One of the easiest things to identify from the outside is a struggling practice. You can look at the numbers and see declines in revenue, new patients, net patient outflows, etc. from month to month and see that things aren’t as they should be.
One of the hardest things to do is to identify that practice while you are in the middle of the storm running the practice. Oftentimes, an owner will not seek help until it’s way too late. The last patient has walked out the door and the bank account balance has more numbers after the decimal place than before it.
Over the years, we’ve heard a number of repeated phrases from owners in denial or with a rather Pollyanna view of the future. Here are some of them. If you hear them or find yourself saying them, you might want to review things more closely or seek some further assistance (we’re here to provide that assistance if you wish).
Things will probably turn around soon
No, they probably won’t. Expecting a sudden sea change in the economy, a competitor to quit and take up windsurfing or Justin Bieber to tweet about your practice is a waste of time and hope. Without some sort of material change, things will not suddenly just get better. If results aren’t good now, you should expect them to continue to not be good unless you’ve implemented something to unseat the trend.
Things have been a bit better
I want to focus on the word “bit.” Small improvements are usually nothing more than a small deviation from the mean. And basic statistics teaches us that regression to the mean is both normal and expected. So, if you are getting 5 new patients in for a consultation each week, and then you get 7 in the next week, you should not conclude that things are 40% better than they were in the past week. Rather, the expectation should be that there will be 3 consultations next week – thus, regression to the mean.
Maybe things actually are a “a bit” better, but if that improvement doesn’t come a result of some change you made in your business, chances are that you are simply seeing a short term fluctuation rather than actual long term improvement.
We did [insert statistic here] back in [insert old date here]
I once had a client in Indiana who had a fantastic first month with 67 new patient contracts. After that boffo opening, a variety of factors conspired to drive performance lower. 2 years after that first month, with the office generating under 10 new contracts per month, the doctor told me, “We started 67 patients in one month. We’ll be fine.” Really? Not only was that number history, but those patients who started then had finished treatment and payment.
The point here is that folks hold on to a good number, no matter how far in the rear view mirror it might be. Please live in the now and address the situation as it currently stands.
We just have to wait for [insert event here] to happen
The event could be anything from the busy season starting to that Wal-Mart opening up next door to your office. And sometimes those good things do happen. But, like #1 above, don’t sit back and wait for an external event to save your business. Evaluate what can be done internally. That’s because not all external events come to pass: that busy season could be riddled with hurricanes (2005, anyone?) and even some Wal-Marts fail.
My advice: don’t guess or hope or let some outside force dictate how successful your practice will be. Attack the problems early and get them solved.
So, if you find yourself repeating any of the mantras above, what should you do? Fire an e-mail to bpalmisano2@gmail.com and let us go to work for you.
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