Did you know that in this day and age of digital everything, that there are still practice owners who manage their team by who they like, who seems the busiest, who is nicest to work with, who is the least trouble, and so on?
Not only that, guesswork as to what needs to be done to grow the practice week by week and month by month is also used in most practices and the results are not always pretty nor what was wanted by the practice owner.
Given that practice owners are usually quite precision professionals, it is surprising that practices are not run the same way from a management perspective. Hoping and wishing that things will improve is definitely not an efficient way to manage or create your future.
How can stats and monitors plotted on graphs make such a difference to the growth of your practice if done correctly and acted on? Let me count the ways!
- Keeping stats weekly is the first step in assessing where the problem area or areas in the practice are each week. Also, they can show you who needs an acknowledgement for excellent production. Keep such stats as Billings by provider; Collections; Downtime for each provider (zero means every possible appointment slot was filled, and 2:15 for example would mean that there was a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes of time that did not have a patient booked into it); number of new patients/clients (not including emergencies); in some practices the number of patient/client visits for the week is a vital indicator of production; if you provide a variety of services, these can be kept track of individually as well. Expenses or overhead is another stat but can be kept on a monthly basis.
- Bonus systems can be based on actual production increases (we tailor make bonus systems for each practice as these can be useless if not done correctly). Think about it: YOU as the practice owner are actually on a bonus system, even if you take a salary and then take out dividends. And it makes you be more interested in the business side of the practice as a result and maybe even helps you modify your actions for the better. Why wouldn’t it work for the staff too to have a bit of a bonus for increased production?
- Stat analysis allows you to look into the future and see what to plan for.
- Statistics tell what quality and quantity of service is taking place in your practice as well. This is the MOST IMPORTANT reason for keeping them.
- How much money do you want to lose by not confronting and controlling your stats? Learning what works and doesn’t work in the practice is only done by stats that tell the outcomes.
We teach our clients to become experts at statistical management because it makes their practices grow smoothly and rapidly and with less stress.
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