Is Telecommuting an Option for My Practice? A Guide for Practice Managers

Telecommuting, also known as working from home or from a virtual office, is an attractive prospect to many practice managers. Avoiding a lengthy and irritating commute is a top motivator for practice managers who work in large, crowded cities with heavy rush-hour traffic. And working from home often raises productivity by offering blocks of uninterrupted time for completing projects. This series of articles will explore the concept of telecommuting for practice managers.

If the concept of telecommuting is new to your practice, you will probably have to invest significant time and effort in helping your practice’s owner/physician see the value of working from home. Here are some things to consider before making your case.

• Have you been working for this practice long enough to have proven yourself to be a dependable, honest employee? Do you have a track record that makes you all but indispensible? The owner/physician must know you well enough and want to keep you enough to be motivated to consider a change to the status quo.
• Are you willing to work during regular office hours? Many employees like the idea of telecommuting because they want to work flexible hours, but many practices will not support that. Decide which home-office hours will most benefit the practice, not your lifestyle.
• Is there a day or are there days when the practice is less busy than others? If full-time telecommuting is not an option, consider asking to work from home one to three days per week.
• Are you comfortable working independently? Working from home can be isolating. The enhanced productivity typically associated with telecommuting comes at least partially from a lack of opportunity to socialize with other employees.
• Are you interested in telecommuting for a trial period of, for example, 90 days? This may allow your supervisor/physician to evaluate the option of telecommuting without making a commitment.
• Do you have trusted staff members to whom you can delegate escalated patient service problems and other in-office issues? You must be able to solve most office crises over the phone or via email to work from a virtual office.
• Do you have space for a home office? If someone else will be at home during your work hours, will she or he respect your work time and space? Does your virtual office have a computer with fast internet access and the ability to access the practice’s server and email, a printer, a fax machine, and a phone with its own number (separate from the household number)?

The next article in this series will offer tips on how to pose the idea of telecommuting to the owner/physician of your practice.