Some practitioners forget that regular monitoring of activities plays a vital role in determining the success of the practice. They feel that continuous cash flow is enough to determine that the business is thriving.
Nitin Chhoda reiterates the importance of the practice fundamentals and how reviewing of detailed information on the practice is valuable.
One of the fundamentals of health care practice management is working smart, not hard. For many therapists, practice management is one of life’s great mysteries.
Some clinicians hire expensive firms to manage their clinics, while others prefer a hands-on approach.
What EMR Has to Offer?
EMRs offer the tools to manage a practice as efficiently as any high-price practice management firm, while allowing clinic owners to keep a finger on the pulse of their business.
Information is knowledge and EMRs provide a wide array of data, facts and statistics to market any practice successfully.
The goal of any physical therapy practice is to be a financially sound enterprise with growth potential. Practice management and business owners have been taught to offer patients the best treatments possible, but they don’t receive training in how to manage a clinic.
They spend endless nights trying to decipher an array of disjointed information, arrange it into a coherent whole, and decide how to best use it for the clinic’s benefit.
What many don’t want to acknowledge is that their practice is a business and it must be operated as one.
Reimbursement claims have to be submitted in a timely manner, delinquent accounts must be addressed and payments collected from patients.
Even asking for money that’s legitimately owed can be an extremely unpalatable task of therapists of a practice management.
An EMR offers the tools to accomplish all those tasks and provides a whole office solution that will place practices on a pathway to profitability and efficiency.
Lessons to Learn
The first lesson to be learned through practice management is that a clinic may appear to be solvent on paper, even as it’s experiencing an exhausted cash flow. Therapists should view every encounter and opportunity as a marketing tool. Networking with other medical professionals is an important source of referrals and increased revenue streams.
In a well-managed practice, therapists know exactly how much it costs to provide a specific service, attract new patents, and pay the bills each month. EMRs provide the tools to track and monitor the best payers, clients who are most likely to self-terminate treatment, and referral and retention rates.
A practice management and physical therapy documentation systems ensure billing and coding is being conducted that provides clinics with the highest level of reimbursement.
Marketing is an essential part of practice management if a clinician is to grow the business, retain current clients, and persuade new patients who need services only in a specific clinic can provide.
Physical therapists know about the best treatments for their patients, but often feel lost and adrift when contemplating marketing strategies. Practices differ widely and there’s no one-size-fits-all magic formula, but the key ingredient is to stand out above the dozens of clinics vying for the same customers.
Therapists Must Always Keep in Mind
Perhaps the most important rule of practice management is never become complacent. It’s the difference between practices that are simply surviving and those that are expanding and regularly adding new patients.
Complacency has killed more practices than any other factor. Therapists must constantly strive to reach new clients, improve their range of services and become the clinic that others heartily recommend.
Practice management encompasses an extensive number of tasks, from scheduling staff and submitting timely reimbursement claims to communicating with patients and providing treatments. EMRs provide the tools to accomplish all those jobs efficiently and with an increased level of productivity, allowing therapists to work smart, not hard.
