If your staff has trouble finding patient charts, supplies are often not ordered in enough time, patient billing is backlogged, or supervision of staff takes up a good deal of your time? Then disorganization is costing you a lot of money!

 

We have all witnessed these shortcomings in medical offices: patients frustrated at having to wait in the lobby well after their appointment time, unfriendly or unresponsive staff, missing or incorrect information in medical records, etc. The lack of organization in medical practices cuts profits dramatically.

 

Putting business systems in place is like laying a foundation for a building: a successful medical practice. How well the foundation is laid will most definitely show down the road—everyone can see how your office and staff and service represent you. Think you can take shortcuts and depend on "great staff" to fill in the gaps? Well let me remind you of those unhappy patients. More than ever in these days of group practices and physicians visiting multiple hospitals and offices, organization is vital.

 

So what does organization look like? Well, it starts by outlining the goals and purpose of an office or practice. You would be amazed at how many times I consult a business owner or office manager who cannot give me a clear description of their Valuable Final Product! What is it exactly that your medical office is intended to produce? Every medical practice is a business, and every business must produce a consistent product or it will not continue to stay in business.

 

Another important part of organizing a medical office or any other business is outlining the product flow. What must be done, step by step, to create your Valuable Final Product? Every staff member has a function, and that function is vital to the smooth operation of the business—the creation of the Valuable Final Product. If a staff member's duties are not clearly defined and written down, that person will be unable to consistently contribute their part, and the whole office's production will suffer.

 

It is only after all this planning is done that a system that will enable each person to understand how their function contributes to the Valuable Final Product can be designed and implemented. After roles are defined, staff must be trained in their roles and trained to track their own performance. Each person's duties should add up to an individual product for that person, and each person's product should add up to the Valuable Final Product of the company.

 

Now you're probably thinking "how can we possibly get all that done and run the office at the same time?" When a business opens its doors or opens an additional office, this catch-22 frequently arises: trying to make money while implementing a system to create efficiency. It's almost impossible unless you are getting help from someone or you have an individual completely devoted to doing just that. So, what most businesses end up doing is having good intentions but gradually forgetting them, caught up in the never-ending urgency of the moment.

 

If, on the other hand, that physician or office manager goes to the trouble of creating the proper organization before they start or has the foresight to hire someone to design and implement systems in their office after it's operational, the picture looks far different. The staff are relaxed and pleasant. They know what they have to do and they are capable of getting it done. They track their own performance and ensure that they are consistently and adequately contributing to the whole. The ones who didn't produce have long since become obvious and been replaced by team players.

 

Here, communication is clear and streamlined. Medical records and billing are accurate and up-to-date. Patients are handled and treated promptly. The office is running efficiently, so overtime and waste is eliminated and profits are good. Additionally, whereas before those frustrated patients were complaining to their fellow patients, now that word-of-mouth is working in your office's favor, and new patients are continually arriving.

 

So, if you think getting organized requires time or money you cannot afford, think again. Organization is the difference between losing money and making money, between staying late and leaving when planned, between going home stressed and going home satisfied. The truth is, it isn't more work to run a well-organized business or medical practice. Rather, getting organized leads to more income, more time off, lower stress, and a happier, healthier life for you and your staff!