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is a question and answer forum featuring
leading practice management experts who may or may not be
employed by Physicians Practice. On average, Physicians Practice
receives 170 questions per month from physicians, office managers,
office administrators and others. Have a question about the
operation of your practice? Visit www.PhysiciansPractice.com.
Your question will be answered within three business days.
Q.
How can I reduce
staffing costs?
A.
There are a number of ways to reduce staffing costs without
making staffing cuts. Here are some simple things most practices
can do to cut costs:
Technology:
Technology can be a great money saver. For instance, consider
using technology, rather than staff, to "scrub"
claims. Using software to check for obvious inaccuracies —
the name is in the right field, all required fields are filled
in, etc. — can be cheaper and quicker than paying someone
to manually review claims before they are sent. Also, you'll
save staff time in claims appeals by reducing the number of
"dirty" claims. You can also ask physicians to enter
claims into handheld devices, such as Palm Pilots, as they
work. Using new technologies may not replace a full-time position,
but it may ensure better use of staff time.
Redundancies: In many practices,
the simple task of taking a message involves five people and
a stack of paper. Review your office procedures, such as registration,
prescription refills, message taking and the like, to see
if there is a way to simplify things.
Tasks and training: Match
the job to the jobholder. In other words, do not use highly
paid and highly trained staff for mundane tasks. Don't have
nurses pull charts. Don't use physician assistants as surgery
schedulers. Free these people to generate income, and make
better use of the lower-cost staff. In this way, rather than
cut staff, you can simply focus staff where they are most
valuable.
Misuse of high-cost staff
has a way of creeping up on a practice. Set aside time to
take an objective look at who is doing what in your practice.
Q.
I
had a great first interview with a practice I want to join.
We’ve just set up a second interview. What should I
expect to happen this time around?
A. The
second interview is usually more of a "fit" interview.
The practice you want to join has accepted your background
and educational experience; that was the purpose of the first
interview. Now the question is how well you would fit into
the practice. Does your personality work with those of the
other physicians? Do you have a common work style?
You'll probably meet
with a larger group of people, and they will discuss how you
would mesh with the group.
Let your personality
shine through, and meet as many folks as possible. You'll
want to see if you fit in the practice just as they are evaluating
you.
If you move on to a third
interview, you'll want to do three other things:
- Look at the community.
Could you really live there? Could your partner or family?
What's the cost of living? Answer all your questions about
the area.
- Ask to meet with the
administrator. What's the financial status of the group?
Use this opportunity to get a feel for the management of
the practice.
- Make sure you thoroughly
understand the compensation package, including benefits.
If salaries are based, in part, on productivity, make sure
you understand what you will need to do to meet expectations.
Ask how many physicians in the group meet which cutoff points.
Will the practice help you learn to be more productive in
your first year or will the other physicians resent you
taking new patients?
Q.
I
just hired a new physician. How do I tell if the hire is working
out — before it's too late?
A. Every
month, count the number of new patient appointments and compare
them to the total number of appointments scheduled. Plot this
ratio on a graph, month after month. The number of new patient
visits should stay steady or grow month to month.
If the number of new
patients falls, that may be a sign that those patients prefer
not to see a new physician. However, a drop might also indicate
poor scheduling procedures (schedulers are forgetting to send
new patients to the new physician) or office politics (a more
established physician has told schedulers to keep sending
new patients to him). |
