For Medical Office Managers ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have the foundation of a practice operations manual — a living document that captures how your practice runs so the knowledge lives in writing, not just in your head. This protects the practice from turnover risk and makes training new managers or covering your own absences manageable. Claude helps you build it section by section, asking you the right questions so you don't have to stare at a blank page.
What you'll need
Create a new Google Doc or Word document. Title it: "[Practice Name] Operations Manual — [Year]". Add a table of contents with these sections (you'll fill them in over time):
Open claude.ai. Start a new conversation. Paste this:
I am a medical office manager building a practice operations manual. My practice: [describe — size, specialty, EHR system, number of physicians].
I want to work section by section. For each section, I want you to:
1. Ask me 5-8 targeted questions to gather the key information
2. Then draft that section based on my answers
3. Keep the tone professional but readable — this is for future staff and backup managers, not lawyers
Start with the Billing and Revenue Cycle section, which is our biggest pain point.
Claude will ask you questions like:
Answer in plain language — you don't need to be formal. Claude will turn your answers into professional manual content.
What you should see: After you answer, Claude writes a complete Billing and Revenue Cycle section — typically 500–800 words — that captures your actual process.
Read what Claude produced. Edit anything that doesn't reflect reality. Paste the section into your Google Doc under the appropriate heading. Add a "Last Updated:" line at the bottom of each section.
Troubleshooting: If a section feels too generic, go back to Claude and say: "This section feels too generic. Ask me more specific questions about our [specific process] so you can make it more accurate."
Schedule three 45-minute sessions over the next two weeks to complete the highest-risk sections. Prioritize in this order:
Share the completed document with your physicians and set a review reminder every 6 months. When something changes (new EHR module, new payer, policy update), update the relevant section — takes 5–10 minutes with Claude's help.
For each manual section, use this approach:
I want to document our [section name] process. Ask me questions to gather the specifics, then draft that manual section based on my answers.
To add a specific sub-process:
Add a sub-section to the [section] section covering [specific process]. Here's how we do it: [describe in plain language].
To update an existing section:
Here is our current [section] in the manual: [paste section]. We recently changed [what changed]. Please update the relevant parts.
To create a quick reference version:
Take this manual section and create a one-page quick reference card version — bullet points only, key steps and contacts, for use during a staff absence or emergency.