APMA News - September 2011 - (Page 44)

Small Business 101 By John Guiliana, DPM Walking the Tightrope of Purpose and Profits At meetings held by the American Academy of Podiatric Practice Management (AAPPM), as well as those offered by other organizations, we are teaching doctors how to become more profitable. But if the sole reason for your practice’s existence is profit, you won’t be very profitable. Eventually, your practice might not even exist. The dollar isn’t the cause. Operating margins and return on investment don’t excite and inspire people. As an ultimate objective on its own, the pursuit of profit is hollow and unsatisfying. Such greed is one-dimensional. It exemplifies the “what’s in it for me” attitude. In general, few people today want to join a company that’s only out for itself. That attitude would be like showing a picture of a beautiful 40-foot sailboat to your team and saying, “If you all work really hard, someday this boat will be mine.” But if your practice isn’t profitable and strong financially, it won’t exist long enough to serve any other purpose. You need clear financial objectives, goals, and priorities. You can’t afford waste and inefficiency. You need strong feedback and measurement systems. That’s the paradox to be managed— practices that exist only to produce a profit don’t last long, and practices that don’t pay attention to profits can’t exist to fulfill their long-term purpose. There must be a balance between purpose and profits, and they must be in the right order. Fulfilling the purpose comes first, and then the profits will follow. The size of the reward depends on the value of the service we’ve given others. Many studies have proven that profits follow from worthy and useful purposes. The first step in establishing your practice’s purpose involves crafting a mission statement. A mission statement is a formal, short, written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. It’s the reason for your practice’s existence, e.g., “to enhance the wellbeing and comfort of those suffering with painful foot and ankle deformities by providing state-of-the-art podiatric medical and surgical services.” It’s important to collaborate with your team in creating the mission statement. Everyone must own it and live it every day. Once you have created the mission statement, all decisions you make, financial and otherwise, must support the mission. The next step is to create a system of measurement that will provide insight about your practice’s success or failure in achieving your mission. Practices can measure feedback from patients in a variety of ways: phone surveys, written surveys, or personal interviews. Most practices will want to use written surveys, which tend to be the most cost-effective, reliable approach. With a written survey, practices have the option of creating a questionnaire from scratch or using a product developed by 44 APMA News September 2011 a vendor such as AAPPM. I recommend the latter because the product has been tested and validated. Doing it yourself is certainly possible, but it can be time-consuming and taxing for the practice’s staff. Ask about the top three issues. Practices have three general goals when they interact with patients: to provide quality health care, to make that care accessible, and to treat patients with courtesy and respect. Your survey questions should therefore cover each of the three areas: quality issues (e.g., is the patient satisfied with his or her medical care?), access issues (e.g., is it easy to make an appointment or get a referral?), and interpersonal issues (e.g., are the physicians and staff caring and compassionate?). You may be tempted to think access issues are less important than quality (after all, what does waiting time have to do with competent medical care?). But understand that your patients think otherwise. Data from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has shown that patients place access issues at the top of the list of what satisfies them. • • Word questions carefully. Survey questions should be brief and easy to understand. Avoid asking biased, vague, or “double-barreled questions” (those that actually incorporate two or more questions). Instead, questions should be focused. Don’t ask, “How would you rate our staff?” or the double-barreled, “How would you rate the courtesy and efficiency of our receptionist?” Instead, dig deeper with a more specific question such as, “How would you rate the helpfulness of our receptionist?” • Use consistent scales. The majority of questions on a patient satisfaction survey should be answered using a scale. The most widely used and accepted scale that you’ll see quoted in the literature and used by the NCQA is the five-point scale that ranges from “excellent” to “poor.” The most important thing is to use a consistent scale. You don’t want to use a four-point scale on some questions and a five-point scale on others because you will be unable to compare the results. Creating and successfully managing and measuring your practice’s purpose is ultimately the only way to achieve higher levels of patient satisfaction and greater employee fulfillment and loyalty. It’s also the only strategy likely to help your practice achieve long-term, sustained profitability. n Contact Dr. Guiliana at Jguiliana@aappm.org.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of APMA News - September 2011

APMA News - September 2011
President’s Message
Contents
Highlights from the 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting
Residency as a First Step to Parity
Residency Consortium Enhances Podiatric Medical Training
The Value of Building Relationships with Legislators
Reimbursement
Federal Advocacy Forum
IT Consultant
Can They Really Do That?
Members Who Know Media
Technofile
Young Voices
Small Business 101
CPME Update
APMAPAC Chair Report
APMA All Stars
In Short
Worthy of Note
Affiliates Corner
List of Affiliated Organizations
Insurance Advisor
New Members
Death Notices
APMAPAC Update
Bylaws Propositions Due
Development Update
Annual Scientific Meeting Sponsors
Classified Advertising
Dates to Remember
Advertising Index
10 Questions

APMA News - September 2011