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Telecommuting in the Healthcare Industry (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this series on telecommuting in the healthcare industry, I talked about privacy concerns for healthcare organizations should they allow their employees to work at home. In part 2, I’ll give some tips on how to be productive working from home.
Managing Your Work
- Decide how many days a week you can reasonably work from home. Perhaps start with one day a week then work up to more if your boss agrees.
- Have a schedule that provides routine to your daily work from home. Keep in mind that you may have to be available to answer questions from the office when you’re not there in person.
- Make sure you meet deadlines and goals or your telecommuting days will be numbered.
- Determine which tasks are best for the office (those that need others’ help) and which are best for telecommuting.
- Make sure you have all the tools (software programs, manuals, etc.) that you need.
Setting Up
- Choose a place to work that provides maximum privacy so that you can protect patient confidentiality (as mentioned earlier in Part 1).
- Consider your desk, chair, and lighting. Are they equipped for efficiency and comfort?
- Try to work in an environment without noisy distractions (although that’s not always possible in a house with children). Just make sure that it’s reasonably quiet when people from the office call.
Staying In Touch
- Make it a routine to check in with the office, especially with your supervisor, even when you’re telecommuting.
- It would be useful to have a cell phone, so that the office can contact you during business hours. Otherwise, an answering machine (with a professional outgoing message!) would work as well.
- Respond to phone calls, e-mails, and instant messages promptly.
- Keep on top of important meetings that you have to attend even if it’s on your telecommuting day.
In Part 3 of Telecommuting in the Healthcare Industry, I’ll talk about how to manage yourself along with family and friends when you’re working from home.
Inspired by the State of Utah Governor’s Office.
Contributor profile: http://wurk.net/profile/healthcare
Website: http://healthcare.wurk.net/
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October 31, 2005 @ 12:12 pm...
Interesting stuff - especially that point about confidentiality and privacy. That’s something that probably won’t affect 99% of telecommuters, and I guess many of the concerns will come from having to keep patient records at home - or whether you can actually get a 100% guaranteed secure connection to any data you keep at work.
The NHS National Programme for IT is doing something in the UK that you might be interested in. Basically, there’s a Government Agency building a huge network that will allow GPs, Nurses and other medical staff to access patient records from anywhere. It’s the only project of its kind in the world, and it could be the start of genuine healthcare telecommuting without the confidentiality concerns.
November 1, 2005 @ 10:21 am...
Barry, I think there’s always confidentiality concerns if anyone is within viewing distance of your computer screen or paperwork.