Accept the never-ending quest to improve efficiency

I've been a runner for over 15 years. This is longer than I've been married, held any job or even carried a driver's license. While I've seen my share of fitness fads come and go over the years, I've for some time felt confident that I've mastered the mechanics of left-right-repeat. Surely, if there's anything I know how to do, it's this.

Then I signed on with a new coach, who very clearly demonstrated that a fundamental flaw in my form has likely been slowing me down for the past decade and a half. Like a lot of runners, I have a tendency to lean too far back, losing precious time and energy getting my foot back in front of me with every step (about 2,000 of them per mile, give or take).

In competitive running, as in business, efficiency is the name of the game. And as two top stories in this week's FiercePracticeManagement point out, there are always opportunities for practices to more rapidly put one foot in front of the other (for better or worse, the treadmill analogy of today's medical practice is an apt one).

In fact, when it comes to optimizing patient flow, it's not a bad idea to literally go and count the steps employees have to walk in order to make a patient encounter happen--and see where you might be able to work the tangents. Is the photocopier closest to the people who use it most? Are staff carrying out tasks in the best possible sequence, or do they lose time with unnecessary back and forth? Is your automated phone system so complicated that patients circumvent it by pressing zero?

While each of these tweaks might represent just seconds a day, multiply those seconds over days, weeks and years, and you'll see that you can't afford not to be relentless about streamlining your operations.

Increasing turnover--the good kind--is also critical to your billing cycle. As practices know all too well, the longer balances go unpaid, the less the payments are worth when finally collected. An array of technologies are available today that can almost completely automate and guarantee timely patient collections. Yes, there's an expense and effort required to get patients and staff assimilated to anything new. But isn't it worth exploring?

No matter how great the benefits, however, there's no question that change is hard. If you've implemented an EMR, for example, you know it can be a slow and painful process to get the point of saving any kind of time. Just like changing the way you walk or run, altering the very basics of what you do day in and day out may feel awkward and off balance for some time before once again coming naturally.

When you get there, of course, it's probably time to adjust something else. - Deb