Proper preparation goes a long way to providing a smooth transition when bringing in a locum tenen. It requires a small amount of attention and pays large dividends for you, your provider and your locum tenens patients.
Protect Your Patients
Gear everything you do during the onboarding sequence toward protecting your patients. The last things you want to hear about are medical errors resulting from a lack of communication or preparation. A face-to-face meeting between the current physician and the locum tenens provider goes a long way in decreasing dangerous errors. In fact, it’s been shown that this process can result in a 30 percent decrease.
Do the Paperwork Ahead of Time
Don’t distract the incoming physician’s first few hours with paperwork. This should be a time for getting used to operations, meeting staff members, going through initial training, etc. If the paperwork is out of the way, everyone enjoys a smooth transition.
Overlap Physician Schedules
Though it’s not always possible, try to arrange schedules so that the locum tenens doctor has the ability to follow the current physician for at least one day. The best way to handle the inevitable questions that come up is to have both people talk face-to-face during that first day.
Conduct a Complete Orientation
Give the locum tenens physician a tour of the facilities, especially the parts of the building they’ll frequent most. Allow them to discover where supplies are kept, meet the staff members they’ll work with most and otherwise get acquainted. Do a review of coding practices, how vital equipment works, documentation procedures and your electronic health care records system.
Conduct a comprehensive introduction to your hospital. Whether you invest a full day or only a couple hours will depend on how long your incoming physician will work locum tenens at your facility.
One Main Point of Contact
Entering a new facility is stressful for even the most experienced locum tenen. Give this person one main point of contact they can go to whenever they need help. This creates a feeling of familiarity. It allows your incoming professional to feel confident that there is someone available specifically to help make his or her assignment a successful one.
Plan the Exit Interview
It’s vital that the locum tenens physician meets with your medical records team prior to leaving the building for the last time. You don’t want to get into a situation where orders are missing signatures or documentation remains incomplete.
Ref: [1] http://getbetterhealth.com/medical-errors-reduced-by-30-when-doctors-required-to-speak-to-one-another-at-shift-change/2014.11.06