Filling Business Management Gaps In Your Practice – Nicky Jardine
When starting up or refining a medical practice, it is essential to recognise those areas beyond clinical matters that will help ensure the long-term success of your business.
Covering all aspects of business management will most likely require oversight from a practice manager and guidance from business specialists.
This oversight is particularly crucial during the initial stages of starting a medical practice, as having things right from the start is simpler than overhauling entrenched systems later.
After all, when one practice location expands to two or more, any business concerns or inefficiencies are compounded.
Beyond using contactors who are experts in their fields, an experienced practice manager can help to fill gaps in staff competency and skills.
From supporting client-facing roles to advising in-house practice management, a remote practice manager provides an efficient and economical way to cover all business management needs.
An independent perspective of your practice
Although a practice manager is onsite in the initial stages, practices can then move to virtual practice management to ensure the optimisation of resources and minimisation of expenses.
Engaging a remote practice manager will also bring an independent perspective to business operations.
Their assessment and overview of practice operations can identify gaps and drill down to prime issues.
A remote practice manager can then recommend specialised professional services you may wish to engage as contractors.
Those professional services include business advisors, accountants, financial advisors, lawyers, marketing consultants and tech experts.
Collaborative approach to long-term success
Some general practice owners may rely on a team of professionals to provide for their requirements regularly or as required.
Other practices may combine roles and seek advice and support specific to the needs of their clinic location, size or medical specialities.
A collaborative approach can see the medical and business goals of the practice brought together to guide decision-making and business strategy.
In contrast, some business owners will manage business-related matters and allocate tasks to reception staff.
Opting for the latter style of business management method may cause deficiencies in business management and practice operations due to overloaded staff resources.
Optimising time, skills and competencies within medical practice and outsourcing inefficient areas can provide a practice space from which to grow.
Prompts for practice principals
Some of the questions we can ask ourselves to prompt a discussion regarding efficiencies within a practice are:
- Who is actively working on the business as opposed to day-to-day operational tasks?
- Who is doing the business planning and marketing strategies?
- Who is ensuring the technical requirements of the practice are met and maintained?
- How regularly are meetings taking place, and in what ways are they followed up?
- What business data is retrieved, and what data is relevant to business growth?
- Does the practice know its break-even point?
- If utilising software like Cubiko and Practice Hub, who is doing software management?
- Who is producing reports, such as those in Cubico that manage practice items?
A Move to Remote Practice Management
From staffing, inventory management and appointment scheduling to cost-cutting and staff productivity, a practice manager has no shortage of roles.
A practice manager who works on clinical, operational and business facets of a medical practice will most likely have little time to conduct the above reporting and analysis.
Although connected with practice staff, a remote practice manager is independent of the day-to-day client-facing roles at the reception desk.
Working on the business rather than in it means a remote practice manager can focus on reviewing and tracking business inefficiencies to help identify financial leaks, resolve IT issues, and amend protocols and systems that conflict with practice compliance.
The flip-side is that a remote practice manager may identify opportunities for business growth or the success of current methods and, in turn, develop strategies to build practice profits.
Bringing together the business of healthcare
Remote practice management can introduce high-level management skills and strategies essential to business success.
They will implement and track the financial goals of a practice, while ensuring activities align with health industry regulations.
Through a blend of clinical knowledge and management acumen, off-site practice management can support client-facing staff and doctors’ clinical requirements while meeting the needs of practice operations.
The potential flow-on effect is consistency in clinical quality, increased patient satisfaction and reduced costs – all of which can positively influence staff morale, reputation and profit.
Whether a practice setup, expanding or consolidating your specialist or dental practice, Nicky can provide remote practice management services and access to industry professionals to meet your requirements.
Having worked for decades in rural and urban environments across Australia, Nicky can help optimise your business, as a whole, towards profitability while remaining compliant.
For more information on how Nicky can meet your health business needs, please email nicky@nickyjardine.com or call 1300 798 831.