Operations: Learning From the Best
By Mark R. Cheshire, Shirley Grace, Bob Keaveney, and Pamela Moore There are two — and only two — reasons your practice exists: to deliver high-quality care and to drive volume and revenue. That’s it, says Jayne Oliva, the cofounder of the practice management consulting firm Croes-Oliva. Practices don’t exist so your staff can work in a place that closes for lunch. It’s not there to run a computer system.
Just care and cash.
Nobody will argue with delivering high-quality care. Driving volume and revenue sounds a bit crass in comparison, but if practices don’t make money, they’re not sustainable, says Oliva. No money means no resources to deliver patient services.
So with those simple objectives in mind, we wanted to know: What are the major characteristics of the most successful practices in the country? What do they know that you don’t? To find out, we asked the most well-run practices we could find and the sharpest consultants we know to tell us their secrets of success — and to dish about some of the biggest mistakes they’ve seen.
And you know something? It turns out that the secrets to success aren’t really secrets at all. There’s no magic book; no one graduated from the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Running a Practice. The best-run practices rely on a simple formula: Know your patients. Develop sound fiscal policies and stick to them. Create a positive office culture that focuses on patient care and financial performance. Find ways to grow. Continued...
