If you’ve decided to become a hospital support specialist, you’re probably someone who likes to take charge and get organized. You’re looking for a healthcare career that puts you in the center of the action, with plenty of challenges to take on, and important tasks to complete during the course of the workday.
You’ve chosen well! Hospital support specialists keep busy with a wide range of duties, including:
- appointment scheduling
- medical billing
- registering new patients
- updating patient files
- performing certain diagnostic tests
- creating discharge and other lists
Hospital support specialists learn a lot about effective multitasking during their in-class training and practicum experience. Here’s a look at some of their go-to strategies for becoming reliable and respected members of the health care team.
1. Hospital Support Specialists Keep a To-do List to Manage Tasks
This simple, but effective approach is a good place to start when juggling several tasks at once. Moving between duties can be distracting, and leave room for forgetfulness.
For example, you might be in the middle of billing when a new patient walks in and needs to be registered. As soon as you’ve finished up with the patient, you’re called upon to perform a diagnostic test. Next, you’re interacting with other members of the healthcare team, answering questions, and fielding phone calls.
Before long, you’ve forgotten all about the billing you needed to get done. But, if you’ve made a list of top tasks to complete by the end of the day, you can keep coming back to that list each time you’re distracted – preventing important duties from falling through the cracks.
2. Hospital Support Specialists Know Which Multitasking Style Suites Them Best
As you complete your hospital support specialist program, you’ll have the chance to determine which approach to multitasking works best for you.
Some experts say that it’s best to switch between similar tasks to avoid losing your focus. They point out that alternating between very different duties can be disruptive, which reduces productivity (it takes too long to “switch gears” between tasks, and you lose time making the adjustment).
On the other hand, others argue that moving between very different tasks actually “wakes up” your brain, keeps you alert, and guards against errors.
Through practice, hospital support specialists discover which multitasking style suit them best, and then refine those strategies over time to become master jugglers.
3. A Hospital Support Specialist Knows When to Stop Multitasking!
It’s true that managing overlapping duties is an important part of succeeding as a hospital support specialist; however, so is knowing when to stop and give particular tasks undivided attention.
Greeting a new patient, for example, and listening carefully to their needs, demands total focus. Performing a diagnostic test and recording the results also requires uninterrupted attention.
It should also be said that taking a moment or two to re-group between tasks (rather than rushing from one job to the next) is very helpful for maintaining focus, energy, and reducing risk of error.
Learn to master these multitasking skills, and so much more, when you enrol in hospital support specialist courses.
Visit Stenberg to learn about our program, meet our students, and speak with an advisor!
