10 Benefits of Remote Workers in Medical Practice
How do remote workers excel?
Some tasks can’t be outsourced, but in 2020, all medical practices should consider using remote workers to supplement on-site staff.
Many physicians are reluctant to hire remote workers.
This is understandable.
You can’t see them! You have to trust that they’re working - and you have to trust the company that manages them.
But once you make the leap, remote workers can help you to dramatically improve processes throughout your office. The benefits of remote workers go way beyond productivity. When you utilize remote workers effectively, your practice will improve in areas you never expected.
When remote workers are deployed & integrated properly, they greatly improve your ability to manage your practice successfully.
We could list dozens of ways that our remote worker solutions (such as Max Value Professionals and Smart Scribe™) have helped our clients. But, for the sake of brevity, these are probably the 10 most important benefits of remote workers for most medical practices.
A few of them might surprise you!
Better patient experience
At ProMedica Partners, we strongly believe that “customer service” is the single most important responsibility of every person in your office. Basically, when a patient walks into your office, every interaction with your staff should make them feel welcomed, comfortable, and cared-for.
How does this relate to remote workers?
If you expect your staff to focus on patients, they can’t be excessively busy. They need time. They have to be able to look up from their work. When you shift some tasks to reliable off-site workers, you reduce the stress and workload on your in-office staff, and free them to focus on the most important task of all: caring for patients.
2. Better office dynamics
When your staff is on top of everything, are they happier?
When they are running behind, are they stressed?
Of course they are.
So what can you do to make sure they stay on top of their work - especially when things get difficult? Hiring more people might not provide relief, in part because hiring new staff actually creates MORE work in the short and medium term (see #5 and #6).
The easiest and most efficient way to increase your capacity and reduce your staff’s workload is to utilize remote workers. By easing the burden on your in-house staff, you free them to succeed in their jobs, while also fulfilling the most important responsibility of everyone in your office: caring for patients (see #1 above).
3. Increased productivity
We’ve already established that every single person in your office needs to be able to give full attention to patients. They also need to be efficient and stay on top of their work.
For in-house staff, these two goals can create conflicts. What happens when someone is swamped with work - and still trying to smile and take care of patients?
Remote workers never have this conflict.
Remote workers never see your patients. They don’t have any direct “customer service” responsibility. Your remote workers will never be interrupted by the daily office routine, and they don’t have worry about anything but their work. They are free to focus 100% on the tasks of keeping your practice running smoothly, without the regular distractions that are inevitable in a medical office.
This ability to focus is a big reason why studies consistently find that remote workers outperform office workers.
4. Lower overhead costs
When you hire someone, you pay for much more than their salary. Overhead costs include office space, facilities, equipment, utilities, and maintenance, as well as the time necessary to oversee all these things.
For example, perhaps a small office has a mini fridge where employees keep their lunch. If you hire more staff, you might need a bigger fridge. So, when you hire more staff, you also end up spending time and resources buying a new refrigerator.
With remote workers, your overhead doesn’t increase. You can bring on remote workers with minimal demands on your existing infrastructure.
5. Ease of training
We hear this all the time: “I don’t want to manage another employee.”
You may dread the thought of hiring new staff, and rightly so. Hiring someone is a lot of work. Your productivity may actually decrease until the new employee gets up to speed.
Training remote workers is much simpler.
The primary responsibility for training remote workers falls on the company that manages the workers. You and your staff develop processes to transfer tasks to the remote workers, but once the transfer is made, you’re no longer responsible for every little detail.
6. Simplicity
We’ll reiterate: hiring employees is not easy.
Under federal and state law, employers assume tremendous responsibilities with regards to each employee. Each new hire requires a whole set of taxes, benefits, insurances, and so forth.
On the other hand, when you hire remote workers, you sign a contract. The company that manages your workers must fulfill the contract. If they need to hire and train new workers, they do. That’s not your concern.
Your work is done. You receive an invoice. You pay it.
It’s that simple.
7. Increased Adaptability
Let’s say you get busy. Your workload increases. Your staff is swamped.
If you’re managing things in-house, you’ll have to consider hiring more staff - and the increased overhead, training investment, and general complexity that comes along with new employees.
If you’re using remote workers, you can simply increase amount of support provided in your contract, as you need it. Your provider takes care of the rest.
8. Lower risk
What happens if an employee doesn’t work out?
Hiring isn’t easy. Firing someone, if it becomes necessary, is not easy either. Even if you do everything right, it’s still possible to face regulatory action, or even a lawsuit.
When you use remote workers, your provider takes on these risks, and frees you to focus on providing the best possible environment for your existing employees, who in turn support you in caring for your patients.
9. Reduce your own stress level
You have plenty to worry about.
Managing a medical practice is not easy in the best of circumstances. The added stress of thinking about overhead costs, hiring and firing, training new employees, managing spikes in workload, and more, can take its toll.
To top it all off, you have to do it all while still providing a calm, friendly, caring environment for patients and staff.
You have to make it look easy.
The easiest way to do it all is to get help. Get someone else to do it for you.
10. Overall profitability
Let’s get down to the bottom line.
In many cases, remote workers are more cost-effective than in-house staff. You get more work done for less money. If this was the only benefit of remote workers, you would probably consider using them.
But consider the benefits listed above AND consider that remote workers are generally less expensive than on-site staff.
For the sake of your patients, your staff, your own well-being, and your bottom line, it’s worth looking into remote workers.
Next Steps
To use remote workers, you need a provider you trust.
At ProMedica Partners, we have extensive experience in providing remote worker solutions to medical practices of all types. Our two most popular services are:
Max Value Professionals - A flexible solution to help with various office and administrative tasks
Smart Scribe™ - Our dedicated remote scribe service
We’ve helped dozens of physicians provide better care for their patients, reduce the burden on their staff, ease their own workload and stress levels, and increase their revenue and profitability.
Let’s talk. We’ll know in 25 minutes how we can help you.