You have assessed your assets, targeted your shortcomings, and initiated a project budget and timeline for compliance. Now we must determine how you will educate yourself and your employees on the new codes, regulations, and rules that affect your practice. Small project initiation will offset the grandeur of this task, and make it much more manageable than you may have ascertained.
Just as in any corporate structure, there are always new processes, new tools, new positions, and new compliance issues to deal with. Structural change occurs frequently, and preparation is the key component to handling these upgrades in stride.
In order to utilize the new software that may have been installed, or to decipher new codes that were developed, education will be a paramount player in this project. Developing smaller projects within the grand task is the answer. Small group discussion over the needs of your practice is a great starting point. Obviously the entire office cannot shut down in order to comply with training needs, so having different small group sessions works best. There are a variety of e-solutions that offer great knowledge and training sessions regarding all topics of healthcare regulations and compliance.
Supplemental staffing is another avenue that may need to be addressed during this transition period. During the project initiation itself, or training periods, additional staff may be needed for s specific tenure. These contract employers are specifically trained to handle this type of workload, and can be an effective hands-on training tool at your disposal. Many people learn better from these types of trainers. They can also supplement office personnel should other training methods have been selected.
Job roles may need to be re-evaluated. With new responsibilities and expectations, job descriptions may need to be updated, or even changed. Meetings with office management will determine whether or not the current workload can be merged with changing strategies in compliance.
The thing to remember here is to make small, methodical changes geared toward the overall goal. Rome was not built in a day.
