The other job
Most of the week isn’t medicine.
In a two-doctor clinic one person at a desk is the wiring between the booking
system, the chart, the billing, the reminders, the fax tray and the forms. None of
that is on anybody’s feature list, and when that person is off sick, so is
half the practice. Here is a Tuesday.
NowWith Qlynic
07:52
The phone starts before anyone has taken their coat off. Someone wants Thursday, and the only way to get Thursday is to ask you for it.
They took Thursday at eleven the night before, from the website. It was already in the day when you unlocked the door.
08:40
A specialist letter lands in the fax tray. Somebody reads it, decides which parts matter, and types those parts into the chart.
It is read, matched to the right patient and filed, with the parts that matter already in the chart before anyone opens it.
09:15
A new patient’s details go into the booking system, then into the chart. The same details, twice, and two chances to get them wrong.
They filled the intake in on their phone before they came. It is typed nowhere, by nobody.
10:30
Tomorrow’s reminders. Called one at a time, between everything else, and the ones who do not pick up get called again after lunch.
They went out overnight. The two who cannot come have already rebooked themselves.
11:20
A no-show leaves twenty minutes. Nobody has twenty minutes to spend filling twenty minutes, so it stays empty.
The slot went back on the site the second it was cancelled, while everyone was still with a patient.
13:10
Three AHCIP claims came back rejected. They go on a note by the monitor until somebody has a whole afternoon to give them.
They come back with the reason attached, in one screen, beside the claims that went through.
18:05
The doors are locked and the front desk is still here. Tomorrow’s list needs printing and today’s messages need answering.
Tomorrow is already built. The messages were answered at the hour they were asked.
And two it does not touch
Triage
Whether the child on the phone is seen today.
A parent describes a fever and somebody has to decide whether that is this afternoon or Thursday. That is a clinical judgement and it stays with your staff. Qlynic will put the call in front of the right person faster. It will not make the call.
The phone
A patient who wants a person.
Some people will always ring, and some of them should. Nothing here is trying to take the phone off the desk. The point is that the phone stops being the only place the clinic runs.