Physicians Practice - January 2008 - (Page 67)

we use,’” says Weinstock. “The people who use the products know what is working for them.” Weinstock likes to reward the entire staff if someone comes up with an efﬁcient money-saving idea. “Have an ofﬁce-wide reward system if you can order something, keep the quality, and save money. There should be a reward not just for the person who ordered but for everyone, so everyone is working as a team.” But remember that some products aren’t worth the savings, Weinstock adds: “You know in your house what products you’ll use generic and what products you won’t.” It’s not worth saving $3 on cheap dishwashing detergent if the dishes don’t get clean. The same principle applies in your practice. DON’T NICKEL AND DIME could have billed out more than the potential savings they were discussing, he points out. Time might be better spent, too, dealing with more strategic issues or even collections. “It’s not about the overhead,” says Tinsley. “If I am able to go into a physician’s ofﬁce and have the ability to substantially reduce overhead, then that administrator should be ﬁred on the spot. Any practice should not be able today to substantially reduce overhead. All they are trying to do is keep it mean and lean.” In other words, look to stay lean, but don’t expect a little inventory control to take you from a ﬂabby couch potato to rail-thin supermodel. It’ll take more than that to transform a practice. ORDERING EASY It’s easy to get carried away cutting costs on supplies. “I tell physicians, ‘Please do not step over dimes to pick up nickels,’” Tinsley says. “Instead of sucking it up and strategically [asking], ‘How can we move this practice forward?’ they nickel and dime. It’s a time-waster and morale-killer.” Tinsley once spent an hour in a meeting with 10 OB/GYNs discussing whether to save a little by using plastic speculums instead of steel. Had the 10 physicians been seeing patients in that hour they IN SUMMARY Inventory management makes practicing easier and cash ﬂow smoother. To get everything in its place for less: • Be rigorous about keeping supply rooms organized. • Have one person in charge of placing orders — someone who loves a value, follows processes for refreshing supplies, and will track where items are ordered from and the promised price. • Shop for the best price, always. • Try partnering with other physicians — or suppliers — to get a better deal. If you have multiple ofﬁces, centralize ordering, advises Tinsley. A single staffer can balance the ﬂow of supplies through the ofﬁces, knowing that Ofﬁce A doesn’t need to order more hand sanitizer because Ofﬁce B is swimming in it. “One step in the approval process is that you can’t reorder anything without checking with another ofﬁce ﬁrst,” Tinsley suggests. How do you know when to reorder? No one wants to pay employees to count through boxes and paw through the supplies to see what’s needed. Here’s a simple ﬁx: on each shelf, for each supply, put a strategically located strip of tape. When re-stockers can see the tape, they’ll know just a few items are left and can place an order, suggests Denning. Other groups put a brightly colored index card by each item. When MAs open the next-to-last box, they are required to clip the index card to the front of the shelf, making it easy to see which items need to be reordered. Of course, for these systems to work, supplies have to be well-organized and easily seen. Invest in plenty of clear plastic tubs, bins, and whatever else will put supplies in order. Insist that staff keep the area neat. Whoever is in charge of ordering should also have a system for tracking orders. This can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet that lists each item, from where it is ordered, the date of the last three orders (to establish a sense of how often the supply needs to be refreshed), and the price paid. A system like this allows for continuity; if your staff person quits, someone else will know how and how often to order goods. It also makes for easy price-checking. “You might get a good price on some supplies once, then you never see it again,” says Denning, who is based in La Jolla, Calif. Suppliers will “negotiate a good price once, then see if you notice when they raise it. Most practices don’t.” Keeping an up-to-date record of what was ordered, at what price, makes it easy for whoever unpacks incoming boxes to review the packing slip and sign off that everything was received and invoiced at the right price. INNOVATE PARTNERSHIPS If costs are still too high despite bargain-hunting, it might be time to get creative. Practices that place large orders can successfully negotiate lower prices. Too small to wield such power? Why not get together with a bunch of other physicians to look big? “There is no reason why a lot of physicians can’t get together and READ MORE ABOUT IT! Visit PhysiciansPractice.com for more articles and tools on controlling your inventory: • Get tips for shopping smarter by typing “Wise Buys” in our Search Articles box. • Find out how one practice saved $600,000 with its no-nonsense costcutting measures by typing “Saving Spree” in our Search Articles box. online by clicking Mitchell L. Cohen in our “By Author” drop-down menu. • Discover one physician’s secret to saving WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM JANUARY 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 67 http://PhysiciansPractice.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - January 2008

Physicians Practice - January 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Fixing Medicaid Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks Noteworthy Cover Story: Fee Schedule Survey: 2007 Results Adding Ancillaries: Bucking the Practice Ask the Experts Idealab: 'How I Got Over My EMR Excuses' Technology: Don't Be Denied The Tech Doctor: Blessing or Curse? The Administrator's Desk: Learning From the Best Coding Career: To Partner, or Not? Management: Controlling Your Inventory Human Resources: How to Fire an Enployee Finance: Beyond Reimbursment - How to Fix Your Mix Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - January 2008

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