All practices have a workflow: what’s yours?

 

The system that we develop to do tasks that we do over and over is called a workflow. Workflows keep us from forgetting to do certain small things or save us time when we have to go back to something because we know where we left off. Sorting your mail is a good, common example:

 

Incoming Mail Workflow

1. Retrieve mail from outside box.
2. Look at mail once.
3. Take out interesting mail (personal letters, money).
4. Toss uninteresting mail, like bills or junk mail, in designated spot.

 

This is usually where I stop in my daily workflow for mail. If I am industrious I can continue but otherwise the next steps happen on a weekly or monthly basis:

 

5. Sort junk and bills.
6. Toss junk and pay bills.
7. File or shred bills.

 

So now you may be realizing that even if you didn’t know you have workflows, you actually do! Once you identify your workflow for a job, you can start to consider ways to make it more efficient. In fact, I just realized while writing down my mail workflow that if I do step 5 (sorting the junk) every day and just store my bills, my bill pile would be much smaller and less intimidating each month!

 

So what is your maternity care workflow?

 

One of the biggest obstacles for growing practices is how to explain “how we do things.” A well-articulated workflow is the best way to start.

 

In the next couple of articles, I am going to elaborate on each of these steps in the workflow and show you how and where you can integrate your workflow into a web-based system like Maternity Neighborhood. Once your practice establishes and documents a well thought-out workflow for each kind of service you provide during the maternity episode, it will become easier to train new members of the practice, add new workflows and create a better experience for your clients and their families.

 

Let’s start with the beginning of the episode of care. Is this what your practice looks like?

 

Sample Workflow for Onset of Prenatal Care

 

1. Initial call or email from potential client.
2. Obtain contact info, answer immediate questions and schedule a consult appt.
3. Consult appointment occurs.
4. Provider makes some notes during visit.
5. Client hires provider.
6. Provider sends or gives initial paperwork to client to bring to Initial Visit.
7. Provider sets up a new chart and inputs contact information to practice address book.
8. Initial visit occurs:
   1. Answer questions.
   2. Complete prenatal exam.
   3. Make notes as the visit progresses.
   4. Order labs or other screening as appropriate.
   5. Collect a payment.
9. Make a next appointment.
10. Add additional paperwork to the chart, including signed consent documents, billing information, etc.
11. Midwife includes results of tests and screens in the chart as they come in.
12. Repeat steps 8-11 as needed.

 

Does this seem about right for your practice? If not, you might have a very large or very small practice that would require more or fewer steps. Maybe there are multiple people with different roles in your practice? If so, I encourage you to take a few minutes and draft your practice’s Prenatal Workflow.

 

OK. Now that we all recognize our workflow, let’s add the magic of Maternity Neighborhood to your workflow. What most of our customers notice when they get started is that some of their workflow will change, mostly for the better! They find that some steps get eliminated because MN does it for them and others shift in order. Our hope is that you find most of these changes help you get ready to grow your practice, or have more time in your visits for providing the most important service to your clients: relationship.

 

 

Maternity Neighborhood Workflow for Onset of Prenatal Care

 

1. Initial call or email from potential client.
2. Obtain contact info, answer immediate questions and schedule a initial appointment.
3. Add potential client to MN platform. MN automatically sends client an initial intake form; provides the Care Guide library of content that you have curated, which gives the potential client an idea of the kind of high-quality engagement they will receive from your practice; and sends the client an email reminder of their appointment time.
4. Once the client fills out the intake form, a provider can review the intake and assess the client’s suitability for place of birth and other care factors. A client who is not a good candidate for home/birth center care can be referred prior to the consult, thereby not wasting her time or yours.
5. Consult appointment occurs. Provider makes some notes during visit about clients questions/preferences.
6. Client hires provider.
7. Provider sends or gives initial paperwork to client to bring to Initial Visit. With MN, the initial paperwork has already been sent automatically to the client prior to the visit. She may have already read or filled it out, or the provider can show her how to find it on the platform during the visit. If the client doesn’t want to use MN, print everything out as usual.
8. Provider sets up a new chart and inputs contact information to practice address book. Already done in MN!

 

Initial visit occurs:

 

1. Answer questions. This goes faster now that your client had already had a couple of weeks to review her documents and start of care education packets on MN!
2. Prenatal exam.
3. Make notes as the visit progresses.
4. Order labs or other screening, as appropriate.
5. Assign specific articles and content relevant to her gestational age or condition or set up the auto-send library for her pregnancy.
6. Collect a payment. Track all payments, codes and billing workflows in the MN Billing tool.
7. Make a next appointment in the NEW MN Scheduling tool. You can make all of her appointments at once or just one at a time, but it is a seamless workflow from the encounter to the calendar!

 

9. Add additional paperwork to the chart, including signed consent documents, billing information, etc.
10. Midwife includes results of tests and screens in the chart as they come in. Coming Soon: Quest Labs will be automatically added/entered into MN!

 

Repeat steps 8-10 as needed.

 

Little changes can make a big difference in your practice. We have enjoyed hearing from midwives and obstetricians who find their clinic days much more enjoyable when they have engaging conversations with their clients who have ALREADY read relevant information about decisions in their before the visit. We have also heard that sometimes it’s hard to make even small changes in your workflow. Most of the time, it’s because our customers are new to thinking about workflow at all, which makes it harder to make small changes that everyone understands.

 

We’re here to help and look forward to hearing from you about how you use our tools and ways we can help make your workflow more efficient while enhancing the experience of you and your clients.

 

Brynne Potter
Midwife, CEO and Founder of Maternity Neighborhood