August 31, 2007 – 8:07 am
The latest podcast from SoundPractice.net is an interview with Owen Dahl, MBA,, author of Think Business! Medical Practice Quality, Efficiency, Profits on the topic of the true cost of seeing a patient. It’s mainly for MD’s, but the principles are the same for any CAM practice. If accounting isn’t your strong suit, there’s a good review of the differences between fixed, variable, direct and indirect costs, and a few other interesting tidbits.
What I found most interesting was a question Dahl posed: what’s it worth to your practice to see one extra patient a day? It’s worth pondering. Even if you’re not overflowing with clients, those cancellations, missed appointments and other avoidable gaps really do add up if you do the math.
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February 13, 2007 – 6:48 pm
The latest podcast from SoundPractice.net is “How To Stay On Top of Practice Finances”.
While all the podcasts are for MD’s, there’s usually something good in there…
SoundPractice.Net
August 28, 2006 – 12:08 pm
The new yellow pages came out in our area last week, so as usual, I took a spin through to check out the competition. To my surprise, some of the newer practitioners in the area had chosen not to advertise. Our area is pretty thick with chiropractors, and the number of naturopaths and TCM practitioners is on the rise, too, so I was curious why a new practice would overlook this choice. A yellow page ad is relatively inexpensive here.
I’ve always been a fan of the yellow pages. You can find a list of good reasons here, as well as a list of negative aspects here.
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At E-Myth Worldwide, you can complete a short questionnaire that ranks your business on a few different scales.
While the results are generally geared towards getting you to buy E-Myth products and services, the questions themselves and the simple results might get you thinking.
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It’s one thing to understand the types of referrals, but quite another to know which type is growing your practice. I’ve touched on this briefly before, but I want to stress it further.
Tracking your referrals is actually pretty straightforward, but often neglected. For the most part, it’s a front-line job, and needs to happen the first time a patient arrives. The easiest way to do it is to make it part of your intake form. It’s very difficult and far less accurate (and less likely to happen) later on in the patient cycle. The great thing is that it’s easy to implement - if you’ve got staff, just make it part of the new patient process. That’s it.
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Based on the last metrics post on new patients, we’ve got some idea of how many new patients we’ve got coming in the door for any given time period.
Let’s go a little further, and see how many active patients you have in your practice. The term active is going to mean something a little different for everyone, depending on your modality and how you operate your business. Naturopaths, for example, might consider anyone seen in the last year as active. A chiropractor, however, might consider monthly or even weekly visits as the cutoff point. It’s up to you, but make sure that your definition of active meets these requirements: Read More »
The first post in our new category of “Practice Metrics” - the numbers that affect your alternative health practice. Let’s start with some basic data on new patient visits.
Even the most robust practice will eventually start to dry up without a supply of new patients. For starting your tracking your new patient numbers, you’ll want the following information:
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I like to think of every new patient as a referral, even the ones that come in from direct advertising – I find it’s an easier way to build a new-patient strategy. Here’s a way to break down your referrals into 5 categories.
Patient Referrals
Still ranking as the best source of new patients in my book, existing clients tend to refer other people who will also find success with your approach. And they’re so easy to market to – it’s a captive audience whose contact info is (or should be) at your fingertips.
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(Click here for Part 1)
When you buy a practice, you’re making an investment – you’re putting your money somewhere in anticipation of it multiplying. So just like stocks, mutual funds, or your savings account, you want the best return on your investment (ROI).
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March 22, 2006 – 12:09 pm
“I’ve got an opportunity to buy some patient files from another chiropractor, but I think the price is high. How do I know how much to pay?”
Good question. Let’s assume for the moment that buying files in general is a good idea. (I think it is.)
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