Your ENT practice has been running for a couple of months, or even years, but your revenues seem to have stagnated. You’ve tried seeing more patients, but this isn’t having the desired effect on your revenues. Now you are fully stretched to the limit and have no capacity to just “see more patients”.
What do you do?
The answer lies in revenue optimization, a practice that attempts to create efficiencies in order to realize greater revenues from the same amount of patients you already care for.
There are two approaches to this: the first is to optimize your RCM (Revenue Cycle Management), and the second is to optimize your practice itself. Both have an equal part to play, but in this article we’ll focus on how to optimize your current ENT practice and turn it into an ideal medical practice.
An ideal medical practice has the following characteristics:
An ideal medical practice has the following characteristics:
Focuses on Patients’ Needs First
Medical practices are “people businesses”. They rely heavily on interpersonal relationships and communication while conducting business. For such a business, your focus must be on what is best for your patients. This means taking time to understand their needs and taking steps to consistently meet these needs.
For example, if most of your patients are tech savvy, forcing them to come into the office or call to book an appointment does not meet their needs. Having an online scheduling portal that allows them to book their own appointments would work better. In addition, providing patients with quality and personalized healthcare every time they come in will go a long way to helping them feel valued and that their needs are being met. When customers feel this way, they tend to keep coming back, thus ensuring continuing revenue.
Utilizes Technology Fully
Underutilized technology is the largest efficiency challenge facing ENT practices across the US. This typically occurs when a practice invests in expensive technology, but the staff fails to utilize the technology properly.
To optimize revenue from your investment, you must continually train and build capacity in your staff to properly utilize the available technology. Turning your staff into ‘tech ninjas’ is one way your practice can transform its operations and improve efficiency. This efficiency is what translates into more stable revenues, providing a solid return on investment.
Balances Quantity with Quality
Some practices mistakenly believe that serving more patients automatically translate into higher returns. While a boost in patients may increase your revenues in the short term, the cost of running your business may go up and your overall quality of service may diminish. These factors may actually have a larger, long-term negative impact on your revenues.
Businesses across industries face this challenge all the time: Rapid growth boosts revenues in the short term, but by losing focus on the customer, they end up leaving for a competitor while leaving negative reviews of your business.
Don’t rush growth if you want to survive and thrive for the long haul. Allow your otolaryngologist practice to grow organically as you put in place the necessary structures to support growth and optimize revenues for both the short and long term.
