I haven't met a doctor yet who wanted to work harder, not smarter. Now, more than ever before, we need to be more resourceful. Ways to pinch our pennies, cut our overhead, eliminate unnecessary spending and operate more efficiently ...and with better management of cash, staff, time, systems and marketing...are necessary. It's time to reassess and think positively at the same time! Necessary changes can lead to innovative ideas which lead to renewed, more effective efficiencies. Keep an open mind and read on for some simple tactics:
1. Cash
Flow Management:
a. Make sure any patient balances owed are indicated on your daily schedule so that the front desk can collect these past due balances at the time they collect patient co-pays.
b. Encourage staff to be proactive when collecting co-pays and outstanding balances by replacing "Do you have a co-pay/balance?" with "Your co-pay/balance today is..." for more affirmative action.
c. Don't overload your reception room with too many magazines; reduce your subscriptions to only the preferred favorites and focus your patient's attention instead on select podiatry-educational articles.
d. Negotiate with suppliers for best possible prices on bulk supplies and shipping costs for your most used items.
e. Re-assess your insurance policies (health, business, car, etc) to be certain they align with your needs.
f. Monitor your Accounts Receivable numbers to assure that collection efforts are being capitalized. Your "over 90 days" aged accounts should be no more than 15% of your total accounts receivable.
2. Marketing Management
a. Increase your market acumen - Research and understand your changing community. Ask yourself..."What do our competitors offer that we do not?" or "What makes our practice so special?" and build on it.
b. Give your website a face lift - does it best service your niche marketing & draw attention to more of the types of conditions you enjoy treating? Do you have search engine (google, yahoo, etc.) optimization so people can find you first and fast?
c. Review or create a marketing budget and monitor your ROI - spend your marketing dollars on those promotional activities that have proven worthwhile and drop those that haven't.
3. Staff Management
a. Bump up your Training: Giving staff the proper knowledge and tools will maximize their output.
b. Tap into your staff's strengths so that not only can you delegate some activities to them you might normally outsource, but if they enjoy doing it...they will apply themselves in a much bigger way! Improper job placement yields less energy, slower pace.
c. Integrate staff into treatment protocols for enhanced preparation of each patient encounter.
d. Ask staff for cost-cutting ideas and offer a reward for those implemented. Don't dismiss their suggestions or they'll hold back on sharing in the future. Never under-estimate them. They know stuff!
4. Organizational/System Management
a. When managing your appointment schedule - be realistic. If you insist on coming in 10 minutes late every morning, schedule patients similarly. Schedule for the # of patients you (or your staff) can see, not for the # of rooms in your office. (It doesn't matter where patients wait, but THAT they wait!)
b. Have new patient charts made up and ready to go before they come in. Avoids the last minute rush.
c. Use a "wait list" to refill empty time slots in your schedule
d. Can something you do be done a little better? You'll never know unless you try! Review and revise your systems for improved outcomes. Ask for staff input.
5. Time Management
a. Make better use of your website to reduce unnecessary phone calls by sending patients there to fill out their registration forms & retrieve instructional forms. If you don't have a website...consider NOW to get one. It can prove to be your biggest time saver of all!
b. Get preferred patient email addresses, cell phone #'s and contact them where and when they can best be reached when you need to.
c. Be more precise. Instead of asking patients, "has anything changed?", re-affirm their contact info, address, insurance, etc. at each visit by asking, "Do you still live at...?" and "Is your phone # ___?"
d. Do a time and flow study to measure patient flow. Depending on the specialty, the average patient wait time is 19 minutes, and the average time they spend in the office is 60-90 minutes. Are you better or worse? Is there some way you can improve without sacrificing quality patient care?
e. Develop a policy that only accepts pharmacy faxes (or emails) for prescription renewals (as opposed to phone calls). It offers better, clearer documentation and a more effective time-managed process.
Sometimes the little things we focus on may seem to only save a penny, or only a minute, but when we multiply them by volume, they equate to increased value, benefit and cost savings for your practice! So, do you want to dwell on the absurdity of incidental changes...or be smarter, implement them... and laugh all the way to the bank?
