Introduction

In today’s fast paced world where output, efficiency and productivity are on the front wheel, lagging behind or procrastinating in any way for any reason is unacceptable. Healthcare providers not only need to be experts in their respective fields but also need to have a fair amount of understanding about the intricacies of managing their practices. Good enough won’t do, continuous improvement is essential for thriving practice. Poor or negligent medical management practices will not go financially unpunished anymore. The financial losses in case of taking lightly the importance of managing medical practice cold very well jeopardize the growth of the medical practice.
In order to increase overall patient satisfaction which in turn increases the reimbursements, providers will have to be extra vigilant about their management of medical practice. Dilly-dallying with such crucial aspect will have huge implications on the business of the practice.

What is medical Practice management?

Apart from services given to the patients, there are several other things which are being executed in parallel. They are the administrative tasks which are essential in keeping the practice up and running.
Management of medical practice encompasses billing and claims processing, reporting, appointment scheduling, analyzing and organizing patient data. In order to manage such tasks, providers either hire or train in-house staff or outsourced professional consultants to get the job done. Whatever the route a practice opts for the importance of medical practice management should not be underestimated.

Significance of Medical Practice Management

The components of a successful practice involve both good patient care and optimized medical practice management procedures. They both complement each other and play an important role in the revenue generation. Therefore, patient satisfaction depends on both the quality of treatment given by the physician and medical management practices carried out by the physician’s staff which are imperative in running the healthcare business smoothly and successfully. Following are some important considerations for managing successful and effective medical practice.

Hiring of an Office Manager

The role of an office manager employed by the healthcare provider is a benchmark of how much a practice can benefit from the well-established and optimized management tools and procedures. These well embedded protocols and procedures have an ability to play a definitive role in the success of any practice. Therefore a healthcare professional needs to make certain that the office manager he/she is hiring must possess the right attributes, skills, experience and temperament in carrying out the duties necessary for the job. An office manager among many things is responsible for the coordination of the staff. Staff training, supervision and scheduling falls under the domain of an office manager. Experienced and efficient office manager is well aware of the significance of motivation and help the staff in raising their morale high so that the quality and productivity will not be compromised.

Metrics to Measure Against

When we talk about performance or success we have some kind of metric in place to measure the performance against. In a typical medical office setting there are three departments or teams which come into play. Front office, Back Office and Medical staff of a healthcare provider. For practices to be successful in financial terms it is important that these teams work in synchronization to increase the volume of patients. And more patients mean more financial independence.
Front office performance is based upon timely patient verification, efficient and consistent appointment reminders, fee collection of patients at arrival and last but not least an ardor customer service.
Back office efficacy can be measured through an effective insurance verification timelines and accuracy, first pass recovery rates and the consistency of weekly deposits.
Likewise, medical staff performance should be quantified through the accuracy of documenting patient visits and services given by the healthcare provider, patient satisfaction scores and number patients seen in a day.
Physicians and doctors can deploy above mentioned performance metrics in order to fine-tune budgeting, staffing and revenue generation policies. The volume of patients and their satisfaction help practices to expand their businesses further. But patient volume depends on patient satisfaction meter. Staff should be skilled and understand the intricacies and delicacies involved in customer care.

When to Measure

After establishing what to measure another important question is when exactly measure the performance? The performance measuring in a medical office should take place on daily and weekly basis. Cash reconciliation and deposits should be monitored and evaluated on daily basis. Whereas scheduling and front office performance can be quantified weekly. It is also important that staff should know what aspect of their performances is exactly being measured so that the staff can improve its work ethics and performance. Performance measuring is a powerful agent and if used wisely and effectively can boost the productivity of an organization.

Patient Experience
One of the most vital and crucial aspect in increasing the patient volume is the satisfaction of the patient on the services rendered to him or her by the healthcare provider. The time and effort strengthen the relationship of physician and patient thus increasing the cash inflow for the practice which is integral for the healthcare business to sustain.

Basic Knowledge
In order to lead and effectively monitor the overall performance of the medical office, healthcare provider should have the basic know-how of all of the departments in successfully running healthcare business. Understanding the basics is essential in order to lead, motivate, communicate and analyzing the performance of the teams. Scheduling Systems

In the quest of saving money, many practices employee low-paid staff to schedule the appointments manually. Given how important scheduling is and has an enormous impact on the practice’s business it is wise to opt for an efficient scheduling system. The good the scheduling process is, the better the patient flow and volume will be.

Online Scheduling

Practices which offer the facilities of online scheduling, observe reduction in staff labor costs, patient queues and no-shows. Patients also appreciate and are thankful to the convenience of booking appointments online.

Collect payments

Healthcare providers also have the option of collecting payments before rendering the services to the patients. Under most of the contracts co-pay collection is obligatory. Up-front collection can improve cash flow system for the practices as long as the practices don’t have to go to the hassle of billing for them.

Incentive System

Entrepreneurs, high profile CEO’s, productivity gurus all emphasize on an effective incentive system in order to boost the performance and productivity of the staff. Set ambitious goals and advertise in-house incentives for the teams to achieve them. This will synergize the employees to work even harder.

Staffing Strategy

Spot excess staff capacity and grow volume to absorb it. Make it routine to analyze work allocation and work flow. Make sure that the processes in place continue to make sense. Each staff member should understand his/her flow of work and should be a valuable asset to the team.



Right Person for the Right Job

It goes without saying that an attitude even matters more than the raw skill. Skills can be taught and developed over time, however if the attitude and mindset are not right healthcare provider may have to do a bit of heavy lifting. During hiring be watchful of the attitude and mindset of a person along with the skills and expertise needed for the job.



Hold Staff Meetings

Conduct short meetings with your staff before the beginning of a working day to create a plan in order to manage time and resources. This will help in increasing the work flow and efficiency.



Patient Friendly Environment

For any business small or large environment is crucial to help feel relaxed. Ambience isn’t only helpful in the success of restaurants and food courts but it is equally important if not more for any client dealing business. Smiling and welcoming faces elevate the mood and spirit of the patients and they feel more relaxed and less anxious.
Moreover, waiting rooms with small and tightly packed chairs along with dim and dull lightning have negative impact on patients. And even if the service is good, patients might don’t want to visit such gloom and doom medical office again.
All these above explained factors are important in overall success of any healthcare business but the most important thing for a physician or doctor is to deploy all these strategies in order give an excellent care and service to the patients which they rightfully deserve.