Which practice is your practice like?
Your answer may be the most important piece of information you’ve needed in your career.
This is a story of two identical practices in terms of number of doctors. Same size staff, same number of patients, same everything. Let’s call them “Doctor Happy and Loving It” and “Doctor Frustrated and Burning Out.”
Doctor Happy collected $1.2M in her practice in the previous 12 months. She worked in the clinic seeing patients, including surgery hours for 1,221 hours. Her practice generated $989.00 every hour it was opened and seeing patients. She makes it home for dinner almost every night and rarely, if ever, has to catch up on her work on weekends. This is family time for her.
Doctor Frustrated collected $349,720 in the same 12 months while working in his clinic a whopping 2,036 hours. He and his staff generated only $172/hour. His nights are filled with catching up on charts and often he is distracted on the weekends with the endless work he needs to get done. He wonders why no one told him it would be like this.
Your answer is most likely somewhere in between these two real-life examples. Yes, these numbers are from one practice in the southern US and one in the Midwest. As stated, there is no difference in the size or demographics of these two very similar practices. There is however one critical difference: Doctor Happy and her staff are managing their time, treatment rooms, resources, and schedule extremely well. Doctor Frustrated and his staff are so buried under paperwork and staffing issues that they can’t manage their practice well at all.
It’s likely that you and your staff find yourself somewhere in between. This is a good news/bad news scenario. Bad news if you are closer to Doctor Frustrated than Doctor Happy. Good news because if you know how to fix these issues, you can change your circumstances, make more money, be less stressed, get your life back, and enjoy your chosen profession much more.
How? “My daddy once told me, if you are going to walk through a minefield, follow somebody.” -Charlie Hoffheimer
In other words, you need a guide and you need a plan. And here it is:
YOUR GUIDES:
YOUR PLAN: The New Course from Top Practices Practice Management
Run Your Practice Like a Top Practice
Everything you and your (management) staff need to know to run your practice efficiently, make more money, and reduce your stress.
Starting on October 21, 2021, Dr. Wishnie and Ms. Del Buono will lead a course designed specifically to enable you to fix your practice management headaches and become a Dr. Happy yourself. And you get to decide exactly what that means for you.
Here is more information:
- This is a six-week live coaching program lead by Dr. Peter Wishnie and Tina Del Buono, PMAC.
- Each session will be approximately 90 minutes long and will take place on Thursdays at 8:00 PM Eastern.
- Each session will have clear and detailed instructions on how to implement the protocols, policies, and plans to set your practice up for success with your management personnel.
- The cost of the program includes the doctor and their manager to attend the course together as this is the best way for them to both be on the same page as they work together to bring the practice to the next level of efficiency and success.
- Each week of the course will cover a critical step that will instruct you on how to move closer to the goal of running your practice with a shared vision, having management staff that knows what their purpose and goals are, and staff members that are trained and eager to become more engaged with you, and the part they play in moving the practice mission forward to reach the practice's goals.
- Each week you will receive a worksheet and any additional handouts or forms that will help you and your manager to set up a clear plan to execute to achieve the practice's goals.
- You will receive three books as foundational tools as you complete this course. Dr. Peter Wishnie’s “The Podiatry
PracticeBusiness Solution”, Tina Del Buono’s “Truths from the Trenches”, and Rem Jackson's Podiatry Prosperity. All books are included in the program price and will be sent to you prior to the course start date. - Two private 30-minute Zoom sessions are also included with either Dr. Wishnie or Tina for you and your office manager to assist you in setting your practice up for success.
It’s Not Your Fault That Managing Your Practice is So Difficult,
But If You Don’t Fix It - THAT is Your Fault
Run Your Practice Like a Top Practice Coaching Sessions
Session #1: “You need to know what you want before you can create what you want”
In this first session, we will tackle the task of creating the foundational floor plan of what your dream practice would be like. King Solomon said, “Without a vision, the people will perish.” If you want a successful practice you need to define what that means so those that work with you will be able to understand and clearly see the vision you have and the road you want them to help drive your practice to reach it. This is where clarity starts for you and your team.
Session #2: “How to build a solid working relationship with those that help run the practice”
Building a working relationship with your manager or key personnel, one that really works, is essential to the overall process of running a successful practice. In this session, we will cover the topic of management staff job descriptions, accountability for their tasks, and reporting. No two practices are alike and if there are no instructions with expectations and protocols for management staff to follow, then trouble is bound to happen at some point. It is all about the physician and manager working together knowing the plan and how to achieve it with realistic goals and expectations. Far too often this relationship is left to chance which causes stress, resentment, loss of revenue, and staff. Setting this relationship up for success is a critical part of being able to achieve having a successful practice.
Session #3: Communication: Physician/Manager/Staff
When you work with people you are bound to have problems and the number one reason for these problems comes from misunderstood communications. In fact, every practice, organization, company always reports that the number one problem in their organization is communication.
In this session, you will learn how to significantly and permanently improve your communication skills. Communication is the key to running the practice you want successfully. We will also discuss how to have successful conversations where the message is given and received with correctness and understanding, which is not easy. We will also cover the topic of conflict resolution.
Ask any employee, who states their manager or employer is awesome, “Why?” Most often, they will tell you it is because they listen to them. Hearing what people are saying is one thing, listening to what people are saying is another.
Working on your communication skills is an ongoing process. Taking the time to listen to someone is not always easy, especially when you are at work. Speaking clearly so others understand what we mean is difficult at times and it takes skill and time to get it correct.
Just ask yourself, “What causes most problems in your practice?” We bet the answer will be communication misunderstandings.
Session #4: Setting Staff Up for Success
This coaching session will cover how to know how many staff you need to run your practice successfully. How to hire the right person for your practice is essential as hiring mistakes are very costly. We will cover hiring procedures to ensure that you are making the best choice. We will also cover what positions are necessary, what are the actual job descriptions, tasks, and responsibilities for each position. We discuss how to set up a successful training program that works and continued educational growth for staff. Finally, we will cover how managers and physicians can have successful interactions, meetings, and reviews that cause staff to feel valued and become more engaged with the practice.
Session #5: Creating an “A” Team of Peak Performers
The key to creating an “A” Team is leadership. In this session, we will cover how to be the best Physician Leader and Manager Leader for your practice. There are differences in the roles between Physician Leader vs Manager Leader. They both support each other as they grow and support the team they are creating. You are not a leader unless you have people who want to follow you, and this takes understanding what leadership is. Dr. Peter Wishnie is a Certified John Maxwell Leadership Coach, and he and Tina will be discussing what it takes to be a leader, and how to grow the leaders around us as physician leaders and managers.
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about caring for those you are in charge of.” ~ Simon Sinek
Session #6: Getting Started
In this last session, we will spend time on setting up plans of progress for each person as they move forward in developing a vision and plan for success for the practice. Having practice goals and knowing your numbers is important and the whole team needs to be focused on the practice’s daily goals. We will discuss goals, numbers, and why everyone needs to know them and be onboard. We will then cover how to set up an action plan for each team player, so they know what they are to achieve and be responsible for. Many times, it can feel overwhelming to even begin and with an action plan in place. You will be able to have a road map that you will follow, turn-by-turn, to achieve what your practice goals are. Getting started is half the battle and as Thought Leader, Brendon Burchard says, “The time to have the map is before you enter the forest.” We will be discussing how to create your map for success in this session.
If you have questions about this program or any Top Practices Management Program you can speak with Tina Del Buono or Dr. Wishnie.
Cost: $1495 for up to two attendees ($1195 for Top Practices Members with Coupon Code toppractice21)
Ready to make a big change for the better?