Abstract
More than likely, adding benchmarking to your independent practice has been on your to-do list for quite some time. It’s now more important than ever to measure the key financial metrics of your practice. No matter how large or small your independent practice, finding areas to improve makes for a happier and more efficient practice for you, your staff and your patients. Practice benchmarking is useful to keep your practice operationally healthy, giving you the needed confidence in your practice’s performance, which in turn means you can concentrate your efforts on patient care.
The most efficient method to save time while implementing benchmarking is to automate your practice. The right cloud-based practice management system allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your practice, which will help you gain a much better understanding of how to improve your practice finances and operations. The bottom line to investing in benchmarking, just as with investing in other good practice management behavior, is a smoother running, more profitable, higher-quality and less stressful practice. These conditions make it easier to do what you entered medicine to do: deliver great patient care.
Step #4 Benchmarking that drives practice improvements.
Operational Benchmarking
Benchmarking that is used to find inconsistencies in operations, which incudes staffing, productivity, office workflow and procedure analysis. Specific details include:
- Number of procedures per provider, versus last month
- Identify workflow bottlenecks
- Amount of overtime you pay each month
- Whether you have too many employees
- Patient retention rates
- Number of patients you or other providers see each month
- Reception wait times
- Marketing expense summary
Financial Benchmarking
Track the financial health of your practice through measurement of key financial metrics, including:
- Payer reimbursement rates by procedure
- Payer trends & contracts
- Collections process
- Claim rejections and denials
- Accounts receivable days outstanding
- Rejected insurance claims
Advanced Planning
Significant improvements to your practice require thoughtful planning and long-term commitment. You and your office manager need to work together to establish the benchmarks, but the office manager should prepare the reports and track any differences. Benchmarks are useful in identifying what is possible, so it’s important that your efforts incorporate recent data. Study those medical practices that have the best scores, to create a short list of benchmarks to incorporate within your practice. But remember, it may require substantial changes in your day-to-day routine and even staffing to improve operations, which will ultimately be used to improve financial markers.
It’s important to change or modify the benchmarks any time your office environment changes, such as hiring a new practitioner or more staff, or adding an EHR system. After you identify where improvements should be made, it’s essential to implement the changes quickly. It will be much easier to make these changes if you keep your staff informed, especially your office manager, and take their input to which metrics need to be monitored.
The next step explains the impact of benchmarking on your staff.
AdvancedMD Benchmarking
The experts at AdvancedMD have the solutions you need to boost revenue through benchmarking. We offer solutions to help you succeed by systematically implementing each tip mentioned in this guide and helping you along the way.
AdvancedBenchmarking
Our most accurate way to compare your financial performance to peers in your geography & specialty.
AdvancedInsight
An entirely new way to measure, manage & control financial performance
Learn more about AdvancedInsight through our 60-second video expert series.
