Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 73)

THE GREAT PRACTICE MAKEOVER TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS ASSOCIATES TIPS FOR AN OFFICE MANAGER WHO WANTS TO SOLVE STAFF RETENTION PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY START. BY SHIRLEY GRACE To the average hourly medical practice worker, office manager Baishali Mallik probably sounds like a dream boss: Her chief concern at the moment is the staff’s happiness. “I’m fortunate and blessed to have these good employees,” she says. “But how do I keep them and motivate them and make them feel that their teamwork is valuable?” An excellent question, and all the more impressive because Mallik has thought to ask it now, before trouble strikes. Or at least, trouble she can control. The practice has already weathered a major disaster of another sort: Hurricane Katrina. Based in Marrero, La., just 10 miles south of New Orleans proper, Mallik’s husband, Tilak Mallik, is the only endocrinologist for miles around thanks to the hurricane. In fact, Dr. Mallik’s entire staff dispersed with the über-storm, including one-and-a-half providers who shared the practice’s clinical load. “You can imagine with the population here in New Orleans — he’s swamped,” says Mrs. Mallik. Imagine, too, how frustrating the practice’s recruitment efforts must be. “No one actually wants to come to New Orleans,” she says. Mrs. Mallik is grateful she even has a staff, and she’d like to know not only how to keep them but also how to help them coalesce into a high-functioning, supportive team. WHAT DO THEY CARE? IN SUMMARY Take the following steps to pre-empt problems with staff retention in your practice: • Gather data to establish performance benchmarks. speciﬁc goals and payouts. • Set up a bonus program with • Institute other, nonmonetary rewards, aimed at both the group and individuals. Even before Katrina, the staff was in ﬂux: Dr. Mallik’s nurse of 20 years retired, and he has been unable to secure a replacement he ﬁnds 100 percent satisfactory. After all, the long-time nurse “knew if he moved his ﬁnger, what he wanted,” says Mrs. Mallik. “Cindy was like that — very dedicated.” Between Cindy’s 2002 retirement and the August 2005 hurricane, Mrs. Mallik tried out nurse after nurse, ﬁnally shifting to lower-cost medical assistants, as they seemed to serve the practice’s needs as well as or better than RNs or LPNs. Today, in addition to the Malliks, the practice staff consists of two front-desk workers, one biller, and two MAs — all full time — and one part-time clerk who assists with ﬁling, answering calls, and so on. A new nurse practitioner is scheduled to start soon, too. Finally, a physician assistant came on board in January 2006, but health issues preclude her from working at present. Mrs. Mallik says that the “Cindy Replacement” MA has potential, but she is “still on the superﬁcial level. Anything demanded of her, she’ll do it, but she doesn’t understand why.” This seeming lack of initiative could be evidence that a staffer feels little or no personal investment in her place of work beyond a paycheck, which begs the question: Are there opportunities available for employees to embrace the underlying mission, values, and goals of their employer? In short, what’s in it for them? Speaking of mission, values, and goals, what are these? The Malliks should make sure they have spent time carefully developing these three critical entities, as they are essentially a practice’s raison d’être — a written manifesto of why the practice exists. Lots of speciﬁcs are needed here. Of course you want to make money and take care of people in need, but how much money? How many people? What about next year? Five years from now? What is most important to you? Growing your patient base? Instituting technology? Expanding your clinical offerings? And how can your staff help the practice get there? What reward do you offer if they make the practice’s goals their own goals? Which brings us full circle: When you deﬁne your mission, values, and goals, it becomes obvious that you can’t do it alone. And because you need help, you agree to divvy up the spoils. MONEY TALKS You can’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you are right now. So take a snapshot of various aspects of your practice to establish some benchmarks, such as the percentage of revenue consumed by overhead, average length of time accounts languish in A/R, percentage of patient copays collected at time of service, patient wait times, patient compliments and complaints, and more. Some of this info can be culled from your practice management system — a “days in A/R” report, for example, APRIL 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 73 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

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

Physicians Practice - April 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain Noteworthy Cover Story: Trial Lawyers Tell All Management: When It’s Time to Change Ask the Experts Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is? The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean? Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball The Administrator's Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction Start It Up: Finance - Mastering the Numbers Game Coding The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - April 2008

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