One of the hardest decisions you have to make as a supervisor is letting someone go from your company. When the time comes to make this decision at our clincs, we revert back to zero-based thinking and ask ourselves, “If I knew then, what I know now, would I have still hired this individual?” But the answer to this question shouldn’t have to come from a supervisor. If you are the owner of the company, there isn’t a supervisor to evaluate you. So how do you know if you’re doing well in your role? At the end of each month when I look back at the things I…

If your community is anything like the communities where we have Medical Practice clinics, you are not limited on the number of publication sales reps frequenting your business, leaving you voicemails, or filling up your inbox, all in hopes of getting you to spend your advertising dollars with them. With so many options, how do you know which publication to pick? Step 1: Look at Magazine Racks If the publication you’re looking at advertising in is a community magazine found free around town, make it a point to look at the magazine racks when you frequent different establishments where…

Just because you have a position open at your Medical Practice doesn’t mean your inbox will instantly be flooded with resumes – at least not with resumes of qualified and top candidates. So what can you do to get the word out about your new positions and recruit top employees? Post Your Career Opportunities On-Line The first place to start is by posting your job on-line. Every job posting should go on as many free places as possible. Your website, Craigslist, Facebook, LinkedIn are great starting points. Having an on-line job application is also a great way to increase the number…

In Marketing 101 you learn there are two types of ways to classify a business. The first is commonly called B2B, which stands for business-to-business. When a business caters directly to consumers, it is called B2C, which stands for business-to-consumer. So what is your business? An Medical Practice may be both. While your primary services are B2C, if you also offer occupational medicine, you are also B2B. While it is good to understand the difference between the two from an operational perspective, from a marketing perspective, I think it is more important you get to know their less talked…

Last year all practices covered by HIPAA were required to upgrade from Version 4010 to Version 5010 standards for electronic health care claims and other transactions. The Version 5010 upgrade paved the way for ICD-10 and offers valuable insights: • Early planning and preparation will smooth your transition to ICD-10. Practices that planned for the Version 5010 upgrade were well prepared and transitioned smoothly. For ICD-10, your office can start planning by developing a checklist of activities that will need to be completed and a timeline for accomplishing these tasks. • Communication and…

Every week we receive several questions from our colleagues in the Medical Practice industry. Many times the questions are similar in nature. We realized many of you may also want to know the answers and waiting until they become a full article seems silly. So we've added a new service. When we get a good question in that applies to many people, you'll get our answer to the QUESTION OF THE DAY! If you have a question for us, e-mail us at [email protected]. Question of the Day: How do you measure ROI in Medical Practice marketing? 1. Unique Tracking on Advertisements…

Every week we receive several questions from our colleagues in the Medical Practice industry. Many times the questions are similar in nature. We realized many of you may also want to know the answers and waiting until they become a full article seems silly. So we've added a new service. When we get a good question in that applies to many people, you'll get our answer to the QUESTION OF THE DAY! If you have a question for us, e-mail us at [email protected]. Question of the Day: How do you manage a patient who comes in with a laundry list of things they want addressed on…

B.F. from Texas has this question: We have quite a few patients in our community that treat us as their PCP, which is great, but they forget we are an Medical Practice as well. Sometimes the waits can be longer, refill requests take longer and unfortunately (especially during this flu season) results of labs, etc... can take a little longer for us to contact if labs are normal. How do you make patients understand this so they do not feel neglected or like we don’t care about them? There is often a blurred line between PCP and Medical Practice. I think this is because we are using old…

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Did you know it's estimated that more people watch the Super Bowl each year for the commercials than they do for the actual game? I was one of those people last year, at least through the first half. Then I decided I really didn’t need to watch the second half of the game, I would just see which commercials my friends on Facebook thought were the best. As I pondered that thought again this morning, something hit me. There are several lessons Medical Practice marketers can take away from Super Bowl commercials. 1. Timing Matters Your message has to be played at…

My goal for this year is to read 52 books, and so far I’m still on track to make that goal happen. Over the course of my life, I’ve discovered if you want to grow and evolve as a professional, you have to take self-development into your own hands. One of the books I recently read was called The Accidental Sales Manager. As a “newbie” to management, it was full of so many nuggets and AHA! Moments for me. I actually took eight pages of notes. Instead of writing an article today, I wanted to share with you 15 of my favorite takeaways from the book. 1. You must coach the…