Do You Know Your Practice Management Metrics
Too Many Variables How can Dr. Ben effectively put his information and ideas into his chiropractic practice? Ben closed his office door gently and pulled his chair up to the desk. He pulled his wife’s crayon-made chart from his pocket and smoothed it out on the desktop. Carmen knew a lot about business, he thought. He had to admit that he found that part of his job challenging, but he was also confident that he’d be able to take control of this aspect of the practice now that he had some direction. With medical information, he could look at a few pieces of data and see what was going on — or what else he needed to know to find the answers to his questions. If he needed additional information, he knew where to look for it. And generally speaking, the patients’ charts had the data he needed in the places where he expected it to be. His own experience with that data made it instantly meaningful. It didn’t seem to work that way with practice management. So Carmen had grabbed one of their son’s crayons and drawn him a chart. Ben chuckled. Ben copied the chart into a spreadsheet and hit “print.” He heard “Dr. Ben?” at his door and just had time to put away the original chart before Pam entered. “Dr. Ben, we have another last-minute cancellation.” Pam handed Ben the patient folder. “She’s done this before, hasn’t she?” he asked, checking the file. “She does it pretty regularly,” Pam admitted. “She always says something about work, but I wonder whether maybe she just finds herself short before the appointment comes up, and makes excuses so she won’t have to pay.” “Do we have other patients who work at the same place she does? Do we have the same kinds of problems with them?” “That’s a good question. I’ll check on that. I hate to have to charge her if it’s work-related and she can’t help it.” “If we take that position, though,” Ben pointed out, “we’d never charge anybody for cancelling, even though we have a sign out there explaining the policy. Everybody probably has a reason they think is important.” “I know, but if the cancellations are caused by financial problems, then charging…” Pam continued, but Ben had stopped listening. “This is paralysis by analysis,” he interrupted. “What?” “I mean, we’re looking at so many possibilities and so many hypotheticals that we’re never going to be able to make a firm decision. If cancellations are enough of a problem to us that we have a policy, we ought to follow that policy. She could go to her boss and explain that she’ll lose that $35 fee if she cancels, and then it would be in the boss’s court. Or if it’s financial, she could level with us and we could work out a payment plan for her. All those things about her life are just muddying up the waters for us.” Pam nodded. “You’re right.” “Or if our data shows that cancellations don’t really make any difference to the bottom line, then we could get rid of that policy. But let’s narrow this in to the most basic information we need for the decisions, instead of broadening it out to include all the possibilities we can imagine.” Pam left looking satisfied, but Ben remained in the office, lost in thought. It sounded good when he said that, but the truth was, he didn’t know what no-shows cost him and whether they needed to be firm or not. He didn’t even know how often this particular patient had made a last-minute cancellation or not shown up for an appointment, and Pam simply had a feeling about it, not hard facts. This was definitely a case in which having fast access to the KPIs would improve decision-making at his chiropractic practice. In fact, if he or Pam could spend a little time sorting these things out, they would probably make it up by having fewer conversations agonizing over decisions of that kind and second-guessing their earlier decisions. Ben looked at his spreadsheet. Why couldn’t someone from the office staff pencil in the current figures every week and calculate a running total? Then when questions arose, they could take a quick look at the spreadsheet and find exactly the information they needed. Pam wouldn’t like it, he was sure, but it seemed like just the right solution. How can Dr. Ben effectively put his information and ideas into his chiropractic practice? Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
Your Data and Practice Management Metrics
Big Data? Can Dr. Ben get the benefits of data-informed decision making in his Practice Management? Carmen stomped around the kitchen, slamming cabinet doors, and mixing ingredients furiously. Ben wondered how dinner would taste with this level of irritation mixed in. “I am so mad,” Carmen informed him, as though he could have missed that. “You know a restaurant like mine is always just on the edge of profitability.” “I thought the pizzeria was doing well,” Ben objected. “We are! But doing well for a pizza place can be an 8% margin. I believe in giving good value, treating my workers well, and using fresh ingredients. And every time I turn around there’s another expense!” Carmen slammed the oven. “Hey, come sit down and let me get you a glass of water.” “I know I’m making a big deal over this, but seriously, Ben, this just makes me mad. We’ve had Wifi in the restaurant since we opened, and now all of a sudden we’re supposed to pay an extra fee and buy a special router and — I don’t know. I’m going to have to sell five more pizzas a day just to keep the same level of service I have now.” “So don’t have Wifi,” suggested Ben. “In a pizza place? You’re kidding, right?” Carmen shook her head. “Hospitality industry surveys say that over 70% of my regular customers could go elsewhere if I didn’t have free Wifi for them.” “Does it have to be free?” Carmen’s pitying expression answered the question. Ben persevered. “Okay, what if you raise the price of the pizza to cover the extra cost of the Wifi?” Carmen stared off into the distance and her eyes narrowed. “That’s not impossible,” she said. “I’d only have to raise prices by about 26 cents per item… if I went from $12.79 to $12.99 and made up the difference on the drinks, probably no one would notice.” “How can you do that?” Ben asked his wife. “It took you less than a minute to figure that out.” “In business, you have to know your numbers,” Carmen said firmly. “How can anyone know all those numbers?” Ben objected. “We have so many numbers in our practice, I don’t even know what I should be keeping track of, let alone what to do with them.” “Then how do you know when you need to hire another staff member, which products to stock, or which services are most profitable?” Ben considered the question. “I guess I don’t. We’re tied into all kinds of information systems, but they don’t seem to connect with decisions about the practice. As long as we’re doing pretty well and have enough money to pay everybody, I don’t really think about those things. If we’re falling behind, I cut out the free coffee in the break room…” “And stay up nights worrying,” Carmen’s voice was soft. “Wouldn’t it make sense to have control of that information for your Practice Management?” “I guess,” Ben frowned. “I don’t see how I can add any more to my work day, though, or to Pam’s.” Ben thought about his office manager. Pam was great, but he felt fairly sure that she didn’t have control of the numbers the way Carmen did. Carmen stood up and went more calmly to check the oven. “Can you help Jonathan wash up for dinner? And thanks for helping me sort out my problem.” “I’m always happy to help,” said Ben. He thought he might be the one who needed help, though. Can Dr. Ben get the benefits of data-informed decision making in his practice? Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
Chiropractic Software Dream Practice Analysis
Dreaming of a Healthy Practice Dr. Ben goes shopping for a picture of efficiency What’s the ROI of a Dream Practice Analysis (DPA)? “Do you think about the ROI of your spending in the grocery store?” Ben was teasing his wife, but he was also still trying to decide how to approach the issue of ROI in his practice. He wanted to get his partners on board with the idea of completing a Dream Practice Analysis, but he was facing some resistance. “I guess in a way I do,” Carmen answered thoughtfully. “I consider fresh produce an investment in our family’s health and well-being, even if it costs more than chips. But groceries are usually an expense, not an investment. We have to buy food. That’s not the same as — what were you thinking about? Software?” “Practice management software. We’ve been asked to take part in a Dream Practice Analysis. The object is to figure out how what kind of return on investment we’d get from practice management software.” “Now, that’s a perfect example for ROI,” said Carmen, reaching for a jar of mustard. “Whatever the software can do, you could probably do yourselves with paper and pencil if you had the time and the skill. But automating some of those tasks can pay off big time by reducing current costs and helping you identify areas of opportunity. Software can be a very important investment and the ROI can be significant.” “I guess that’s the key to the problem,” said Ben. He quickly compared the nutrition labels of two loaves of bread before tossing one into the basket. “It’s like these labels. You can’t tell which loaf has more fiber just by looking — taking the time to check the labels makes a difference. The partners feel like we can just look at the cost of the software and say yes or no. But I think the DPA might give us more accurate information.” “Obviously,” Carmen agreed. “You know I looked at franchise opportunities before I decided to open my own pizzeria. A lot of them pointed to their management software as a big part of the value they provided for the franchise fees. The right software can replace a lot of worker hours, reduce errors that cost money, and keep your practice running smoothly. If you don’t have a handle on your finances, though, you can end up making bad investments.” “I guess that’s why they’re worrying about. It’s not like we haven’t tried different software solutions. Some have been great and some have not.” “If you make random choices about the investments you make in your company, you can expect random results,” Carmen said flatly. “I don’t mean to be harsh, but I can’t see why your partners can’t grasp that. You should never make an investment without running the numbers. If you have someone who will help you sort it out, it’s just common sense to let them help.” What’s the ROI of a DPA? Disclaimer: For HIPAA compliance, all characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons or actual events is purely coincidental.
3 Must-Haves for Credit Card Processing | Q&A from the Webinar
If your practice currently accepts credit cards, or if you are considering incorporating them into your payment options, you likely have questions regarding the policies surrounding their use. To help you get the answers you need, we have compiled all the questions that were asked during our recent webinar, “3 Must-Haves for Client Credit Card Processing,” along with the presenter’s responses. Feel free to add any new questions in the comment section below. Q: What is PCI? A: PCI compliance stands for Payment Card Industry compliance. This is the regulation that the federal government puts on the credit card industry as well as merchants who accept credit cards. Similar to HIPAA in terms of documentation and patient record-keeping, PCI is the regulatory board that oversees all aspects of credit card payments. Q: What sort of fines do practices face for non-compliance? A: Most people don’t realize that they can be fined up to $2,500 per card that they’re not handling properly. So if you see 400 patients over the life of your practice, and you handle those cards improperly, you would face $1 million in fines. A big company like Target can handle that, but for most medical practices, that would put them out of business. Q: What percentage of medical offices are PCI compliant? A: An estimated 95 percent of practices are not PCI compliant, in one way or another. Q: How do I know if my office is PCI compliant? A: The first year you set up with a merchant services company, you have to take a PCI compliance survey. Then there’s a yearly survey after that. If you haven’t taken some sort of survey, or don’t remember taking one, chances are, you’re not compliant… and there’s a 100 percent chance that you’re being charged a monthly fee. That fee can range from $20 to $100 a month.