Ideally a practice should get up to the point of having two front desk personnel asap! There are major advantages to this – and on the flipside, grave limitations to income earning potential of only having one front desk person. The reason is that one month, the front desk person focuses on scheduling and does well at that but collections falls behind. The next month they focus on collecting and the schedule falls apart! Or if they manage to keep both going, it won’t be to the extent it could be – due to dividing themselves between these two roles. So once a practice to about $30K a month in production, time to hire a second front desk person and that hire will take you all the way to $70 – 80K – maybe more. It just depends on how much of an insurance based practice you are.

One will become known as the Appointment/Scheduling Coordinator, and the other as the Financial Coordinator. As practice management consultants, we are often asked what should their respective duties be. So I will list the main duties for each below. There are always others that can be added depending on each practice e.g. one of these 2 coordinators might also be your Office Manager, and as such would have added duties based on that role.

Also, one of these could be talented in a particular area, such as marketing and so you could add that to her plate.  

Appointment/Scheduling Coordinator:

Her product/goal is:

An Efficient productive schedule for the doctor and staff.

Meeting and greeting patients

letting the back office know the patient has arrived

Pulling Charts

Filing charts

Setting up new patient charts

Making appointments via phone and in person

Confirming all appointments

Keeping reception and waiting room tidy

Hostess

Handling the phone and relaying calls

Recalling patients

Financial Coordinator:

Her products are:

1. all services paid for – whether it comes from Insurance, cash or cc.
2. Zero A/R over 60 days.

Gets treatment plan in writing on all patients after exam

Checks eligibility

Goes over finances and does financial arrangements in writing on all patients

Sends for authorization when needed

Sends for payment to insurance

Execution of billing on all private balances

Keeps finance policy enforced

Enters all mail payments

Enters over the counter payments

Balances daysheet

Prepares deposit

 To find out more about increasing your Production and the Role of the Office Manager  - click here