Systematizing the Office
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Richard Busch III
DC
Systematizing the office involves creating detailed workflows, delegation, and project management. These strategies enhance efficiency, accuracy, and profitability, creating a thriving practice.
As businesspeople, we need to ensure that what we’re doing is consistent and profitable. With wellstructured plans in place, we help people recover faster and navigate challenges with fewer surprises.
In 2008, I wrote an article titled “Systematizing Your Practice” for The American Chiropractor magazine. You should check it out if you haven’t looked at it recently. Here is a link: https://theamericanchiropractor.com/article/2008/l/l/how-to-systematize-your-staff.
One of the most important things in practice is understanding that we are not just practicing, but we are businesspeople. As businesspeople, we need to ensure that what we’re doing is consistent and profitable. Considering that, everything we’re dealing with on a daily basis involves some of the same situations. If we make sure that we have a plan in place to manage those situations, we can help people get better quicker and deal with fewer surprises. What we are doing is working to help people get well.
In the age of the Internet, everyone is looking for a better deal or a better result. I’m always looking for the best result, and I know most of our patients are too. So, if we give those patients the best result, we can make sure they are not going to look elsewhere for other care.
Often, I hear patients talking about the fact that my office mns like a well-oiled machine. I can say that because it is a welloiled, well-known machine because we’ve systemized everything that we do. Everyone in my office mns the same “systems” repeatedly. We train and cross-train to make sure the staff knows what they need to do in any situation that may arise.
In any sport, there is a game plan to make sure that we get the
best outcome and that we win. If we start to look at our practices in the same manner, we will start to win too. In a prepaid case-fee cash practice, the game plan is the most important part of the process. Unfortunately, we do not approach our practices with a game plan most of the time. Most people don’t even approach them as businesses; their practice is more like a hobby. When we start to realize this is not just a hobby and it is a deadly serious situation, we can start to win again.
When adding new modalities or treatments to your repertoire, we often approach the new treatment like a new animal. In many ways, we try to reinvent the wheel. When you have a system that works, why change or complicate it?
Over the past 27 years of mnning a prepaid case-fee cash practice, we have added treatments for peripheral neuropathy, carpal tunnel syndrome, knee pain, and nutrition, to name a few. When we added these “treatments” to the practice, I was presented with the question of what needed to change compared to what we already did.
The answer I realized for every case is that we didn’t need to do anything new. If you are running a well-oiled machine that works and is predictable in financial and results outcomes, it can be repurposed in every aspect of your practice. That is why my practice has been so successful over the years.
One way to systematize an office is to create a detailed workflow for each task. For example, create a workflow for handling patient inquiries that includes steps for answering the phone, responding to emails, and handling complaints.
Dr Richard E. Busch III has been in private practice in Fort Wayne, IN since 1996. He has built one of the largest spinal decompression and cash practices in the world. Dr Busch has also trained many chiropractors and medical doctors in prepaid case fee cash practice. For more information go to Cashmasterpractice.com: 5005 Riviera Ct., Fort Wayne, IN. drbuschdfbuschchiropr actic.com or 888-471-4090.
Another way to systematize your office is to delegate tasks to specific employees or departments. For instance, assign a specific employee to answer the phones, handle billing, and manage different treatment departments. It can help ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and accurately and help prevent mistakes or oversights.
Finally, consider implementing a project management system to keep track of tasks and deadlines, which would include dayto-day operations as well as implementing new projects and therapies. By having a system in place, you can ensure that daily tasks are completed on time, correctly, and within budget, which can improve the profitability of your office.
If you are not running a cash practice in this era of high deductibles, lower reimbursements, and lower approvals, I highly encourage you to investigate it. This decision alone could be the difference between the life and death of your practice and business. Create a plan to switch at least part of your practice from the insurance model to cash. I personally recommend the “prepaid case-fee cash model,” but you can follow whatever path you like.
I also recommend getting a coach to make the transition. Make sure they have practiced successfully in the recent past, and ensure that what they are doing is ethical, profitable, results oriented, and effective. You will not run a cash practice for very long without great results. Free yourself from the shackles of the establishment and live the most profitable, stressfree, and successful practice life you can imagine!
