Improve your medical practice

When running a medical practice, there are a lot of different elements to consider: what management software to use, how many patients can be seen per day, how to bill and more. Some of these decisions may seem arbitrary, but it’s important to remember that the patient experience is what matters most, and the decisions you make for your practice will ultimately affect your patients in some way. So, what are the best practices for running a medical practice?

Delegate!

When running a practice, especially a small one, it is easy to get stuck in the weeds with all the small (but taxing) tasks that add up throughout the day. Limit the number of administrative tasks that your physicians are expected to take care of themselves. When possible, hire administrative staff to handle issues like note-taking, scheduling and practice management, so the physicians can spend their time with their patients. Support your physicians with systems and staff to achieve this goal. This is better for the physician and the patient and will allow a new position to open up for an administrative staff member.

Communicate

Establishing an efficient and well-paced flow can be challenging. To create a system that works for you and your practice, check in with your physicians and staff and ask how they are doing with the current system. If your scheduling allots 20 minutes per patient but your physicians are overwhelmed, take their feedback and extend each patient session by 5-10 minutes. Though this will result in fewer patients per day, it will increase efficiency and decrease burnout in your physicians and staff. An efficient environment is a happy environment, and a happy environment sees fewer mistakes and less turnover.

Understand your finances

Research resources and establish a budget congruent with the location and current market – and adjust as needed during your first few years. Experience is extremely valuable in budgeting, and with time, you’ll see areas to improve your financial strategy. Of course, there are also services available to help with personalizing your budget, but don’t forget to budget for that, too!

Be prepared to pay for exceptional physicians and staff, but make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. Salaries are a major expense, so it can be tempting to decrease your bottom line by offering lower salaries. But, patient satisfaction and practice success relies heavily on exceptional physicians and staff, so it’s important not to skimp on quality.

Don’t forget to bill your patients! Co-payments are traditionally due at the end of the service, but oftentimes patients race out quickly to move on with their day. It’s (usually) unintentional, but having to send a bill will take much longer than taking care of co-pays the day-of. If you’re struggling with co-pays at the end of appointments, consider requiring payment at check-in. This can decrease lag time between appointment and payment, and help with accurate budgeting!

Another key part of your plan should be confirming appointments. This process can be time-consuming but is so important. When you work with National Recalls, we will call each of your patients 24 to 48 hours before their scheduled appointment to remind them of their appointment time. We will then either confirm or, if need be, reschedule. This eliminates the risk of no shows.

Visit our website to learn about the other ways we can help you improve your medical practice.