A recent report by a top medical group uncovered a major difference between top-tier medical practices and their underperforming counterparts.
As per the report, the best performers extensively used healthcare analytics for making vital decision, while the underperformers were way behind with this regards.
However, the good news is that it’s possible for you to do the same as top performing medical practices. Here are a few tips on how to use healthcare analytics to give a new lease of life for your medical practice.
Tracking Metrics that Matter the Most
Of course, pitting your practice against industry benchmarks is quite essential to measure your performance, but where do you start? You can’t essentially rely on metrics that don’t really matter to the success of your business. Hence make sure that you use analytics and zero-in on metrics related to the two most important objectives of business, i.e., patient satisfaction and profitability.
Here are some of the useful metrics that you can use to benchmark:
- Total operating costs
- Net collection rate
- Staffing costs
- Charges and visits per physician
- Accounts receivable (A/R)
- Patient visit times
- Ability to collect payment quickly and so on
Each of these measures gives you detailed insight into how your practice is running today. If you aren’t benchmarking your practice using these measures, it is strongly recommended that you start doing so.
Documenting Processes to Lower Operating Costs
The financial success of your business depends on how effective your internal systems are. Hence use analytics to evaluate and implement the most effective way to optimize every back-end business processes from billing and collections to hiring and compensation. Once this is done, document each and every process so that there is no deviation from the path.
By documenting processes and creating consistent operational processes across your practice you’re essential identifying gaps and improving your processes over time.
Recognizing the Need for Continuous Improvement
One of the most common traits among top performing practices is that they give utmost importance to patient satisfaction. They prioritize analyzing patient behaviors and identify areas that need improvement. Once this is done they share those insights with physicians and staff so that they can continually adapt, learn and grow.
Continuous Tracking of Progress
To keep your medical practice on the path of success, you need analytics. You should use analytics to measure your progress against the objectives that you have set for your business.
While you may be pleased or even outclassed your expectations, measuring yourself against the industry’s top performers could help you identify that there is still work to be done.
The Bottom-line
A medical practice can achieve monetary success only by concentrating on attributes that give them positive outcomes. For this they have to use healthcare analytics to glean from data and obtain intelligence.
