Co-op Placement Students

We always encourage clinics to grow and develop new talent by enrolling in co-op student and placement programs. While not a significant amount of savings can be realized, as you must pay an hourly wage to the co-op student, the hourly wage can be set a few dollars less than a fully graduated and experienced employee. Clinics also gain the satisfaction of doing their part in expanding and supporting the workforce in those program areas. If you teach, train and treat the students well, you may just have your next loyal employee that has successfully graduated from their program and has already trained on the job. At the same time, you gain the opportunity to bring in fresh ideas and new energy into the clinic. Seems like a win, win situation.

Check with your Community University or College or employment help centre in the area on how to enrol. In addition, they usually have connections to assist clinics with any available hiring grants or financial subsidies.

Big Box Store Business Services

Take advantage of big box membership stores for discounts on various items such as printing services, cheque printing and water delivery. Also with executive membership level you could earn up to $750 cash back to apply to future purchases. Perhaps purchase annual memberships for your employees as part of your employee benefit package.

Analyze Payroll & Dictation Services

Payroll processing and dictation services can be very expensive for clinics. It may be more cost-effective to outsource these services rather than tying up staff time in-house. Do the math to be sure. The great thing about Payroll companies is that they are always abreast of changes to provincial employment standards and various deductions so you don’t have to.

Analyze Workflow

Does your clinic just keep hiring new employees instead of looking at how to streamline workflow? Look for time sappers in an effort to decrease medical office inefficiencies that are quietly impacting your bottom line. Look at workflow, or let Systemic Healthcare Solutions conduct an operations review to review the workflow for you.

If you would rather commit your time to this project, choose an area you want to analyze, such as how the clinic processes a type of service. As a team, analyze the steps it takes to complete the cycle from start to finish. How many people does that patient chart (whether electronic or paper-based) pass through? Why are they doing what they are doing? Is it necessary anymore? Is there a piece of technology you aren’t making use of? How long does the process take? Can you reduce that period of time it takes to complete by changing the direction of the process?

Odds are you will be surprised at what you find. Some employees may be doing tasks only because that’s what they were told to do 8 years ago. Some tasks may be redundant and should be eliminated…saving time and money.