Using the economic downturn to improve your practice.

Recently, I touched on four areas that a practice can look at in order to improve efficiency and profitability, even in the toughest of economic times. Below,  I offer four additional ways to help improve the way your practice runs.

Negotiate expenses and reimbursements.
No one will offer to charge you less or pay you more. Renegotiate insurance contracts regularly to see what you can get. Challenge vendors and landlords to provide supplies at a la lower cost.

Improve customer service.
Patients have choices. Tough times are the best times to challenge your staff to step up their customer service in order to build loyalty and drive referral. The entire staff should be trained in internal marketing so they can answer patient questions and inspire confidence. Don’t underestimate the value of a fresh pot of coffee and a warm smile.

Invest in marketing, intelligently.
When consumers are delaying their healthcare and shopping around, it’s more important than ever to keep your practice top of mind. How do you expect new patients to find you if you are not out there telling them about what you do? However, make investments wisely. Survey patients to find out what communication is bringing them in–often expensive yellow pages drive less than 1% of business while an effective website and online campaign can double business.

Go electronic.
Now is the time to invest in EMR. Not only will it make you money by streamlining your billing and claims processes, you can take advantage of government incentives to adopt an EMR system. A study by the California Healthcare Foundation said some doctors’ offices saw financial benefits of more than $20,000 per year per physician when they used electronic records. According to a study by the Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, electronic prescribing can save doctors $845,000 per 100,000 patients.

The fact is, many physicians are loath to think of their practices as businesses and to run them that way. For these physicians, running a practice is a real distraction from practicing medicine. I suggest you keep your talents and energy focused on what you love to do and what makes your practice money–caring for patients. Put a strong administrator or practice management consultant in place to run your business and make sure you’re collecting every penny. During these economic times, it’s more important than ever.