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.
Your Staff
As you implement benchmarking into your practice, remember to use your greatest asset: your people. Your success is dependent on your staff. Their buy-in and expertise should be used to establish the correct benchmarking. Likewise, their ongoing management and support is needed when modifications need to be made. After benchmarks are established and you receive feedback, it’s imperative to share the results throughout your practice. The information will be vital to their future performance. It will pinpoint whether changes are needed, or confirm if their current actions are justified. Communicating your strategy will only help clarify staff responsibilities and improve your operations.
In a study to understand key features on how to improve diabetes care, “Participants in higher-performing practices reported a stronger sense of team than did those at the lower-performing practices. The former described strong commitments to collective problem solving and shared decision making, as well as high levels of mutual trust, respect, and collaboration. In contrast, many staff in the lower-performing practices reported a sense that they were excluded from the decision-making process and were unclear on roles and responsibilities.”4
Relative to lower performing practices, “higher-performing practices described more structured and team-oriented processes for monitoring progress and for soliciting and incorporating feedback. In higher-performing practices, participants described using performance reports to create benchmarks and stimulate healthy competition among physicians. Higher-performing practices also reported more processes for reviewing and correcting data. Conversely, the processes for monitoring progress, obtaining feedback, and making adjustments based on performance data in the lower-performing practices were described as not as well developed.”5
Automate your Practice
The most efficient method to save time while implementing benchmarking is to automate your practice. The right cloud-based practice management system makes implementing practice benchmarking easier, by quickly streamlining practice workflow and setting you up on the right path to increase revenue. Since a cloud-based practice management system is easier and less expensive to implement, any costs are quickly recovered.
A good practice management system will greatly improve the claims process, which is arguably the most important aspect. It’s paramount to choose a solution that has claims scrubbing. Any errors on a CMS 1500 form will be flagged even before the claim is submitted, reducing the amount of resubmittals and increasing reimbursement time. A practice management system should store all of the different payer requirements and will display how actual reimbursement compares to the contracted amount for each payer. This will greatly simplify the benchmarking process, especially as you identify which payers pay the most and track their actual reimbursements by procedure.
Conclusion
Knowledge is power. By keeping your finger on the pulse of your practice, or establishing key benchmarking metrics, you will gain a much better understanding of how to improve your practice finances and operations. Dedicating the time now will pay off greatly over time.
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.
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
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4A Positive Deviance Approach to Understanding Key Features to Improving Diabetes Care in the Medical Home. Annals of Family Medicine, Inc. 2013
5A Positive Deviance Approach to Understanding Key Features to Improving Diabetes Care in the Medical Home. Annals of Family Medicine, Inc. 2013
