Yearly Archives: 2025

It wouldn't surprise you if I told you that, in my work as a practice management consultant, I often recommend big workflow changes. After all, it's my job to embolden my clients to take those big steps to improve their practice operations that they might have been anxiously avoiding. (You know, things like major technology upgrades or job reconfigurations.) It might surprise you to know, though, that I'm just as likely (maybe even more so) to urge my clients to look at the little irritations in their offices. That's because even though those aggravations feel small, their impact on productivity adds up. Practically every office has these kinds of pesky aggravations or tasks that never rise to the top of the list. They can pile up because people feel they're just too busy to deal with them, or, in some cases, they feel guilty about "indulging" in fixes that make things a little easier when practice management culture is often focused on frugality. The problem with that thinking is that addressing these persistent annoyances can actually have a big, recurring payoff. In the moment, your instinct might be to just tough it out and keep working around these types of annoyances (and ask staff to do the same). But it usually makes more sense to invest the time (and maybe some money) to fix them, even if you feel you're short on both. Here are a few examples that come up a lot: Cumbersome practice management reports: How much time do you spend every month running multiple reports, exporting to Excel (or, heaven forbid, keying the results into Excel), and then putting the data together in another workbook to get the stats and charts you actually wanted? It's likely your practice management system vendor could eliminate a lot of this rigmarole with a custom report. It might cost a few hundred dollars, but that would be a one-time cost. And that cost would be repaid again and again in hours you'll now have for other, more valuable tasks (like, say, thoroughly analyzing the reports and acting on them); Equipment that

Whether or not you should close your practice when winter weather gets extreme is one of those questions that every practice must figure out on their own. I've heard close/not close policy explanations from practice clients of all stripes that range from "when the roads are bad we'll always err on the side of safety, not just for our employees but our patients, too" to "if McDonald's is open and serving people coffee, why can't we be there to help our patients?" Guiding principles are useful, but there likely are considerations beyond the philosophical when it comes to closing up shop for a snow day. Local attitudes toward snowy conditions may matter. In New England, where I'm from, it takes a lot of snow and ice to keep people off the roads. But in southern states, the prevailing attitude is probably more cautious. If you're in a place where people are less comfortable driving in snow and ice, should you keep the office open? (Is it worth it to go the extra mile and keep your doors open for patients when you're not sure your patients will even show up?) Your specialty likely matters a lot, too. A patient with asthma and the flu (or the parent of said patient) may be desperate to keep their pediatric appointment, even if it means driving behind the snowplow. On the other hand, patients booked for a monthly mid-pregnancy check or regular visit with their endocrinologist might be happy to reschedule to avoid messy roads. The bottom line is you'll need to consider a lot of factors when deciding whether or not to close your doors. There's no automatic right or wrong answer. Do keep in mind, though, that the decision may be bigger than it seems. Above all, closing up shop for weather is something you should plan ahead for, so that if the need to close arises, the process will be efficient and you'll minimize the impact on the business and your patients. Know your potential revenue loss--and how you'll offset it A costly mistake practices sometimes make is underestimating the