4 Suggestions that Could Improve Your Medical Practice's Efficiency

Physician owners are at a constant crossroad, trying to balance attention between improving their practice and spending more time with patients. If you want to grow your practice AND see more patients, you can’t get bogged down in administrative functions.

Taking a step back from day-to-day operations is hard when you have limited staff and limited time. We've come up with 4 potential ways to make it easier.

Whether you’re a new doctor ready to start your first practice or an established physician trying to get things under control, any combination of these ideas can make your life easier. The tricky part is choosing the best approach for your practice.

Let's dive into the 4 basic ways you can increase medical practice efficiency!

1.  Upgrade existing technology & implement integrated technology solutions

Tech upgrades can include:

• More advanced office systems
• Faster Wi-Fi
• Better hardware and/or software
• Integrated Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
• Cloud storage solutions

Imagine having an integrated EMR system that automatically converts notes to medical codes. With new platforms, this can be a reality for your practice. There are plenty of medical software options with time-saving features, if you know where to look.

Upgrading tech is a good option if you need quicker data entry and easier retrieval of all patient information and related medical data.

2.  Streamline day-to-day medical practice operations

If you’re in tune with your practice’s operations, you may be able to quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks. Here are a few places to look to see if there is room for improvement:

• Appointment scheduling
• Collecting patient forms
• Physical paperwork
• Billing & coding
• Returned or rejected applications

However, if you’re more out of touch with how your practice is actually running, this option may not be your best starting point. If you’re having trouble finding your bottlenecks, or don’t know how to handle them once you find them, you could just be making more work for yourself by attempting a DIY solution.

3.  Hire more staff & physicians

Hiring is always an option, for both new and established practices! Hiring your own staff means you’ll have full-time support where you need it. It gives you more control over who you work with and what they do during the day.

In order for this option to be as successful as possible, you’ll also need to vet, train, and invest in new employees. You may want a quicker solution that doesn’t involve multiple interviews and a training period, and you may also need to fill more roles than one person can reasonably perform, but starting somewhere is better than not starting at all.

4.  Outsource administrative work

A medical practice management company can provide expert assistance, or even full management of:

• Billing & coding
• Claims
• Compliance
• Staff training & HR
• IT management
• Documentation
• Operations & process improvement
• Credentialing
• Marketing
• And other day-to-day concerns

Once these tasks are in expert hands, practice owners regain a surprising amount of time to see patients in the clinic.

This option may work for you if you don’t want to worry about hiring employees, need more comprehensive assistance than a simple IT upgrade, and/or want an expert analysis of your business.

In short, any of these options could work for you, but the best solution depends on your practice and your goals.

We do offer a free practice analysis to identify gaps and weak points that can help guide you towards the best next steps.