Do you have a well-known mission, vision, and
values statement?
For a practice to achieve success, all employees
must be on board with the practice’s overall mission and goals. It is important
to instill your mission, vision, and core values in every employee, and to lead
by inspiring your team to strive for greatness.
Do you have an existing strategic plan that lists
your goals, actions, and identifies a responsible person and time frame for
carrying out those objectives?
Until it is formally written down, your strategic
plan is nothing but a set of ideas that may never come to fruition. It is
important to have a written plan identifying the goals that you are trying to
achieve, the actions that will get you there, who will be responsible for those
actions, and by when these actions need to be completed.
Have you identified your strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats?
Any organization must be self-aware in order to
stay in business. It is important to know what your practice’s strengths are,
as well as what areas of weakness exist that may be improved with new
processes. Additionally, a practice leader must always be aware of potential
opportunities or threats that may present themselves in the external
environment.
Do you have a formal onboarding and ongoing training
process?
A formal process for employee training is key to
providing high quality services to your patients and to reducing patient
frustration from avoidable mistakes. Training must begin from the first day
that a new employee begins work, and must be pursued continuously to ensure
that your standard of quality is held up by your whole team.
Do you utilize productivity bonuses for your staff?
Your providers?
A successful productivity bonus system can help
engage and motivate your employees to be more productive and more involved in
their work. Additionally, a productivity bonus system for your providers can
allow your practice to see more patients and increase revenue.
Do your former employees frequently file for
unemployment?
All practices must deal with unemployment cases
very carefully, to ensure that the practice is not paying benefits that are not
their responsibility. It is important to always keep thorough documentation of
any employee incidents or disciplinary actions in their files, to protect your
practice from such frivolous cases.
Do you address uncomfortable issues that may be
causing internal workplace tension?
Some bad habits exist within any organization,
especially in employees that have been with the practice for extended periods
of time and feel too comfortable or even untouchable. It is easy to turn a
blind eye to such activities; however, this sets a bad example for other
employees, as well as negatively affects your practice’s quality and
performance.
Do you have job descriptions?
In order to hold an
employee accountable for their work, detailed job descriptions must be created
and signed by the employee upon hire. This prevents employees from claiming
that they were unaware of a task that they were responsible for. If an employee
is promoted or transferred to another department, a new job description needs
to be created and signed.
These are just some of the
questions that we ask when conducting a practice audit for our clients. We have
found that many practices simply do not set aside enough time for formal
strategic planning and reviews of current processes. Without being aware of the
weaknesses that your practice may be facing, it is impossible to correct those
issues, and you may be losing out on existing or potential new patients without
even knowing.
Leading
Management Solutions is a healthcare management solutions company providing
assistance and resources to healthcare management. Contact us today at (407) 674-1916 or visit www.lmshealthpro.com to learn more.
About the Author:
Sonda Eunus is the Founder
and CEO of Leading Management Solutions, a healthcare management consulting
company (www.lmshealthpro.com). Along with a team of experienced and knowledgeable consultants,
she works with healthcare practice managers to improve practice operations,
train employees, and increase practice revenue. She holds a Masters in
Healthcare Management and a BA in Psychology.
