Check-In and Front-Desk Work Made EZ

Registration reps at two medical offices in the Northwest were struggling to get their work done.

Their job aids were inadequate. And these can prove critical in busy clinics, by providing help with tasks like adding a walk-in patient to the schedule, incorporating additional insurance information or processing payments.

But disorganization, improper documentation and an unclear process meant staff members frequently had to stop and interrupt a co-worker (slowing his or her work down) to find out how to do such tasks—all while the member waited.  

So staff members started a “plan, do, study, act” improvement process.

As a first step, they held a meeting and registration representatives brought all their job aids from their desks, often just stacks of paper in no particular order. In the meeting, they tried to find specific documents and were timed.

The average time it took to locate a document was 26 seconds, and worse, the reference document often couldn’t be found.

The team decided to organize their job aid books in a consistent manner. No matter where a registration representative was sitting, every book was the same. Staff also created instruction sheets on some processes that complemented the job aids. 

Included in the new policy and procedure binders were colored job aids with cover sheets in alphabetical order, and also a step-by-step instruction sheet.

“We’ve heard nothing but good feedback from doing this improvement,” supervisor Colleen Moore says. “Staff have more confidence because they are figuring out the answers to their questions instead of asking.”

After implementing the changes, the team tested the process again and located the correct reference document each time in an average time of three seconds.