By Ally Stoeger, OD
With patients waiting in your reception area and more patients waiting on the phone, there is yet another group of patients to address—those reaching out to you in cyberspace. E-mail is an easy, convenient way for patients to contact you, but with the fast pace of any successful optometry practice, those e-mails tend to get backed up and even neglected altogether.
Knowing how easy it is for patient e-mails to be overlooked, I devised a strategy that enforces accountability in keeping up with patient e-mail. I call this system “checking it on the :15.” The way it works is each day a specific staff member is assigned the duty of checking e-mail from patients every quarter-past-the hour. For instance, the staffer assigned as the practice e-mail checker of the day would check the practice e-mail account at 9:15 am, 10:15 am, etc. Making one person responsible for checking the e-mail at a quarter past every hour of the work day is more effective than just asking “someone” to check it. As with nearly any duty in your office, if a specific person is not asked to do it, the task most likely will not get done. It also is important to assign the task of checking e-mail day-by-day because if you make it always the responsibility of one staff member, there will be days the e-mail will fall through the cracks. What happens, after all, when that one person is out sick or on vacation?
In addition to adhering to the schedule of checking the e-mail exactly at a quarter past each hour of the work day, the e-mail checker of the day in my office also is responsible for answering the e-mail or routing it to the appropriate person– billing, doctor, optical, contact lens ordering, etc.
Most importantly, the e-mail checker must then follow-up after routing the e-mail to make sure the person it was routed to addresses the patient’s question or request. Twenty-four hours after routing the e-mail, the e-mail checker who routed the messages should follow-up with the people the messages were forwarded to and ask if the patient’s questions or needs were resolved.
E-mail is yet another way for patients to keep in touch with you and your staff, but this communication tool can become a liability if you leave your patients with the cyber version of the phone that is never picked up. Your patients have reached out to you; now be responsive and lend them a hand.
What is your practice’s system for ensuring patient e-mails don’t get neglected? How successful has your system proven?
Ally Stoeger, OD, was a founding and managing partner of a multi-doctor practice and has recently opened a new practice in Gainesville, Va. Contact: ally@realpracticetoday.com. You also can follow Dr. Stoeger on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/gheyedr.
