Many healthcare providers find themselves buried in the details of “working in” the practice rather than “working on” the practice.
But for a practice to grow and thrive, the owners of the business need to find time occasionally to step back and assess the big picture.
From my experience, this is easiest to do at the start of a new year.
In this post, I suggest five areas of your practice to work on this year. Here they are:
1. Mission Statement
Ask yourself the big questions: Why, what, and how.
Why are you doing what you do? What will you do for your patients? And, how will you provide the services?
They’re not easy questions to answer. But a clear mission statement is the starting point for creating goals that align with your values and priorities.
Are there areas of your business today that need renewed attention or potential changes to satisfy the why, the what, or the how?
2. Corporate and Partnership Agreements
Read through your employment and buy-sell agreements. Make sure that these documents accurately reflect your understandings and the current intentions of the owners of the business.
Then review your Corporate Minute book to see that your meetings and corporate resolutions are up to date.
On a personal note, make sure that your spouse or family representative is fully aware of the documents in place; where they are, and from whom they should seek advice should something unfortunate happen to you.
3. Policies and Procedures
When was the last time you read through your entire operations manual? Should any of your procedures or policies be updated?
I would suggest that you closely review your patient financial policies and procedures for collections. How your practice deals with patient collection directly affects the bottom line of your practice. Taking the time to review these policies may spark ideas about how you could do things better this year.
And finally, you should review the policies that directly affect your employees. Are they aware of your holiday schedule and who will receive additional pay for these days? Is everyone up to date on new HIPAA and OSHA rules?
4. Operations
Review the past year’s cash inflows and outflows. We provide our clients with a cumulative summary each month. And the December financial statement contains a snapshot of the entire year.
Are there cash receipts in the past year that you can’t count on this year? Or, were there any unexpected expenses that occurred that you need to plan for this year?
Are you giving consideration to any Insurance Payor changes that might impact your practice this year? Are you as efficient as you can be in providing your services?
Asking these questions will help you set goals to become more profitable in the coming year.
5. Market Share
Patients are making choices regarding the healthcare they receive. The days of simply turning the responsibility of paying for their care over to an insurance company is gone.
Marketing is everything you do in your practice and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Do you have a Facebook page? Is your website up to date and effectively used? Do you have patient e-mail addresses on file? How about their cell phone number?
Communicating with the healthcare decision-maker in the household is key. Also, focus on making your patients feel like a guest in your office.
As an example, I made a suggestion to a client that they change what was being played on the TV in the waiting room. “Remove the dental procedure information and instead play National Geographic Nature shows”, I suggested.
After they implemented the change, I asked a patient in the waiting room if he enjoyed the show and if he liked the change. His response – “I love it! It almost makes you forget why you are here.”
Pay attention to the details of your practice that affect the customer’s experience. Patient referrals are still the #1 source of new patient acquisition. So make sure that you and your team are doing the best you can to make a positive first impression.
Working On Your Practice This Year
I hope this post got you thinking about where you need to spend a little more time working on your practice.
Try not to get caught up working in the details every day that you neglect the bigger picture.
Now we’d like to hear from you:
What areas of your practice are you going to focus on this year?
Let us know in the comments below.
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