New Year, New Practice

New Year’s resolutions get thrown around a lot these days, so much so that they have become as trite as memes and as fleeting as fireworks. Will these resolutions become more than just a social media shoutout? When was the last time we committed to it? The truth is, there is often more weight on the “new year” than on the “resolutions” part.

However, if we look past the cliche and the pressures of social constructs, we find that the new year is a perfect time for reflection, for shedding bad habits, and reassessing our comfort zones. And this translates directly to our businesses and jobs. What’s in your healthcare practice that needs a makeover? What needs an upgrade or an overhaul? What are the better business practices that drive better outcomes and, ultimately, more profit?

That sounds like a lot of work for something to start doing on a holiday, but don’t worry! We’ve got a few pointers here to focus your evaluation and get you started.

1. Build a Website for Your Practice

Having a killer business website is a great way to increase your market presence. It isn’t just a gimmick, it’s now a necessity for companies that want to stay relevant. A custom website that showcases your practice’s offerings connects you with more patients, adds more credibility to your specialty, and makes you more searchable on the web—and that’s a big deal because these days, 80% of patients start their healthcare online, and they would choose the provider with a strong online reputation. Creating a website for your practice (or revamping your old one) can give you tons of benefits. Read more about these benefits here and start building your website today.

2. Get Feedback From Your Patients

While we’re in the mood for reflection, why not get more perspective from the ones who experience your services firsthand? Conducting patient surveys is a great way to improve your patient satisfaction ratings this 2020, and it helps you identify areas of improvement that you may not have noticed before on your end; areas such as staff performance, check in process, patient engagement, and overall practice culture. In a way, it’s your patients’ turn to diagnose you, and help you fulfill your new year’s resolutions in the process.

3. Know What’s Ahead, and Gear Up for It

Every year, there will be new healthcare buzzwords, new trends that prevail over others and largely influence your business. Throughout the new decade, technology will continue to significantly transform the healthcare industry. Now is the best time to do an inventory of your practice and see what’s out of date and what could be upgraded. We made a list of top healthcare trends to help you which areas to focus on. Whether it’s technologies like mHealth, telemedicine, and cloud hosting; or new business models and federal regulations changes, we’ve got suggestions to help you know where to start.

4. Check Your EHR and its Integrations

While we’re on the topic of technology, check your EHR version and see if you’re maximizing its capabilities. If you are using an EHR software that integrates well with other services (such as patient portals and online bookings), check with your account manager what value-added services you could utilize to smoothen the bumps in your workflow this 2020. Or better yet, switch to an EHR brand that carries everything that you need at any point in your care process. A great all-in-one system like IMS can help you build an ecosystem of programs and services for a more seamless digital workflow, complete with 24/7 expert support. Plus, you get free data conversion if you sign up.

*Free Data Conversion offer only applies to new IMS clients. Billing data or any data not in the required format are excluded from this promotion. Offer expires on 3/30/2020.

5. Be More Patient-Centered

There’s no denying that all these technologies could increase the time you’re able to spend on face-to-face care. A study found that clinicians spend approximately 5.9 hours of an 11.4-hour workday on EHR data entry. That’s a significant amount of time you spend away from the job you love, the profession you trained years for. What if you could outsource your back office (and even your front office) to a highly trained, certified remote staff? Outsourcing is a great way to save up the time you spend on EHR data entry and save operating cost in the process. If you’re interested in top quality remote staffing services, DrCatalyst is a great resource for building your own dedicated remote team.

If you’ve made it this far, you might have thought of some more new year’s resolutions along the way. We would be happy to hear about them! You can always reach out to us at info@meditab.com.

We hope we’ve helped set the pace for your 2020 endeavors. If you liked what you read, consider subscribing to our email newsletter. We’ve got a lot more content for you to check out!