Orthotown July/August 2013 - (Page 10)

orthotown.com // message board One Full-time Employee Per $200,000 Collections? » Orthotown.com > Message Boards > Non-Clinical Topics > Staff/Office Issues > One Full-time Employee Per $200,000 Collections? t Is this an attainable staffing goal, or just wishful thinking? drrichardgill Member Since: 06/27/03 Post: 1 of 19 I read an article in Orthotown Magazine where the author claims we should staff our practice with one full-time employee per $200,000 of collections. [Editors note: The article being referenced is “Is Your Overhead Under Control?” by Edwina Wood and appeared in the June 2011 edition of Orthotown Magazine.] If this is the case, I am overstaffed by two employees. My question is this: Can someone shed some light on this figure/goal and is it truly achievable? If it is an achievable figure, I need to continue to downsize/adjust my practice’s staffing. Hope some of you can help me here! n Dr. Richard Gill JUL 1 2011 Dr Van Halen Member Since: 01/07/05 Post: 2 of 19 Yes, John McGill gives this same metric frequently in his newsletter. One has to run a tight ship to attain that. He also mentions using some part-time employees if you can. n JUL 1 2011 drgscott Member Since: 03/09/09 Post: 3 of 19 I think this ratio is realistic. It works for me. n JAN 3 2013 ellisjb Member Since: 05/09/08 Post: 4 of 19 Personally, I do not think this is reasonable unless the bottom line is your top priority, which is fine, but not how my office runs. We are overstaffed by about two as well, and have a few part timers in addition to the full-time ones. I will be the first to admit that there is some overstaffing, however during crunch time, there is no way we could run with any fewer staff members. We have room for growth. If we cut to the 200k/FTE ratio, then that would limit the ability to add volume. Of course, if this economy doesn’t turn around soon, we may need to toss out the “room for growth” plan and replace it with a “lean and mean” plan. That said, whenever there is staff turnover it seems that the docs pay the price for disturbing the status quo. The remaining staff kind of go crazy for the next few months worrying about their job, talking about change, debating over who will pick up extra responsibilities and fussing about not getting paid more for having to do more work. n JAN 3 2013 ucla98 Member Since: 09/28/07 Post: 5 of 19 There are certain positions that I cannot eliminate. I need to have all four FT employees to manage all three of my offices plus my wife’s perio office. There has to be one full-time live person at each of my offices to answer phone calls. If you feel your office is overstaffed and you can’t cut any of the positions, then you shouldn’t invest your money on the hightech stuff such as TeleVox automated phone calls, management software, digital X-ray machine, etc. Why let the machines (instead of your employees) do all the work? I keep everything non-digital so my FT staff have things to do (while handling all the phone calls) on the non-clinic days such as billings, calling patients, keeping track of payments, checking inventory, mopping the floor, hand-tracing the cephs, making ortho appliances, etc. continued on page 12 10 JULY / AUGUST 2013 // orthotown.com http://www.orthotown.com http://www.Orthotown.com http://www.orthotown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Orthotown July/August 2013

Introducing the Townie Choice Awards
Knowledge: Change Management’s Best Friend
Efficiency of Advanced Digital Technology for Orthodontic Treatment
The Challenges of Providing Low-income Children with Access to Orthodontic Care
Accelerated Tooth Movement Technology
Playing the Charity Card
One Full-time Employee per $200,000 Collections?
Pros and Cons of .022 Versus .018 Slot Braces
Orthotown.com Highlights
Wired for Success: What Makes a Great Treatment Coordinator?
You Should Know: Cloud9Ortho
You Should Know: Embrace Smiles
You Should Know: Forestadent (an update)
New Products
Ad Index

Orthotown July/August 2013