Amid the topsy-turvy work environment caused by COVID-19, we’ve seen how medical offices can better provide work-from-home options to employees. Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned about offering work from home opportunities to your medical office staff.
Benefits
While working remotely isn’t ideal for every role in a physician’s office, there are some clear benefits to providing remote or hybrid working opportunities.
- Larger Job Applicant Pool
- Especially for rural providers, hiring remote office staff means you’re not limited to finding employees in your immediate area. Finding remote coding specialists or billing staff can allow your practice to find the right professional, regardless of their location.
- Providing remote working options for staff can also help with employee satisfaction and retention, and a selling point for new job candidates.
- Flexibility for Disruptions
- When your infrastructure is equipped to permit employees to work from home, that means you’re better prepared for any sort of disruption. Whether a snow storm hits, or the power goes out at the office – your team can continue to do their jobs from home.
- Your employees can also benefit from this flexibility, with the option to perform some work from home on days they have an appointment or other commitment. This allows them to use PTO more strategically.
- Giving employees who feel ill the option to work from home, rather than missing work, can help minimize virus spread in your practice by preventing employees from coming into the office while sick.
Challenges
Remote working might not be the right fit for every role, and spending time analyzing what tasks or jobs can realistically be completed from home is a good place to start. Providing this benefit presents some challenges, including:
- Logistics
- Ensure your essential services are cloud-based, and that employees have reliable internet. You might consider subsidizing faster internet access for employees.
- Find a reputable collaboration tool, like Microsoft Teams and webinar platforms so your team can communicate as needed.
- Have supplies ready to go to give your team the ability to be agile when the need to work remotely arises. Designate laptops that are ready for remote work and make extra monitors available for those who require them.
- Your employees must maintain HIPAA compliance when working from home. Most of your cloud-based products will have their own encryption and security to provide for this. You’ll also want to review hardware and password protocols for employees taking home company laptops or other devices to ensure compliance.
- Cohesion
- Keeping your team connected while they work remotely or in a hybrid model can be challenging. Remote workers may experience more challenges with technical issues or feel out of the loop with office leadership compared to those working in office.
- Anticipating these obstacles and making a concerted effort to engage remote employees within the in-office work force will help with team collaboration.
There’s no one-size-fits all solution for remote and hybrid working models in physician’s offices. But working through the challenges to reap the benefits can make your office more flexible and agile for whatever comes your way.
Need help streamlining your office or finding remote coding support? Contact MED3000 today!
