Do you know how many times you’re interrupted throughout your day?
Most private practice owners can’t count the number of daily interruptions they face.
*Your bookkeeper has questions about your latest reconciliation report.
*Your front desk staff has scheduling issues that need your immediate attention.
*Your billing administrator is stuck on a Medicare reimbursement problem.
*Someone forgot to order supplies.
And that’s just the first hour of Thursday morning.
These constant interruptions make it impossible to concentrate on your top priority work. At Practice Freedom U, we call those top priorities your high-energy activities—the work that is most meaningful and rewarding to you and delivers the biggest returns for your business.
Constant interruption and perpetual distractions are common problems for practice owners who are accountable for making every decision and resolving every problem that arises in their practice’s daily operations.
The solution? Transfer accountability to your staff, empowering every member of your practice team to handle problems, make judgement calls and enact decisions without your direct involvement.
Increasing employee accountability means you’ll be much less essential to the minute-by-minute, day-by-day running of your business. That translates into far fewer interruptions. And THAT means you get to use your time more efficiently, get more of real value done in fewer hours, and get out of the office and home to your family.
Here are 4 ways you can start improving the accountability of your practice team:
Give them a vision to work for
That’s where your vision comes in. Having a strong, clear vision for your practice gives everyone on your team a mission to work for. It’s the first, essential step to developing real accountability among your staff.
Just the other day, I talked about the importance of sharing your vision for your practice with other people. (Missed that video? Check it out here.)
Set clear expectations
Your employees can only be accountable for what they truly understand. Be clear and specific about what you expect from each member of your team, and what success looks like. That starts with a training and onboarding process that equips each employee with the information and resources they need to do their jobs successfully—not only the what, when, and where, but also the why.
Measure results
How do we identify success? We track and measure results. From productivity and net revenue per visit to cancellation percentage and new patient generation, there isn’t a role or responsibility in your practice that can’t be measured for progress and success. Once you start tracking results, you and your team can use this information together to troubleshoot what’s working and what isn’t, on your way to achieving even bigger returns.
That’s positive accountability in action.
Model accountability
As this recent article in Inc. describes very well, accountability isn’t something we can force on our staff. It’s based on a sense of ownership of work that is part of a practice’s culture. And that starts with you. As the leader of your practice, show your staff what accountability looks like in your own actions. When our employees see us step up and acknowledge our role in both successes and setbacks, they’ll feel safe and empowered to do the same.
Interested in helping your team improve their accountability and taking back control of your own time?
For a limited time, get your FREE copy of my Patient Visit Multiplier, a guide to how to engage your team to deliver bigger, better results.
We’re here to help!
By Jamey Schrier
PT, Founder & CEO, Practice Freedom U
August 19, 2020
5 minute read
