Working Smarter Instead of Harder
Background
It’s not unusual for owners and managers of specialty healthcare practices to feel as though they’re building a ship while trying to sail it at the same time. With so much to accomplish and limited resources, repeated trial and error is a luxury that most can’t afford. This is especially true when it comes to the processes, systems and organization that will determine a clinic’s long-term success. Our team interviewed over 250 clinic owners and managers across a 24-month period to understand the challenges of building a practice and professionalizing its management. “Working Smarter Instead of Harder” was a topic we discussed often during those early meetings and phone conversations. We’ve included some highlights from our conversations below.
Where Do You Go for Right Answers About Building Your Practice?
The management demands of specialty healthcare practices have increased steadily in the past 20 years. At the same time, the financial margin for error has narrowed. According to the clinic owners and managers we spoke with, the good news is that the general level of awareness about business issues and their importance to clinic results (as well as the team’s quality of life) has also increased within the private practice community. But the bad news is that the traditional combination of a few practice management courses and on-the-job training continues to leave most healthcare professionals unprepared for the challenges of owning and managing a service business. Even worse, the mixed messages and misinformation once passed between individual practice owners at association meetings or in phone conversations are now multiplied and amplified through unfiltered online forums and social networking sites. This noise only adds to the confusion for clinic owners and managers trying to set appropriate performance goals and apply best practices.
So how can you work smarter instead of harder in this environment? It starts with becoming your own consultant–clearly defining what you want to accomplish and then building a set of sensible performance measures that allows you to understand your current situation and direction. Working smarter is about using better information (i.e. facts) from both inside and outside your business to make better decisions, particularly about where you invest your own time and energy and how you address your clinic’s biggest opportunities and risks.
Understanding the Challenges
Using a more fact-based approach to managing your practice’s performance doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complicated. However, it does require a different level of commitment from you and your team. First, you need to be committed to capturing or creating the kinds of information you need to make your best possible decisions. The processes that do this are like the eyes and ears of your business. Second, you need to be committed to paying attention to this management information and actually doing something with it.
The clinic owners and managers who advised us about the original design of PracticeLight’s services wanted reliable metrics and benchmarks that would help them manage the aspects of practice performance they cared about most. They also wanted an intelligent window into the business priorities and best practices of other successful specialty healthcare practices.
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“We don’t really share specific successes and failures with each other, at least not in a way that does anyone any good. Part of the reason is that no one wants to give away a good idea or embarrass himself. But the bigger truth is that we just don’t measure things. There’s not usually a believable before and after picture.” |
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“Everyone likes to believe her clinic is unique. But sometimes I think our focus on the differences stops us from learning from anyone else. It starts becoming an excuse. It’s a lot easier for us to dismiss an idea outright because it wasn’t invented here than it is for us to figure out how we could use it to make our practice better.” |
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“There’s so much noise out there that it’s hard to know what to believe about best practices. Knowing how others are really doing would help me put our own work into perspective. It might also highlight some places we could improve without spending a great deal of time or money.” |
Owner and Manager Priorities
Working smarter instead of harder was an especially important theme for faster-growing clinics, where owners and managers were trying to play “catch up”. For these professionals, the challenge was building appropriate processes, systems and organization while still handling the day-to-day patient flow with existing resources. In other words, working ON the business while still working IN the business. They clearly believed that strengthening their basic performance management processes (particularly planning and measurement) was the key to making the most of their own scarce management time.
“Show us a framework for looking at our performance more holistically.”
“Give us an easier way to see where we’re on target and where we’re missing our goals.”
“Provide metrics and benchmarks that are relevant for our clinic.”
“Help us understand the real difference between standard and best practice.”
“Give us a way to have more focused conversations with other professionals about practice performance.”
How PracticeLight Can Help
PracticeLight was designed from the ground up to help you see practice performance the way you want to see it. From the data collection process to the metrics we report and the way we display data, our approach helps Members work smarter instead of harder by showing them what’s really happening inside their clinics and giving them the tools to understand it better. And while we’re doing that, PracticeLight also helps Members develop important internal management disciplines that serve them well as their businesses grow and evolve.
| Attracting and Retaining the Right Patients for Your Practice. | |
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Powerful Business Insights. Performance metrics, benchmarks, and analysis tools help you see your practice in a new light. |
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Flexible Services. Solutions that can be tailored to your own information requirements help you get what you need the way you need it. |
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Simple, Secure Process. Common sense approaches to collecting data, managing access and providing support help make it easier to do the right thing for your business. |
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Affordable Pricing. Low-cost memberships with just-in-time access to expanded services help you invest in your practice’s future without affecting your cash flow. |
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Easy to Get Started. Web-based services that don’t require any new technology and let you use your existing systems help you start by building on what you already have. |
Check out our complete Overview and Highlights for more detailed information about PracticeLight’s performance management and benchmarking services.
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Read About More Reasons Members Use PracticeLight
Achieving and Managing Growth
Attracting and Retaining the Right Patients for Your Practice
Improving Profitability
Making Fact-Based Management Decisions
Setting Goals and Focusing Your Team on Performance
Taking Better Control of Your Practice
Working Smarter Instead of Harder
We offer both Members and non-Members opportunities to participate in events that feature PracticeLight’s performance management and benchmarking work.
