Eyeworld

104 | EYEWORLD | APRIL 2022 P RACTICE MANAGEMENT by John Pinto and Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE About the authors John Pinto President J. Pinto & Associates San Diego, California Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE President C. Wohl & Associates San Diego, California A lot of the calls we get from surgeons dissatisfied with their current prac- tice start with this question: "What's it take these days to have a strong, thriving, smooth-running practice?" Here's a way to save yourself a phone call. Based on our experience in the field, in practices around the world, the following is a list of the basics for maintaining a better practice. 1. Write a board-approved, long-term (5+ years) strategic business plan. This plan should show your current and intended future practice volumes by service segment and by location. This plan should be updated annually and be a "living" document, reread often, well-under- stood by all practice stakeholders, doctors, and staff. The plan should address six basic ques- tions: What's our service area? Intended service mix? Provider mix? Growth rate? Relations with the local health system and colleagues? Succes- sion plan? 2. Driven by the contents of the strategic plan, your practice needs a tactical plan showing priority, near-term actions that will help you accomplish your strategic goals. Your tactical plan should cover things like technology adop- tion, marketing, staffing levels, offices to open or close, leadership development, staff training, and the like, all posited within a 1-year time horizon. 3. You will need a competent managing partner, administrator, and department managers who all understand the twin strategic and tactical plans (and were part of their development). The best practices are built from the top down- ward. Department heads can't do their best work unless they are led by a strong, admired administrator. And even the most competent administrator is weakened without an engaged, supporting lead doctor-owner. 4. Next, the best practices use more written communication than verbal. There are written operations documents showing one, agreed best way to do everything. Great practices don't have customized by-doctor protocols (not even ge- nius techs can do their best work if they have to do things differently for each provider). Proto- col changes are only made when all stakehold- ers have been consulted. What's it take to have a strong, thriving, smooth-running practice? continued on page 106

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