We’re going to pull back the curtain on hospitals and clinics and share a little secret: the staff is the heartbeat of the office. No question that physicians and providers have immense expertise and care for their patients, but you’d be hard pressed to find a doctor who doesn’t praise their staff and administrative team when it comes to getting the job done. From fielding appointments, managing claims and billing, preparing patients for procedures, facilitating referrals, and keeping the office running on time, healthcare staff are the real MVPs. And so, we must assert the value of equipping these professionals with much better communication tools than they have today!

You Wait, They Wait, We All Wait on Medical Records

It’s incredible when you consider how much of a delay with inefficient medical records exchange can cause. More incredible, though, is that it’s basically become an accepted norm.

Whether you’re stuck in the waiting room until that report comes in, chomping at the bit for an appointment that is held up by a missing referral, or struggling to get the right care plan in light of gaps in your records, it is very frustrating to feel stuck when you frankly don’t feel good to top it off. And while many of us have experienced this as patients, we have to consider the healthcare staff in hospitals and medical offices who are often tasked with chasing down these records, sifting through pages of faxes, and enduring some ugly phone calls from angry patients and/or healthcare facilities.

Recent studies have shown that abuse toward nurses is on the rise, which is in and of itself unacceptable. But rarely do we also examine the front-line workers — literally at the front desk — who are dodging glares and fielding calls from folks who honestly share some of the very same frustrations experienced by the staff they’re berating.

Empowering Healthcare Staff Empowers Every Stakeholder

It’s probably strange to think of physicians or patients as stakeholders, but when it comes to outcomes, they absolutely are. Both are invested in how a patient fares, and both have roles that they own in the journey. Giving access to better communication tools to facilitate medical records exchange, timely secure messaging, and query capabilities to promptly and efficiently locate and procure documentation could absolutely revolutionize the patient and provider experience. Every stakeholder in the process levels up when administrative resources are given simple tools that allow for secure, appropriate flowing of information between providers.

Next-Level Healthcare Communication Will Transform the Staff Experience

Providing healthcare staff with a solution like Kno2fy will not only improve care quality and shore up the paperwork stalemate, but it can also alleviate some of the very burden and helplessness that results in tremendous turnover and burnout in this demographic. Front Desk Staff, Billing Specialists, Medical Records Teams, and Patient Coordinators deserve access to tools that honor the critical role they play in facilitating the whole care delivery experience.

Let’s face it: we’d be lost without healthcare staff doing what they do best to support patients and providers, so together let’s advocate for awareness of these unsung heros…and let’s make sure they have the tools they need to get the job done.