5 Ways to Optimize Your Practice
Making continuous improvements to the business of running your practice is central to its success and sustainability. If you’re not spending equal time managing your financial books and your appointment books or connecting with patients online and in your office, you could be missing out on easy opportunities to optimize practice operations that support delivering a higher standard of care.
1
Do the math.
You’d be surprised by how few small businesses have a clear picture of which daily, weekly and monthly numbers they should measuring and how often. When you understand what information is important to measure the health of your practice, you’ll be able to make more confident decisions about all facets of operations that contribute to overall success. If you lack financial skills, consider hiring a bookkeeper or accountant, but commit to staying in the loop.
2
Set goals.
We’ve all heard the saying—those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Setting goals and objectives can help you to define areas of focus and serve as an ongoing reminder to encourage consistent progress for your practice. For example, you might set a goal of writing personalized recommendations for each patient at every visit. More recommendations can lead to increased patient adherence to your protocols and help you retain patient refills.
3
Diversify your income streams.
Whether you are a one-person operation or managing a team of practitioners, your practice would probably benefit from finding multiple ways to generate income. Many practitioners diversify with writing books, online programs, and more, but a simple start is building an online and/or physical supplement dispensary and offering your favorite therapeutic & lifestyle products to patients. Diversification is an important pillar of practice success.
4
Leverage technology.
When and where it makes sense, use technology to make things easier on yourself and on your patients. Just like we’ve seen patient communication move from telephone to email and now text, we’re watching patient buying habits move from your office and brick-and-mortar stores to online retailers that may not be able to guarantee the authenticity and quality of what’s being sold. Setting up an online supplement dispensary on Wellevate provides peace of mind (what patients think they’re buying is what they get) and lets you, as the practitioner, see that they’re following your plan.
5
Stay on top of trends.
Keeping an eye out for new research or discoveries in your area of specialty is a great way to stay up to date on products available to you. Your favorite brands may have updated formulations, new dosage options or new formats, or new ingredients may be entering the market that could really enhance your patient success. Knowing what’s available or coming soon helps you stay ahead of the curve and minimize disruption to patient treatment plans.
