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Five Traits for Success ... or Failure
Use this list of best and worst practices to set the course for your organization.
BY BRAD RUDEN, M.B.A.

Never one thing and seldom one person can make for success. It takes a number of them merging into one perfect whole. � Marie Dressler

During my 15 years spent consulting with ophthalmology practices, I have noticed that successful practices share many of the same traits, just as less successful practices, unfortunately, also exhibit a number of commonalities. This article will identify those traits and commonalities with the hope that you may use them as a starting point to examine your own practice.

Best Practices

Many factors contribute to a practice's success. However, there are five that I consistently observe in every successful practice. These are:

1. Ownership vision/passion/planning. Every successful practice with which I have dealt has had strong leadership. This is leadership that inspires the staff, driving them to do their best. The best leaders have a passion for what they do, day in and day out. The vision and passion of leadership are put to use with proper planning, which prepares the practice for the future.

2. Well-trained staff. The best practice is only as good as its staff. My experience is that almost every practitioner can be elevated with a properly trained and motivated staff. A well-trained staff not only increases daily efficiencies but can also help keep overhead costs in check, as well as assist with practice promotion and patient retention.

3. Good budgeting/money management. Practices that are too loose with the checkbook often find themselves in a cash crunch or find themselves limited in their ability to grow. Proper money management is the path to personal wealth — it is also the route to strengthening the practice. Pay attention to costs and expenditures and control them.

4. Good communication skills for both the owners and staff. The staff has a vested interest in seeing the practice succeed — after all, their jobs are at stake. As such, physician-owners should maintain open lines of communication with their staff, both in providing direction as well as in receiving feedback. Your staff is your front line of service, often privy to patient insights that would not reach the doctors ears unless relayed by the staff.

5. A true concern for the patient at all times. Successful practices treat the patient as a person, not a procedure or source of revenue. This conduct creates invaluable patient loyalty and gives the patient a reason to sing your praises to others.

Worst Practices

Just as the above factors contribute to making a practice successful, the items below seem to be common characteristics in practices that are not reaching their full potential. Although it is often difficult to critically analyze one's own practice, ask yourself if any of the following apply to your practice:

1. Lack of direction/poor planning/indecisiveness. A lack of direction or poor planning will result in wasted energies and likely lost revenues. A lack of planning can also lead to indecisiveness, or what I call "paralysis by analysis." If you have a direction and you plan and prepare, you can make a decision. If you don't plan properly, or if you lack a direction/focus, you may find yourself researching to make a decision rather than actually making the decision and carrying out an action plan. The resulting delay can put you behind your competition.

2. Poor budgeting/poor cost controls. Practices that do not manage their money well and make poor financial decisions will likely have cash flow problems. The stress from this problem can filter down from the physician-owners to the staff. Staff members who question the financial stability of their employer may be less motivated to focus on doing a superior job and be more motivated to find a new employer.

3. Poor staffing/poor training/poor service. A practice that is understaffed will offer less than best service as their time, attention and resources may be stretched thin. An extension of that is a staff which is poorly trained, not only failing to provide the physician practitioner with the proper support but also providing poor service to the patients. Poor service is a practice killer. When patients receive poor service they are unlikely to give the practice another chance. Instead, they may become mouthpieces who criticize your practice to others.

4. Undercapitalized/"cash starved." I have seen several physicians who live beyond their financial means or who routinely have their personal expenditures max out any income they receive from the practice, leaving little to no funds in the practice for a "rainy day," equipment repairs or expansion. If there are no reserves, a practice can find itself behind on bills, unable to repair equipment or pay staff.

Money is fuel for growth. When managed wisely, a reinvestment back into the practice should return a larger payout/return than the original investment. An owner who fails to reinvest in the business will be caught off guard when the business requires a cash influx to upgrade, replace or simply keep operating.

5. Lack of market awareness. A medical practice is a small business. Physician-owners should make themselves aware of the direction of their business trends with their patients, competition and influencing factors in their marketplaces. If you are aware of these things you can create a practice plan to address them. Ignorance of those items can catch you off guard and leave you unable to respond.

Call to Action

I suggest each reader carefully examine his or her own practice to see which traits it possesses and – if necessary – make changes.

Brad Ruden, owner of MedPro Consulting & Marketing Services in Phoenix, Ariz., is a frequent author and lecturer on ophthalmology practice management topics. You can reach him at (602) 274-1668, by e-mail at bruden@medprocms.com, or via his Web site at www.medprocms.com.