By Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD
A new year is upon us. Your patients need a yearly check-up and so does your practice. Here is a 25-question checklist to work through to see if your practice is healthy and ready for the year.
Answer each question with either a YES or NO answer. When you are finished, count up the number of NO answers. Use the chart at the end of the checklist to determine the health of your practice.
Yes
No
Practice Check-Up
1
Have you set financial goals for the year?
2
Does the practice track Key Performance Indicators?
3
Does the practice have an effective strategy for managing managed care plans?
4
Did you raise your fees in thepast year?
5
Is your practice utilizing Medicare-compliant software in a meaningful way?
6
Is your practice a C-corp, S-corp or an LLC?
7
Do you have a practice mission statement?
8
Can each staff member repeat the practice mission statement from memory?
9
Are you actively applying the mission statement to every patient encounter?
10
Does every staff member have measurable goals?
11
Do you have at least weekly staff meetings?
12
Do you have an effective recall system?
13
Do you have an effective system to gain new patients to your practice?
14
Do you track return on investment for your practice marketing activities?
15
Does the practice utilize a marketing calendar?
16
Are you fully staffed?
17
Is your staff adequately trained and proficiency tested?
18
Does the practice have an up-to-date policies and procedures manual?
19
Has the policies and procedures manual been reviewed by an attorney?
20
Do the practice owners meet at least quarterly?
21
Does the practice have a Direct Cashflow statement reviewed by the owners at least monthly?
22
Is the practice P & L statement reviewed by the owners at least quarterly?
23
Is the practice balance statement reviewed by the owners at least yearly?
24
Does the practice internally audit at least 10third-party billing records yearly?
25
Do you quality control patient visits to your office?
Scoring – Count the number of “NO” answers.
1-3 Excellent Your practice is managed very well.
4-6 Caution You’ve identified a few areas needing attention. Fix these quickly.
7-9 Concern You need to put more attention on the management of your practice.
10+ Emergency Your practice is in immediate danger. You need to fix the practice now.
We’ve all seen patients where we’ve identified a problem only to have the patient ignore the solution. Your practice is no different. Ignoring practice problems and solutions does not make them go away–it just compounds the problems. If, by utilizing this checklist, you find problems, don’t procrastinate; fix the problems as soon as possible.
Once your practice is healthy, to keepit healthy, you need to spend at leastone hour per week working on your practice instead of inyour practice. This investment of time makes your practice more efficient, your gross and net income higher and your practice satisfaction level greater.
Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD, professional co-editor of ROB, has anextensive background in practice management. He is the founding partner of a nine-partner, three-location full-scope optometric practice, which he sold in 2007. He works with practices of all sizes as CEO of Pathways to Success, an Internet-based practice management firm. To contact him: mwright@pathways-o.com.
