Do Your First Quarter Results Indicate Success or Opportunity?

We’ve recently looked at three steps to grow your practice in 2023. This quarter we will look at indicators that your practice is struggling and what actions you can take to improve practice performance.

Behind every data point is a story of success or opportunity. What story is your first quarter performance indicators telling you? If you see an opportunity in your results, and you are ready to get on a healthier track for 2023, let’s get started.

Step 1: Review your calendar and ask yourself the following questions:

- Does your calendar support new patient growth by offering a consistent schedule and a short booking window?

- If you’re a surgeon, does your OR schedule have the flexibility for patients who are ready to book surgery?

- Does your calendar reflect consistent meetings with your staff?

If your responses aren’t 100% affirmative to these questions, then your practice lacks an infrastructure. The absence of an infrastructure will negatively impact your practice for 2023 and beyond.

Step 2: Now that you’ve identified that you lack an infrastructure, let’s look at the three components that are required to create an infrastructure and move your practice to a healthier track.

1. Schedule Management

Providing a reliable schedule to your staff and patients ensures that new patient growth is optimized. This in addition to a narrow booking window ensures consistent availability for new patients. If you are a surgeon, optimizing the OR schedule is a fundamental component of practice success. Many surgical patients typically want a short booking window for their surgery just like new patients want an appointment as soon as possible. This requires consistent communication with your staff to ensure that they are aware of scheduling opportunities by procedure type. This information ensures that your staff is confident when discussing OR dates with patients and a confident staff provides patients with confidence in your practice.

2. Practice Goals

Communicating expectations of the number of new patients and surgeries that should be scheduled each day ensures that your staff has clear goals and connects their daily responsibilities to results.

3. Staff Communication

As a leader, your first responsibility is to help your staff understand and prioritize their responsibilities. When employees are provided definitive responsibilities, well-defined goals and are consistently recognized for their efforts, they are more motivated to succeed.

If you are ready to improve the health of your practice and would like support, contact me at smays@impactpracticeconsultants.com.