While it’s certainly true that you got into the medical field in order to make a difference in the health and wellbeing of people’s lives, it’s also true that you expect to turn a profit from your passion. In fact, as a medical professional, it’s likely that you realize that the costs associated with acquiring your educational and official credentials requires you to seek a profit even more so than professionals in other industries.
Balancing the desire for profit with the desire for delivering exceptional health care can seem difficult at times, but it is a responsibility that all in the medical community agree to take on after choosing and following their various career paths. If you’re currently finding it difficult to achieve this balance, below are four ways to increase profits while still delivering the best patient care possible:
Add One New Patient Visit Each Day
Although your day is already hectic and full of obligations to patients and staff, have you ever stopped to think about ways to streamline your schedule in order to add in one new patient per day? By doing this, you are effectively adding five new patients per week, or 20 new patients per month. Consider your average patient visit and see if you can find that amount of time each day that can be set aside from other tasks in order to get more revenue flowing. Of course, this needs to be done with caution as you don’t want to sacrifice patient care and attention simply to get more people in the office.
Delegate Responsibility to Enjoy Greater Profits
In keeping with streamlining services to see more patients, delegation is crucial. You or your staff need to have a clear understanding of each person’s role in your medical practice, and each employee needs to have the freedom to delegate tasks in order to work more efficiently. By delegating, you have the power to free up your schedule to work on time-sensitive paperwork and lab reports, add patient care services, and more.
Practice Better Coding
Among the top ways to lose money in the healthcare industry is to engage in improper medical coding. In many cases, an improperly coded patient file can lead to hundreds of dollars in lost revenue, and over time, this can add up to a significant amount of profit down the drain. Now would be a great time to have your administrative staff take ICD/IPT coding classes to ensure that they are up to speed on what standards are currently in place.
Ensure You Have a Solid Medical Office Software System in Place
Finally, embracing today’s medical technology and employing a practice management system is one of the most important steps you can take toward greater profits. Practice management software can handle a variety of tasks around your practice, including patient billing, record management, vendor invoicing, and patient services, such as sending out reminders for appointments and allowing patients to have access to additional practice services.
If you’re wondering whether your current office software is performing at its highest potential, contact PracticeSuite at www.practicesuite.com to learn how its innovative software solutions can help your practice maximize profits and offer greater patient care.
