We rarely meet a healthcare professional who is not extremely busy. However, this “busy-ness” is not always caused by having too many patients. This is a bitter pill for some healthcare professionals to swallow, but many clinicians can improve the way that they manage their time, in order to earn a higher income. Also, even if a healthcare professional has too many patients, he or she may not have the most profitable mix of patients.
Our systems challenge you to take a look at how you spend your time, to assess your management practices, and to evaluate which payers and services are profitable for you. Sometimes the best answer is to renegotiate or cancel certain payer contracts; you end up seeing fewer patients and yet your profits increase. Other times we find that a healthcare practice does have room to see more patients, if it runs more efficiently.
At the same time, healthcare is becoming more and more competitive. It is important to stay on top of local market conditions and help to shape them, instead of reacting to unfavorable changes and threats when it is too late. To do that, you have to free up time from less valuable activities and make time for additional strategic activities.
We are all busy. The question is whether we are getting the best results possible in exchange for our precious time.
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