How does your medical office flow?

[shelbelrn]

I work in a cardiology office. I have never worked in any other office, so I don't know if the chaos we have here is normal at other places. Can a patient walk in and tell the receptionist they want to talk to the nurse and the nurses talkes to them then without the receptionist asking what it is even about? How often are patient demographics verified with the patient? How do you deal with loud co-worker and co-worker having personal phone calls and visitors? How to deal with receptionist leaving front desk? How do you balance doing things for patients when they walk in/call versus them leaving messages and having to come back? How do you balance a work place being fun and being calm?

Thanks.

[prowlingMA]

I work in a Oncology office so things may be a little different.

-Walk ins- hate 'em, we have a triage nurse that can usually address most of the issues or triage them to schedule an appointment. You could appoint one person to deal with all walkins.

-Demographics are updated at every visit.

-Cell phone are a no no in patient care areas. I have gone to managers to talk to a coworker who is constantly on their cell. ( I personally don't get why people need to be on the phone all the time, you will see your family tinight hang up and do your job)

-we have 3 receptionists that rotate for breaks, so there is always someone at the desk. You could suggest having a sign that say" the receptionist is away, please have a seat and she will be right with you". If it is a constant thing I would talk to them or a manager.

-We try to get all walkins issues delt with while they are here, but sometimes there is no time and they are asked to schedule and come back.

I hope this helps,

[Grow_a_Soul]

I work in a cardiology office. I have never worked in any other office, so I don't know if the chaos we have here is normal at other places. Can a patient walk in and tell the receptionist they want to talk to the nurse and the nurses talkes to them then without the receptionist asking what it is even about? How often are patient demographics verified with the patient? How do you deal with loud co-worker and co-worker having personal phone calls and visitors? How to deal with receptionist leaving front desk? How do you balance doing things for patients when they walk in/call versus them leaving messages and having to come back? How do you balance a work place being fun and being calm?

Thanks.

Patients walk in and we discourage it and many times it is actually something the receptionist can take care of. We nurses get irritable if they come get us and dont know what the patient wants but sometimes they wont tell. Demos supposed to be verified every visit but it does not happen. Its evident when you call them with lab results the next day and the phone number is disconnected. I used to work with lots of loud hillbilly women who stayed on the phones all day. They got rewarded for their efforts with gifts and trips from their doctors. Mine let me go. So I would actually encourage you to stay on personal calls all day, facebook on your cell, and call out atleast once a week. I had a lot of fun most days at my office job though. Sometimes it was like "wow I get paid for this" Still got the job done and the patients were happy. That is what I strive for in my next job too.