12 Days of Practice Management Consulting
Make 2024 your best year yet! Join us for Williams Group’s 12 Days of Practice Management Tips as we share our best advice.
Do you want more information on Practice Management? Contact us here.
Practice Management Consulting
An innovative, relationship-based consulting program for independent eye care professionals across the United States and Canada will help you find the joy in being an optometric business owner with EPIC, proven pillars of success.
It doesn’t matter where you are at in your private practice journey, we’ll work together to create a custom plan to achieve your goals and long-term business growth with innovated, relationship-based consulting programs.
Billing and Coding
The gift of getting paid for the work you do starts with a team that has the necessary skills and knowledge.
Does your team have the necessary skills and knowledge to bill insurance properly and get paid?
Is your team prepared for the new codes that come with the new year?
Learn the basics and begin to understand the fundamentals of checking benefits, submitting claims and getting paid “in a timely manner.”
Do a revenue cycle audit to ensure you’re getting paid properly as profit margins continue to shrink.
- Choose 10 patients from a month ago who bought products.
- Pull chart notes, patient ledgers, lab orders, lab invoices, insurance EOBS, and any re-do orders to create a full audit packet for each patient.
- Analyze each step of that cycle for each audit.
Use this as a discovery exercise, not a disciplinary action to scold your team members. Share the audits with the team and brainstorm ways to improve your billing and coding processes.
We have multiple courses within the Optometric Success Center to train your team on a consistent process.
Schedule Management
Become a master in the art of schedule management. Take a deep dive and learn what experts embrace to successfully manage the patient schedule from day to day.
Nothing else matters without patients.
- Understand your emotional capacity
- Do a time audit - know how long an average appointment takes
- Build a profitable schedule that feeds off of a great practice culture
- Know what, when, and how to communicate with your patients
- Teach team members how to slide the schedule
Training your team on the heartbeat of your practice is vital to the success of patient flow, satisfaction, and retention. Build a schedule that relieves the day-to-day stress of seeing patients in optometry and bring back the joy.
We have multiple courses within the Optometric Success Center to train your team on mastering the scheduling of private practice.
Team Morale
Creating an environment for your team in which they have a satisfying work-life balance to provide exceptional patient care can be difficult to achieve. Start by having regular communication with each team member. Set personal and team goals. Allow your team to have a voice and give ideas on how to improve daily tasks.
A culture in which your team members are engaged is a successful practice.
Have a plan in place to keep your staff engaged with
- Team building activities
- Annual retreats
- Community projects
- Host lunch and learns
- Employee recognition programs
We have multiple courses within the Optometric Success Center to improve team morale and build a culture that leads to a successful practice.
Staffing
Build your Dream Team by recognizing: the right time to hire, the best tools for recruiting (we have them), who to hire, and how to welcome them to your team (we know how, and can teach you.)
- Create clear, concise written job descriptions.
- Communicate policies and procedures with an employee handbook.
- A structured approach for interviews.
- Structured timeline for onboarding and training
We have multiple courses within the Optometric Success Center to help with building employee handbooks and training for your staff.
Onboarding
Now that you’ve taken the time and energy to find your next new team member, be sure to follow through by providing them with an exceptional onboarding experience! You must make them feel valued, welcomed, and well-prepared for the job ahead.
Develop a plan of action for onboarding your new employee. Items on your plan should include:
- Employee documents for signature
- Training schedule
- Employee handbook
- HIPAA training
The Optometric Success Center Library gives you a road map to create your own custom new employee onboarding procedure that will keep them coming back to work each day with a smile.
Tip: Once the job offer has been accepted, send your new team member a Welcome! card signed by the whole crew. Provide a goodie bag on their first day and a physical place to call their own (chair, workstation, cubby) so they immediately feel grounded.
Compensation
“Stop thinking of staff as an expense and think of ways they enhance what you are trying to create; one of them being; how is the person going to influence both top and bottom-line revenue, and am I creating a path for them to be successful in doing something great for the patient, while allowing them to generate revenue?” G.C. 2021
And in turn, how do I compensate them fairly for their contributions? Ring in the new year with a compensation model that is a win for all – patient, team and practice.
- Know what a competitive salary is for your area
- Develop a rewarding compensation model the whole team participates in
- Have an onboarding path to success
Our talented team of consultants can help you develop a win-win compensation model and our Optometric Success Center will give you that onboarding path to success.
Leadership
As the business owner, you must balance delegation with clear direction all the time. In optometry, the owner is often also an eye care provider. So, on some days, leadership of business care often is secondary to patient care.
Improve your leadership by:
- Asking your team to do a personality assessment will help you understand how they learn and what their strengths are
- Show your passion
- Allow your team to bring ideas forward
- Encourage creativity
- Always remain positive
Tip: Lead your team even on those busy patient care days by offering specific words and actions of thanks for a job well done to those who deserve it. Encourage all team members to do the same with each other. A culture of gratitude and acknowledgment is a great foundation on which to build.
Increasing Efficiencies Without Increasing Expenses
We all fall into routines and do what we’ve been told to do or what we’ve done in the past. Take time with your team to really analyze the common processes in-office.
- How many times do we touch the patient record during their visit?
- Can we eliminate any double entry of data?
- Is there unnecessary paperwork we can remove?
- Can we integrate an instrument so data flows seamlessly from one part of the exam process to the next?
- Is there a way to minimize foot travel for the eye care providers?
As a team, brainstorm ideas to reduce time and paperwork. Get creative here. Just be sure to have an action plan in place and keep the entire team involved in the process so everyone is on the same page and understands the flow
We have multiple courses within the Optometric Success Center to increase your practice efficiencies without increasing your expenses.
Associates
It’s an exciting time to bring an associate into your practice. It’s important to identify why you want to bring another optometrist in.
If you are ready for practice growth, more personal time, or turning your practice into an investment, hiring an associate may be your next step. Be sure to take these key questions into consideration.
- Have you been in practice 5 to 10 years?
- Are you booked weeks in advance?
- Do you have enough patients?
- Can you afford to pay an associate?
- Is improving your work life balance important?
- Are you adequately staffed?
Be prepared for the interview process and get an Associate growth plan in place.
Our Focus Associate OD program can help you with planning and executing your practice growth of bringing on a new associate.
Follow Through
Holding your team accountable can be difficult. Develop a plan and stick to it. If you are part of the leadership team, you must be the role model of the behaviors you expect from the rest of the team.
Tired of people showing up to work late? Make sure you are always on time.
People not completing projects you’ve assigned or they have volunteered to do? Take a look at your own project list and take care of overdue projects on there.
Take note of the times people do demonstrate the expected behaviors and tell them privately and specifically that you noticed and appreciate this.
Follow through starts with the leaders within a practice.
If you need help with holding your team accountable and developing a follow through plan, our Executive Management Program can help.
Patient Care
Keep your patients returning to your practice with 5 STAR Patient Care. It’s easy to believe that we are the best in providing great care because we all care, but it is important to evaluate the care we are actually providing. Ensure you are excelling, and retaining a sustainable, positive reputation and financial prosperity.
Walk in your patients’ footsteps to get an understanding of the care they are truly receiving.
- Use a team meeting to engage the whole team
- Designate a notetaker
- Begin from the parking lot. Follow the path a patient would.
- Direct attention to positives as you notice them as well as opportunities as you see them. Notetaker should write down everything
- Brainstorm and prioritize changes needed within your flow
- Set up an action plan with deadlines and assigned personnel to keep your patients returning
Ensure you are excelling and retaining a sustainable, positive reputation for financial prosperity!