Don't ignore your waiting rooms. It is the most important part of your practice or health system. It is where your patient's first impressions are made and where they spend the most time. By following our easy tips, you will make your waiting areas more productive for the patient and more profitable for you.

1. Start Making Your Waiting Areas
Work for You
Or Start Engaging Your Patients from the Jump
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2.  Start the coordination of care between patients and providers
as soon as they enter the waiting areas for their appointments
 Improvement strategies range from a friendly receptionist to
cleaner lighting to increasing patient engagement
 The goal is to make the patient experience more friendly and
personal while helping patients stay within your provider
network.
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Executive Summary

3.  Background
 Declaw the Dragon Lady
 Declutter the Paper Storm
 Décor (Nothing Clever Here)
 Denounce Standard Care
 Demystify Your Goals
 Action Plan
 Summary and Questions
Agenda
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4.  Studies show that the staff friendliness
influences a visit more than any other
factor.
 A patient’s first point of contact is your
receptionist and the other front office
staff. This tends to be an intimidating area
for the patient.
Declaw the Dragon Lady
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5.  Encourage the receptionist and the
rest of the front office staff to be:
 Friendly
 Empathetic
 Patient
 Helpful
 Without happy patients, the
practice cannot exist
Declaw the Dragon Lady
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6.  Once the patient is at the
reception area, they are
overwhelmed with notes, rules,
and paperwork taped to or
placed on the desk area.
 Encourage each office to create a
welcome packet that can be sent
electronically or is handed to the
patient when they check in.
Declutter the Paper Storm
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7.  If that is not possible, create an
announcement booklet that each
patient receives upon check in.
 Uncluttered areas look more
inviting, professional and calming.
 Make sure your first impressions
are favorable.
Declutter the Paper Storm
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8.  The waiting area needs to be
clean, well lit, clear, and inviting.
 The waiting area needs to be as
clean as the examination rooms.
Dirty or well worn tables and
chairs reflect poorly.
Décor
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9.  The lighting needs to be bright, but not
retailer bright. Patients should be able
to read your paperwork easily.
 Chairs and tables need to be placed with
walkers and wheelchairs in mind. It
should be easy for any patient to reach
any section of the seating area.
 The color scheme should be warm and
inviting. Replace outdated decorations,
photos, and color schemes.
Décor
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10. 10

11.  Show the patients that the old
way of patient care is dead.
 Change the energy of your
offices.
 Explain in layman terms what
your health system does and
why the patient should care.
Denounce Standard Care
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12.  Treat the patients in a humanized
and personal way.
 Create a culture of on time, on
point service.
 Eliminate the old stigma of health
care.
Denounce Standard Care
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13.  Explain very clearly and concisely
to patients:
 What the path and goal of their
treatment plan is
 How in network providers
contribute to this process
 How ancillary providers like
DME/Pharmacy contribute
 How their office staff can guide
through this process
Demystify Your Goals
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14. How to Execute This?
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15.  Create a continuity of care through
all your network providers
 Customer Service Training
 Onboarding Forms that can be reused
by the patient throughout network
 Consistent Messaging in Waiting and
Exam Rooms
 Patient First Mentality
How to Execute This?
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16.  Require all personnel who deal with
patients to undergo basic customer
service training:
 Rule #1- Employees who are treated
well in turn treat your patients well
 Rule #2- Employees who treat
patients well in turn get treated well
by most patients
 Several consultants that we can
recommend
Customer Service Training
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17.  Create a series of forms that apply
for every office and make a copy for
the patient to use at other offices.
 Saves time, reduces stress of seeing
a new doctors, and empowers the
patient.
 Becomes a “selling point” when
recommending referrals
Consistent Onboarding Forms
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18.  Patient Navigation should start
during the patient’s down time in the
waiting and exam rooms.
 Explore a customized, digital patient
education network that connects
your providers to your patients at
their time of need.
 This is our expertise
Consistent Messaging in Waiting and
Exam Rooms
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19.  Halo Health’s digital patient navigation/education network
provides customized information about your health system:
 Community and Individual Patient Care Programs
 Ancillary Service Providers
 Individual Office and Staff Specialties
 Key Initiatives on Preventative Health
 General Health and Wellness Information
 Speak directly to your patients and caregivers to give them
options for their care that keep them in your health system.
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Digital Patient Education Overview

20.  Educate patients about your health system’s
events and happenings:
 Grand Openings
 Clinics and Classes
 Portal Information
 Patient Navigator Contact Information
 Case Manager Contact Information
 Community Outreach Events
 Cause Events and other Corporate Sponsorships
Community and Individual Care
Programs
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21.  Introduce patients to the specialists they may see as part of
their treatment plan of action:
 Radiology
 Therapists
 Nutritionists
 Labs
 Health/Fitness Centers
 Tandem Specialists (i.e. Pulmonologist in Cardiology office)
 DME, Pharmacies, and other Suppliers
 Closest to their home does not always help you with EMR
updates, medication management, etc.
Ancillary Service Providers
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22.  Inform patients about their physician’s specialty and
office staff:
 Physician Profiles
 Staff Profiles
 Office Hours, Emergency Contact Info
 Insurances Accepted
 Office Sub-specialties
 Community Involvement of Staff
 Open Houses and Other Patient Engagement Events
Individual Office and Staff Specialties
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23.  Explain your health system’s initiatives and their
patient benefits:
 Patient Safety
 Fall Prevention
 Disease Mgmt- Diabetes, Smoking Cessation, COPD
 Home Based Services
 Reduction of Readmissions- at home monitoring
 Medication Adherence and Compliance
 And tell the patient why your health system cares- to
help them manage their health better and with
better results.
Key Initiatives on Preventative Health
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24.  Augment your information with our content library
from respected sources like the AHRQ, AMA, ADA,
CDC, and more:
 Diet, Exercise, Nutrition
 Smoking Cessation, COPD
 Diabetes Management and Prevention
 Cold, Cough, Flu Prevention
 Cancer Screenings
 Alzheimer's, Dementia, Parkinson’s
 Monthly Topical Subjects that Follow National
Campaigns- Breast Cancer/Prostate Cancer Awareness
General Health and Wellness
Information
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25.  The basic mechanisms of the program are:
 Each waiting area in your clinics, private offices, and
specialty office will receive an education system that
is focused on your services and specialties. Halo
Health will manage the equipment, installation, and
content. We only need access to the internet.
 Each system will cost about $125 per month to cover
expenses and to eliminate advertisers. This keeps
the network tailored to your needs.
 Each office has control over the subject matter
minus the “core” content about you.
Digital Patient Education Program
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26. Develop a Patient-First
Mentality
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27.  Patient First Mentality means
creating a culture that cultivates
caring, connecting and compassion
 Caring about the patient outcomes,
patient experience, and your health
systems
 Connecting patients to the providers
they need, when they need them
 Compassionate to the patient and
their plight to good health
Patient First Mentality
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28.  Employees are incented on quality of
care not just quantity
 Employees are rewarded both
monetarily and publicly for their over
and above acts
 Employee and patient nominations
should be encouraged
 Tie all incentive plans to parts of the
Quality Measures that they can control
Patient First Mentality
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29.  Disease Prevention is rewarded as well
as Treatment
 Invest in Preventative Health Measures
 Promote Community Events that impact
patient health
 Incentivize for early detection and
intervention on preventable diseases
Patient First Mentality
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30.  Five Key Ways to Start Making Your
Waiting Room Work for You:
 Declaw the Dragon Lady
 Declutter the Paper Storm
 Décor
 Denounce Standard Care
 Demystify Your Goals
Summary
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31.  Execute this strategy through:
 Customer Service Training
 Consistent Onboarding Forms
 Consistent Messaging in Waiting and
Exam Rooms
 Patient First Mentality
Summary
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32.  Halo Health are Consistent Messaging
Experts using Digital Patient
Navigation/Education systems:
 Community/ Patient Care Programs
 Ancillary Service Providers
 Individual Office and Staff Specialties
 Key Initiatives on Preventative Health
 General Health and Wellness Information
Summary
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33. Halo Health International is a provider of
customized Digital Patient Education
systems to Healthcare Offices nationwide.
To learn more, contact Jim Cucinotta at
jim@haloheals.com or 856-520-8655.
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