Ever heard of a patient care policy? If not, you might be wondering if your holistic practice needs one or how to write one for your practice and with so many different kinds of business writing for your practice, it can be easy to overlook one.
First, let’s define patient care–this term broadly includes the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of physical and mental well-being through healthcare services. Sounds like that aligns with the goals of your holistic practice? It certainly does.
In this article, we’ll dive into what exactly is a patient care policy, explain the importance of one for your holistic practice, and outline how to write one yourself. Keep reading to learn more!
A patient care policy can take shape in a number of different ways and might differ from one practice or specialty to the next; there is no one-size-fits-all, which means you have the flexibility to put a policy together that best suits your practice.
Essentially, a patient care policy is an umbrella term for the policies that relate to caring for your patients; this might include:
This piece of writing would pertain to how your practice’s administrative workflows handle the patient from a paperwork perspective and other aspects relating to your practice’s operations overall. Examples include no show patient policies, patient-payer policies, and more!
These might get more in-depth as they should cover how you deliver care to your patients, what to do in the event of different patient emergencies should they arise, methods for evaluation and treatment, etc.
How do you communicate with your patients? Via email, automated voicemail, social media, texting, or some other form? This is what you’d outline in this policy–how the patient can anticipate contact from you, how frequently, and more, plus their rights to opt out if they so choose.
Standards and laws, such as HIPAA, that deal with patient privacy are essential to include in this component of your practice’s patient care policy. Outline how you protect patient privacy and when your practice will be sharing patient information–such as in the event of working with insurance companies or other trusted providers.
The short answer? Yes.
The long answer? Yes, and here’s why: your patient care policy, like any kind of healthcare or holistic practice policy, is vital to ensuring consistency. Having protocols and expectations in place helps minimize any kind of miscommunications or errors across your practice.
Furthermore, writing and implementing a patient care policy at your practice strengthens compliance with important standards and laws, such as HIPAA, and can be leveraged as a foundational piece of writing when onboarding new staff members.
Since there are so many different layers to the robust patient care policy, it’s nice to have a comprehensive body of writing that addresses so many different elements of your holistic practice and the patients you treat.
With so many different facets to one patient care policy, it might seem intimidating to start putting one together for your holistic practice.
Start here with these foundational tips:
The good news is that you’re not the first holistic practice to write a patient care policy–you’re not starting from scratch! Hence there’s no need to stress about spending weeks writing this policy.
Following up with the above point, do some research to see how other practices–whether holistic or traditional medical–have approached their patient care policies. This will help you get an idea of the industry’s best practices and chart a course to writing your own.
While it’s good to gain an idea of how other practices write their patient care policy, don’t be too generic or general in your own writing. Leaving out the details or particularities of how your practice cares for patients doesn’t help guide new staff members or codify processes that are important to your practice.
What makes your practice stand out? Do you strive to serve the veterans in your community? Do you offer pediatric acupuncture? Multiple specialties under one roof? Factors like this will help you tailor your patient care policy to your practice and ensure that you consider the multitudes of your practice.
Writing important documents and policies for your holistic practice isn’t exactly a piece of cake, but when you feel buried by a mountain of medical coding and billing paperwork then the pressure really settles in. Rejected claims, trying to read up on new regulations, and the overall hassle of dealing with insurance companies or Medicare programs can take a toll on your stress levels and make any additional paperwork feel burdensome.
That’s where Holistic Billing Services is the ace up your sleeve–let our friendly experts handle the medical billing burden so you can focus on what matters most: delivering quality care to your patients.
We’ve got decades of experience and specialty-specific experts to help immediately boost your healthcare revenue cycle and put more time back in your day. Your success is our success, and we’re eager to alleviate your workload.
At Holbie, we offer complete and innovative Holistic Billing Services for acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic providers.
At Holbie, we offer complete and innovative Holistic Billing Services for acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic providers.
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