Time Management Tips for Mobile Practitioners
July 22, 2020
No matter how organized we are, it seems time is always in short supply. Whether you operate a mobile veterinary practice or manage a large clinical and office staff, following a manageable, yet profitable appointment schedule and maintaining a work-life balance remains challenging. To avoid over-scheduling and burnout, here are some time management tips and reminders that may be useful in your daily life.
1. Categorize and prioritize your to-do list at the beginning of the week. Give yourself time each day to focus on a task or priority project. Time management experts suggest organizing tasks into categories, such as by what must be completed, items in progress and future projects.
2. When are you most productive? Whether you hit your stride after your morning cup of coffee or later in the day, find your peak productivity time and set those hours aside for your most intensive work.
3. It can be helpful to break practice management tasks into specific days to establish a consistent weekly routine. For example, open and answer mail on Monday, order supplies on Tuesday, reconcile billing on Wednesday, focus on marketing on Thursday and invoice clients on Friday.
4. Delegate tasks when you can. If you are a staff of one, consider reaching out for part-time marketing, billing or office management support, allowing you to focus on your practice and letting someone else handle the daily details. Make use of veterinary practice software solutions that can maximize efficiencies through mobile apps, billing, automated ordering and inventory management, and complete treatment plans.
5. Automate appointment scheduling, appointment reminders, prescription refills and forms through your website. Set up email workflows or text messaging to send out appointment and prescription refill reminders to your clients.
6. Schedule appointments by geographic region. Set aside a specific region for each day of the week to service multiple large animal clients or stables on one trip.
7. Pad extra time into each appointment. If your typical appointments run 30 minutes, allot 40 minutes per appointment to give yourself the time to prepare and re-center for the next appointment. This extra time will give you a buffer when an appointment runs late.
8. Help your clients be prepared. When a client schedules an appointment, send a list of what they should have (medications, etc.) ready in advance of the appointment.
Covetrus North America is dedicated to helping veterinarians and veterinary staff run successful practices. Visit us online or contact your Covetrus representative at 855.724.3461.
Sources:
https://vetlogic.co/time-management-strategies/
https://www.practicelife.com/en/latest/time-management-tips-for-veterinary-practice-managers/
https://softwareservices.covetrus.com/global/solution/impromed-equine-veterinary-software/
1. Categorize and prioritize your to-do list at the beginning of the week. Give yourself time each day to focus on a task or priority project. Time management experts suggest organizing tasks into categories, such as by what must be completed, items in progress and future projects.
2. When are you most productive? Whether you hit your stride after your morning cup of coffee or later in the day, find your peak productivity time and set those hours aside for your most intensive work.
3. It can be helpful to break practice management tasks into specific days to establish a consistent weekly routine. For example, open and answer mail on Monday, order supplies on Tuesday, reconcile billing on Wednesday, focus on marketing on Thursday and invoice clients on Friday.
4. Delegate tasks when you can. If you are a staff of one, consider reaching out for part-time marketing, billing or office management support, allowing you to focus on your practice and letting someone else handle the daily details. Make use of veterinary practice software solutions that can maximize efficiencies through mobile apps, billing, automated ordering and inventory management, and complete treatment plans.
5. Automate appointment scheduling, appointment reminders, prescription refills and forms through your website. Set up email workflows or text messaging to send out appointment and prescription refill reminders to your clients.
6. Schedule appointments by geographic region. Set aside a specific region for each day of the week to service multiple large animal clients or stables on one trip.
7. Pad extra time into each appointment. If your typical appointments run 30 minutes, allot 40 minutes per appointment to give yourself the time to prepare and re-center for the next appointment. This extra time will give you a buffer when an appointment runs late.
8. Help your clients be prepared. When a client schedules an appointment, send a list of what they should have (medications, etc.) ready in advance of the appointment.
Covetrus North America is dedicated to helping veterinarians and veterinary staff run successful practices. Visit us online or contact your Covetrus representative at 855.724.3461.
Sources:
https://vetlogic.co/time-management-strategies/
https://www.practicelife.com/en/latest/time-management-tips-for-veterinary-practice-managers/
https://softwareservices.covetrus.com/global/solution/impromed-equine-veterinary-software/
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