As a side effect of Covid-19, there is a tumult in the labor market for qualified staff. Economists have not fully understood which of the macro events - stimulus, labor participation rate, minimum wage hikes, etc., are causing the shortage. It is better for practices to prepare for its impact - now or possibly in the near future.

Fortunately, technologies that came to the forefront during the pandemic are there to help. You may have to reconfigure your practice operations to utilize them and optimize labor costs.

Telemedicine, remote check-in, patient portals, remote helpdesks are examples of technologies that are here to stay in the long run.

With telemedicine, you might have to decide which type of visits are better served with telemedicine and make the switch. Ongoing coverage decisions by insurance carriers may decide the future of telemedicine visits in your practice.

Patients are now comfortable with text messaging and have been introduced to contactless and remote check-in. These practices along with on-site kiosks can help reduce the load on the front desk - freeing them to do more critical tasks.

The use of patient portals has increased. Patients are now comfortable with self-help options available in the portal - like prescription refill requests, appointment confirmations, etc. This has greatly reduced phone call-ins that tie down your staff time.

More practices are considering remote support for referrals, appointment coordination, refill requests, pre-authorization requests, etc. With secure EMR access available to remote staff, more operations can be done remotely.

Glenwood has been at the forefront of innovation and has all these available to practices that wish to adopt such technologies.