No one staff member should ever be indispensable to a practice. All staff members should be equally trained in their position and then some.
Every staff member should learn certain job tasks and procedures besides their own daily job tasks. Remember, this is why we developed protocols. There is a certain danger in having some tasks only learned and performed by one staff member. What if they get sick or take a new job?
Have you ever called a medical office for a referral and been told that the referral coordinator is out on vacation? What? The daily functions of the office should not stop because one person is gone.
Having an office staff of cross-trained individuals will give your practice the infrastructure is needs to be able to withstand absent or loss of employees. This also includes certain tasks of management positions.
Although cross-training may result in some short-term loss in productivity as employees learn each others job tasks it is a small price to pay for the value and benefits it brings in producing a high functioning and efficient staff.
How do you decide what tasks should be cross-trained? Make a list of the daily tasks of each staff member’s position. Then ask if that person were gone for a day or two what tasks would other staff members need to know how to do to keep the office functioning as it normally would.
For example: The office has two full-time back office medical assistants that assist the doctor. They perform patient intakes, vitals, charting, set up for procedures and dispense DME and products. One day they are both sick, will the office still be able to function normally? Will it appear to the patients that the office is in chaos?
The office should be able to function normally, although it may be a challenge and some things may not get done, but overall there should be no noticeable chaos to your patients.
Cross training not only adds to the functionality of the practice when it is short-staff, it adds to the value of each staff member as they become trained to step in and take over in other areas besides their normal job tasks.
It is a proven fact that staff members who are cross-trained and can step in and help one another become more cohesive team players. They adhere to the motto of the Three Musketeers “all for one and one for all.” And that is a good thing
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