digital patient education network that connects your providers to your patients at their time of need.

This is our expertise

Consistent Messaging in Waiting and Exam Rooms

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Halo Health’s digital patient navigation/education network provides customized information about your health system:

Community and Individual Patient Care Programs Ancillary Service Providers Individual Office and Staff Specialties Key Initiatives on Preventative Health General Health and Wellness Information

Speak directly to your patients and caregivers to give them options for their care that keep them in your health system.

Digital Patient Education Overview

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Educate patients about your health system’s events and happenings:

Grand Openings Clinics and Classes Portal Information Patient Navigator Contact Information Case Manager Contact Information Community Outreach Events Cause Events and other Corporate

Sponsorships

Community and Individual Care Programs

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Introduce patients to the specialists they may see as part of their treatment plan of action:

Radiology Therapists Nutritionists Labs Health/Fitness Centers Tandem Specialists (i.e. Pulmonologist in Cardiology

office) DME, Pharmacies, and other Suppliers

Closest to their home does not always help you with EMR updates, medication management, etc.

Ancillary Service Providers

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Inform patients about their physician’s specialty and office staff: Physician Profiles Staff Profiles Office Hours, Emergency Contact Info Insurances Accepted Office Sub-specialties Community Involvement of Staff Open Houses and Other Patient Engagement

Events

Individual Office and Staff Specialties

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Explain your health system’s initiatives and their patient benefits:

Patient Safety Fall Prevention Disease Mgmt- Diabetes, Smoking Cessation, COPD Home Based Services Reduction of Readmissions- at home monitoring Medication Adherence and Compliance

And tell the patient why your health system cares- to help them manage their health better and with better results.

Key Initiatives on Preventative Health

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Augment your information with our content library from respected sources like the AHRQ, AMA, ADA, CDC, and more:

Diet, Exercise, Nutrition Smoking Cessation, COPD Diabetes Management and Prevention Cold, Cough, Flu Prevention Cancer Screenings Alzheimer's, Dementia, Parkinson’s Monthly Topical Subjects that Follow National

Campaigns- Breast Cancer/Prostate Cancer Awareness

General Health and Wellness Information

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The basic mechanisms of the program are:

Each waiting area in your clinics, private offices, and specialty office will receive an education system that is focused on your services and specialties. Halo Health will manage the equipment, installation, and content. We only need access to the internet.

Each system will cost about $125 per month to cover expenses and to eliminate advertisers. This keeps the network tailored to your needs.

Each office has control over the subject matter minus the “core” content about you.

Digital Patient Education Program

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Develop a Patient-First Mentality

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Patient First Mentality means creating a culture that cultivates caring, connecting and compassion Caring about the patient outcomes,

patient experience, and your health systems

Connecting patients to the providers they need, when they need them

Compassionate to the patient and their plight to good health

Patient First Mentality

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Employees are incented on quality of care not just quantity Employees are rewarded both

monetarily and publicly for their over and above acts

Employee and patient nominations should be encouraged

Tie all incentive plans to parts of the Quality Measures that they can control

Patient First Mentality

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Disease Prevention is rewarded as well as Treatment Invest in Preventative Health

Measures Promote Community Events that

impact patient health Incentivize for early detection

and intervention on preventable diseases

Patient First Mentality

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Five Key Ways to Start Making Your Waiting Room Work for You: Declaw the Dragon Lady Declutter the Paper Storm Décor Denounce Standard Care Demystify Your Goals

Summary

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Execute this strategy through: Customer Service Training Consistent Onboarding Forms Consistent Messaging in

Waiting and Exam Rooms Patient First Mentality

Summary

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Halo Health are Consistent Messaging Experts using Digital Patient Navigation/Education systems: Community/ Patient Care Programs Ancillary Service Providers Individual Office and Staff Specialties Key Initiatives on Preventative Health General Health and Wellness

Information

Summary

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Halo Health International is a provider of customized Digital Patient Education systems to

Healthcare Offices nationwide.

To learn more, contact Jim Cucinotta at [email protected] or

856-520-8655.