strategic planning Archives

“If it ain’t broke,” maybe you still should fix it

This meme popped up on one of my feeds recently, and whenever it does, it makes me smile (and think). It's a picture of a horse tied to a lightweight plastic chair. The horse is standing patiently and obediently, presumably unaware that he could easily shake off the chair, break it, or drag it along and run away if he chose to. The caption is always some variation of, "The thing holding you back might be all in your head." Time to break free? It's an idea always worth exploring in my opinion. Whenever working on an intractable problem, I always seem to find that testing some assumption or another can lead to a solution. It's natural for business owners and managers to rely on assumptions. No one has time to rethink every workflow or financial policy or technology strategy every day (obviously). That's one reason why unhelpful or outdated assumptions can be hard to spot. It's a challenge that affects everyone, but perhaps especially very busy people who shoulder a lot of responsibility. What's more, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" or "that battle's not worth fighting" or "we tried that once and it didn't work"–some of the most common assumptions we make to help us keep things moving along—can be very useful maxims that help keep the to-do list manageable and avoid wasting energy. Even well-founded assumptions can outlive their usefulness as times change, though. And when they do, the same guideposts that once were so helpful can undermine progress. Part of my job as a consultant is to help practices identify and question their assumptions, to be sure they're still helpful. A mini case study I saw this play out recently with a practice that wanted to add clinicians but lacked office space, especially at the front desk. As a result of earlier expansion of the provider team, the front desk was already understaffed by at least fifty percent. ("We can't fix that. There's nowhere to put anyone else.") Despite this obvious constraint, the owners had an opportunity to hire two clinicians they really

By Morgan|2025-02-02T14:34:22-08:00February 2nd, 2025|

Authentic strategic planning for your medical practice

Medical practices are taking note of the importance of strategic planning, as they tread the unknown waters of healthcare reform and adapt to changes they may not have invited if given a choice. But do the key stakeholders of most private medical practices really understand what it takes to succeed with efforts to create and successfully execute a strategic plan? Do they know the importance of developing an authentic and that in order to be authentic it must be driven by the practice mission? If the strategic plan is not authentic in consistently delivering on the mission it is likely to fail. But if it is authentic, it will guide the practice in achieving its strategic goals. Start on your path to strategic success by keeping these essentials in mind while going through the strategic planning process. Begin the strategic planning process by making sure the plan encompasses what the practice is all about and what it represents to the community. This means the goals and the decisions outlined in the strategic plan must be aligned with the practice’s mission and vision. It is important to articulate the significance of this from the onset and revisit it as you go through the many processes of strategic brainstorming, goal-setting and formulating the written plan. This helps ensure that the decisions and actions identified in the strategic plan are authentic to your very purpose in being a medical practice. Next, identify what differentiates your practice from its competition. It is critical to examine market data to understand external factors that may impact the practice now and in the future. It is also critical to take an objective look at the practices strengths and weaknesses, exploring what opportunities this presents and what obstacles must be overcome. Sometimes, this is referred to as a "SWOT" analysis, for "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats." These analytical steps help the practice address issues it must contend with and make appropriate strategic decisions based on the reality of your market position. Practice-wide engagement is needed to succeed with implementing a strategic plan. This means communicating your strategic goals

By Judy Capko|2022-01-01T22:52:08-08:00April 22nd, 2014|

The cost of poor decision-making

We were recently called into a group practice where the physician owners of Struggles Medical Group were disillusioned with the practice of medicine. Their concerns were typical, shrinking reimbursement, dismal profits and the threat of new competition, as a large urban academic faculty practice was beginning to penetrate this suburban community. Sound familiar? This is happening around the country as a response (or reaction) to healthcare reform, where larger healthcare organizations see new opportunities to get a bigger piece of the revenue pie. Struggles timing was perfect for bringing this consulting team in and here’s why. We performed a detailed practice assessment, examining the implications of past decisions and analyzing the current state of Struggles Medical Group in primary areas of performance including practice structure, finances, human resources, billing, clinic operations and work flow and marketing. One physician owned this practice and the other physicians and providers were employed. We soon discovered the physician owner had a history of making bad decisions. They did not analyze return on investment (ROI) before making investment decisions that would impact the practice operations, finances and possibly patient care. A perfect example of Struggles poor decision-making was buying very costly diagnostic equipment that they were unable to use because payers were contracted with a lab to provide these services. This meant the investment was rendered useless to the practice. Besides this, with new models on the market every six month,s there was no way to attract another buyer for the equipment. There were other equally disastrous investments Struggles made over the past two years. The most recent strategic error was changing the direction of the entire practice. In their quest for new revenue opportunities the practice decided to focus on expanding its service to workers compensation patients. Attracted solely by somewhat higher gross reimbursement rates, they went ahead with this in this in 2013 without thinking of the implications with would have on staff, workflow and profit. This was a costly error. Workers compensation is a practice model that is significantly different from other payers and requires specific expertise in report writing and tremendous

By Judy Capko|2022-01-01T22:52:10-08:00January 10th, 2014|

Will 2014 be a better year for your medical practice?

This is certainly a reasonable question to ask considering the rapid-fire change, threats and unknown factors medical practices face due to the Affordable Care Act. But here are a few things you can do to deal with all of this. First, keep your eye on the ball. Don’t throw up your hands in frustration, but follow the news and the legislation that is likely to impact the way you practice medicine, your future stability and the care and service offered to your patients. Read everything you can and keep your cool. In other words, don’t throw your hands up in despair. Put the emotions aside and be prepared to respond. If you know what’s coming down the pike you can be practice-ready and take strategic actions rather than wait, feel the panic and be reactive, which typically leads to poor, costly decisions. Well thought out decisions will explore not only the potential threats, but the opportunities that are available to you and your colleagues without compromising your integrity or patient care and service. Next, look at the numbers. How well did your practice perform compared to prior year and compared to other practices in your specialty? Benchmarking will help you examine the trends so you can examine areas where performance was disappointing and seek ways to bolster them for next year. The numbers tell the story of past performance and give you an opportunity to set future goals that keep the practice stable and on financially solid ground. Don’t make squeezing cost a primary focus. Sure, it’s normal to focus on costs when reimbursement is tight and may get tighter, but in reality you can only squeeze costs so much. If you focus most of your efforts on costs you are likely to reduce quality and service. The highest expense for a medical practice is staffing, but the old saying: “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys” is true. Hire well – highly skilled and experienced people; respect them, pay them well and set high expectation goals and staff well help your organization to me more profitable. Physicians and managers can

By Judy Capko|2022-01-01T22:52:11-08:00December 23rd, 2013|

Inspiration from small businesses

I recently completed a series of articles for Kareo's Getting Paid blog about how small business management issues relate to practice management. While medical practices have an important mission that reaches beyond business, they can't achieve that mission without succeeding on business terms. And, in many fundamental ways, medical practices are not so different from other kinds of small businesses. There's a lot to be learned from examining the success factors that apply to seemingly-unrelated businesses. Plus, it's kind of interesting and fun to think about other businesses in the 'real world' and how they deal with their challenges -- almost like looking at your own organization through a different lens. If you're interested in checking out the Small Business Lessons for Physician Practices series, here are the links: Small Business Lessons for Practices: Human Resources Getting Started with Marketing Financial Basics Operations Management for Physician Practices

By Morgan|2022-01-01T22:52:40-08:00January 9th, 2012|

Tackling a long list of resolutions for your practice? Here’s how to start.

It's that time of year again ... when every goal you've imagined for your practice seems possible, and every problem seems fixable. So you make that long list of resolutions, but, by week two, you're already overwhelmed and discouraged. After all, there was a reason you didn't fix all those problems or implement all those big ideas last year: it was too much to do all at once. Before you get discouraged, start again. And this time, pick just ONE thing. Focus on that, and you can tackle it. And once that one item is conquered, you can then move onto the next. For more on this approach, visit this article from Harvard Business Review. Need help setting your priorities for success in 2012? We can help. Contact us for more information about our practice assessment services and practice management consulting. Let's make 2012 your best year ever!

By Morgan|2012-01-02T10:38:30-08:00January 4th, 2012|