Employee orientation key to transition

Practice Management. By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Sept. 22/29, 2003.

You've found the right person for an open position in your office. You've made sure he or she has the experience to handle the duties and the personality to mesh well with other employees.

Now comes the important part.

The time and money you spent searching for and hiring a new employee can be lost without a good orientation program, consultants say. From having policy manuals and tip sheets ready for new employees to encouraging them to shadow staff members, there are things a physician can do to ease the transition -- and keep the practice running smoothly.

The biggest problem for doctors is carving out time to spend with the new employee. They often leave those duties for the office manager, or, in the case of a small practice, new employees may be expected to learn as they go. But with tightening privacy laws and declining reimbursements, a laissez faire attitude can be costly.

"A huge part of training now is privacy laws," said David McKnight, vice president of sales and consulting services for Total Practice Management LLC, a medical billing and consulting firm based in Youngstown, Ohio. "A new employee could, from day one, minute one, violate a patient's rights. That immediately puts your practice at risk."

A practice can prevent future mishaps by having information ready on a new employee's first day. Practices should have policy manuals and employee handbooks, and they also can create reference sheets, like a list of medical terms or answers to frequently asked questions. If the new employee needs to know which insurance plans are accepted or how the office handles after-hours prescription refill requests, the answer will be written out, consultants said.