Blog by Corinne Z. Wohl, MHSA, COE

Whatever your practice plans and goals are for 2017, one thing is certain. Tidying up the 2016 loose ends and preparing your practice for what’s ahead prepare you for the upcoming challenges.

Many middle managers did not start out with their current position being their dream job. Circumstances prevailed, and they found themselves being offered or told that the supervisory position was theirs. Very often this promotion appeared because they were terrific at “doing the job,” as a great biller or ophthalmic tech. If they were lucky, they happened to be an informal leader, anyway, and this gave them a step up toward success in their new management position.

Here are the last two key points to help guide associate track physicians to become strong business partners and to help owners determine which associates will be the best partners:

Continuing the list of key points to help guide associate track physicians to become a strong business partner and to help owners determine which associates will be the best partners:

You have signed the contract. You will now work together for about the next 2 years, while evaluating each other. Will you want to be business partners in the future?

Administrators must be super-organized. Facing the challenge of wearing numerous hats at one time requires planning. Unless she runs a very large practice, administrators are the main force behind the human resources, IT, marketing, outreach, finance, billing, credentialing and regulatory departments. And, if you want the practice to keep growing, let’s not forget the high-level work required for strategic planning, benchmarking and practice development. Of course, the managing partner role in a practice strongly coordinates with these efforts, but you should depend on your administrator to keep the pace.

Between increasingly picky payers and voracious electronic health record demands, your practice’s information technology department is becoming the beating heart of your practice, with zero tolerance for downtime, delays or false starts.

In my last blog, I discussed the benefits of streamlining administrative tasks by monitoring key benchmarks on a regular basis. An internal comparison to your own practice, quarter to quarter, is the most important, as you track your own progress over longer time frames.

Managing an ophthalmic practice includes many complex processes. It is as important to streamline administrative tasks as it is in the clinic.

One important lesson I’ve carried through life from my dad is this: People will treat you as you expect to be treated. I think this is fundamentally true; in one way or another, we all send out signals and expectations to those around us.