10 Essential Business Measures for your Medical Practice

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MEDICAL BUSINESS / AUSTIN
Implement or Die
10 Essential Business Measures for
your Medical Practice
BY CYNTHIA HUCHINGSON
IGNS THAT HEALTHCARE PRACTICES are facing big
business risks in the coming years are all over the news as
more and more physicians file for bankruptcy or join large
hospital systems. But is life really over as we know it for private-practice
physicians? Here are 10 things medical practices can do right now to
not only improve their odds of survival, but come out on top.
S
Implement an “I Own It”
culture: Do you have to remind
your staff to do certain things?
Moreover, do your patients?
Create a culture of ownership
that improves both morale and
your bottom line.
Define how decisions are
made: Who has the authority to
decide what and when? In small
medical practices, physicians
are used to leading their teams
and making decisions for the
practice, but as a practice grows,
it becomes essential to define
partner level decisions, partner
agreements, management
decisions and organization charts.
For private practices with over 10
partners, it also becomes essential
to define how partner decisions
will be made so that you don’t get
stuck in“analysis paralysis.”
Create a system for getting
things done: If you sit in
partner meetings, staff meetings,
or chart rounds where the
same complaints are made ad
nauseum, your practice likely
lacks a clear system defining
goals, action items, issues and
who is accountable for each.
Operationalize: Most
companies have six to 10 core
processes that make them
flow, or not flow. Define and
document those processes, and
reduce them to a system that is
easy to understand and access.
Assign clear accountability
and backup responsibility.
This will save you in training,
medical audits, HR lawsuits and
emergency situations.
Digitize: Can a computer do
it better? Then let it. Gone are
the days of photocopies. If your
medical staff keep their own
paper files of new patient forms,
surgery prep sheets and other
patient information, you not
only look unprofessional but
you are opening yourself up
to extreme liability. Centralize
form access on a server, and
implement a process to review
and update forms at least twice
per year. Ensure your online
patient forms are downloadable,
“fillable form” PDF files, not
low-resolution scans from the
copy machine with misspelled
words and whiteout marks.
Allow for online scheduling:
63.6 percent of patients 18- to
24-years-old want to schedule
their medical appointments
online, and over 40 percent of
all patients under 44-years-old
prefer to schedule online. Is
your practice set up for success
or failure in the next decade
as these patients make up the
majority of your patient volume?
Use financials: It amazes
me how many physicians
CYNTHIA HUCHINGSON
IS PRESIDENT OF
CYNEX CONSULTING, A
HEALTHCARE CONSUL-
TANCY THAT PROVIDES
MEDICAL PRACTICES
WITH BOTH THE
DEVELOPMENT AND
EXECUTION OF EXPERT
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS,
INCLUDING THOSE
CRITICAL ITEMS LISTED
ABOVE. CYNTHIA HAS
AN UNDERGRADUATE
DEGREE FROM THE
LOWRY MAYS SCHOOL
OF BUSINESS AT TEXAS
A&M UNIVERSITY, AN
EXECUTIVE MBA FROM
THE RED MCCOMBS
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
TEXAS AT AUSTIN, AND
HAS EXECUTIVE LEVEL
EXPERIENCE WORKING
IN FINANCE, BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT, MAR-
KETING, OPERATIONS
AND HEALTHCARE.
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3. 2016 MAY/JUNE TxMD 17
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don’t have proper, systematic
bookkeeping, budgeting and
financial practices. If you are
a partner in your practice,
you need to understand the
difference between cash flow
and profit. Growing practices
face the highest risk of being
profitable but cash flow negative,
which means going under. Run
your medical practice like the
business it is.
Perfect your patient
message: As practices grow
from small groups of one to
five physicians to larger groups
with multiple physicians and
locations, you have less control
over the message your patients
are receiving. New staff don’t
have the benefit of knowing
the history of the practice
like you do, and they can’t be
expected to articulate your
story unless you package it
in a storybook of sorts that
everyone can remember. From
phone scripts to locations,
doctor bios and company facts,
manage your message so that
no one else does.
Update your marketing
and patient materials: If
your business cards, referral
forms, patient intake paperwork
and education resources look
sloppy, you may portray an
unprofessional image.Your
marketing material is the only
thing that can speak for you
when you aren’t around to
speak for yourself.What does
yours say about you?
Optimize your website: If
patients can’t find you online,
they won’t ever find you in
person. Keep your website up-to-
date and optimized.
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If patients
can’t find
you online,
they won’t
ever find
you in
person.