Whether you were just starting your practice or have been in the business for several years, you always want to make sure that you are providing the best experience possible. Not only does this increase customer satisfaction, but it can also increase your bottom line. One of the best ways to keep your practice up to date and improve is through medical practice assessments. Some practices perform this on their own with medical practice assessment checklists, and others may hire a company to do it for them.
Regardless of which path you choose; medical practice assessments can help your practice in more than one way. In fact, you can use these assessments to even grow your practice.
The Breakdown
- Medical practice assessment checklists help medical professionals evaluate the health of their business.
- You can complete this process in-house or outsource.
- Your checklist should be tailored to your specific practice and specialty.
Medical Practice Assessment Checklists in Action
A medical practice assessment checklist is essentially a test or set of objectives to measure the performance of the medical practice. This checklist can focus on specific parts of your medical practice, or it can be more generalized depending on your needs. Some of the common medical practice assessment checklists include departments or operations such as:
- Front Office
- Billing Department
- Human Resources Department
- HIPAA Compliance
- Marketing Department
- Risk Assessment
- Inventory Assessment
- And other areas!
All of these operations are vital to medical practice and can have a significant impact on your performance. Using a medical practice assessment checklist is one of the best ways to review those services to ensure they are up to industry standards.
Again, you can hire someone to perform an assessment for you. This can cost several thousand dollars; however, you gain a much more objective view. Additionally, you can use a medical practice assessment checklist and perform the audit on your own saving you time and money.
6 Benefits of Medical Practice Assessment Checklists:
1. Improve Practice
The goal of any assessment should be to gain a better picture of your practice and keep up with industry trends. Having an assessment checklist will give you the opportunity to review your practice in a more objective light. You can compare your practice to others in your area as well as industry leaders. Doing so can give you some actual goals to hit for your practice. Even something as simple as improving your front office efficiency can bring tangible results.
2. Charging the Right Pricing for Services
One of the most common reasons for using a medical practice assessment checklist is to make your pricing competitive. A common task is comparing prices or services to other practices in your area. From that data, you can re-adjust your pricing based on factors such as inflation, market rate, price fluctuations, etc.
3. Measure Staff Productivity
Having a checklist is a great way to measure exactly how productive your staff is. You can measure things like:
- Number of tasks completed
- Timeframe to complete tasks
- Number of workers needed to complete a task
- And other variables as well
4. Boost Revenue
Do you find that your revenue is dropping significantly? It’s time to check the financial health of your practice. This can mean reviewing your collections, pricing, accounts receivable, and more financial pain points. From there, you can identify where your business can improve. For example, a new medical billing software could help you fix billing inaccuracies or inconsistencies.
5. Spot Weaknesses
Medical practice assessment checklists allow you to spot weaknesses in your business. They give you a roadmap to review and better refine your services. This is also the perfect time to conduct audits or search for fraud in your business. Healthcare fraud is becoming more common, whether that’s directed at patients or practices. Use this time to build up guardrails for your employees and protect your business.
6. Conduct Market Evaluation for Medical Practice
Do you really know your place in the market? Do you understand who your competition is and how you can adapt? A checklist gives you the ability to know your and their market evaluation. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your business and your competitors is key to building success in a large community. It’s best to conduct a market evaluation at least once or twice a year to measure if your practice is gaining market share.
Downloadable Medical Practice Assessment Checklist:
This is a sample medical practice assessment checklist that you can download for your practice. It is generalized and may not appropriately address practice specialties. Use this example and others to craft the perfect assessment for you!
Looking to Improve Your Practice?
If you are looking to improve your practice and your medical billing cycle, 360Connect can help. We help clients find medical billing solutions every day! Just fill out our 1–2-minute form, and we’ll reach out to you to confirm your details. From there, up to 5 suppliers will contact you with 100% free quotes! It’s that easy!