Cross-training done without additional cost
Cross-training done without additional cost
Employees train each other, share the tasks
Cross-training the nine business office employees at Medical and Surgical Associates of South Boston, VA, did not necessitate any additional staff or additional expenses, reports Bill Willis, practice administrator. The training was done in-house with personnel already on staff.
Here’s how the cross-training program works:
Willis chooses the employee to be cross-trained for a particular job based on the employee’s abilities and interests. "It’s kind of a trial-and-error process. I observe employees and what they seem to be best in doing and utilize their talents in similar areas," he says.
For instance, someone who works well with people would be trained for the receptionist job. "Or if they are particularly good with numbers and catch on very quickly to CPT terminology, we’ll cross-train them to post hospital or outpatient charges. Different people seem to have a better aptitude for doing certain things, but all our employees are trained to do multiple tasks."
The person who is already doing the job teaches the other employees to do the job.
After the cross-trainee is proficient, the two employees share the responsibility for the job, usually working it out so one does the job one week and they swap the next.
"Everybody will probably agree that the single largest cost is personnel. I try to walk that fine line of keeping personnel costs as low as possible by having the fewest number of people we can function with," Willis says.
The practice has a good track record of retaining employees, particularly in the business office. Many of the business office employees have been with Medical and Surgical Associates 35 years or more.
The practice’s current employees have been enthusiastic about the cross-training process, but it hasn’t been popular with everyone. One new employee quit after just one day, telling Willis that at her last job in a physician’s office, she had to do only one thing.
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