Eyeworld

106 | EYEWORLD | APRIL 2022 P RACTICE MANAGEMENT Contact Pinto: 619-223-2233; pintoinc@aol.com Wohl: 609-410-2932; czwohl@gmail.com 5. Develop agreed, widely received, frequently updated and understood benchmarks to track progress. Each provider, their managing partner, and their administrator should have a memo- rized command of KPIs (key performance indi- cators), such as visits per doctor per month, av- erage collections per visit, surgical density, PIOL implant rate, etc. By having a command over these data, everyone on the team is in a better position to collaborate on performance as objec- tively as two doctors talking about their shared patient's ocular health (from the perspective of the same agreed metrics and benchmarks). 6. You can't get very far without an aligned doctor team. Some physicians, by their nature, are lone eagles. Being personally ambitious and striving is fine, but each provider should have goals that are in line with the company, and they should help the leadership team bear the weight of practice management. This means, for example, that a physician who complains about the electronic health records works to become a master of the new system. The doctors in great practices are givers; they behave as one should when part of a team, being sensitive to the needs of others. 7. Understanding that whenever there is an is- sue (like under staffing) or an opportunity (like adding a new patient service), the universal cure comes in six simple steps: • Gather the data. • Pull together a meeting of all those in- volved with the issue or opportunity. • Discuss and agree on a plan and critically, a deadline for results. • Put one leader (and one only, not two co-leaders) in charge of delivering results by the agreed deadline. • Monitor and report back to the original group on progress. • Reward the team for results. 8. When launching or relaunching a complex service line like LASIK, elective plastics, or dry eye treatment, it's critical that you only proceed when there are adequate resources, like board support, an MD champion, equipment, staff, training, time, administrative focus, and market- ing dollars. 9. Make sure incentives are aligned. In a setting where physician owners want higher volumes but associate providers and staff won't enjoy appropriate, proportionate rewards for harder work, the owner's goals will never be achieved. 10. The patient's global experience is key. Treat every patient as though they were your only customer. Ophthalmology by its nature is a higher-volume enterprise, especially in the cur- rent environment with fast-rising practice costs. That said, doctors and staff alike need to slow down long enough mid-exam to listen to and resolve each patient's needs. 11. Ask every patient to refer a friend. No matter how much you advertise to the public or reach out for optometric referral support, more than half of all new patients in a comprehen- sive practice are referred by friends and family. The trouble with this is two-fold. Most patients assume their doctor is too busy and already has a full practice. And many doctors are too shy to ask their patients for referrals. You can over- come these problems with one simple request, delivered at the end of every exam: "Please tell your friends about the importance of regular eyecare." It's a simple public service message, but it gets the point across, especially if you simultaneously hand over a couple of business cards. In the average client practice, this simple request boosts new patient volumes by 20%. 12. Realize that business success is measured in profit per doctor hour, not cases per month. Manage your costs, especially at a time like this past year when staffing costs have soared. But at the same time realize that most costs are fixed; profit enhancement is more a matter of revenue enhancement than cost containment. 13. Never stop learning. Find a surgeon more competent than you, and copy what they do. Be an attentive, eager student throughout your career. If you have the honor to be called on by a peer to aid their understanding and skills, be a generous, patient teacher. continued from page 104

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