Just as medical and dental professionals use clinical data to make decisions about patient treatment, they should be using daily Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to make decisions about their business. As with clinical data, it is best to track the important data daily and drill down on the details when necessary. In other words, first look at the forest before looking at the trees. Your dental and medical systems will report a myriad of numbers, but these numbers are too detailed and therefore not easily actionable. To return to the analogy your system is showing you the tree but not the forest. At Doctors CFO we stress the importance of planning the number of days you will work, the number of patients you will see each day and the amount you expect to bill per patient. These KPIs may differ from the numbers your medical or dental software tracks, but are easily found if you know what to look for.
Your monthly meetings will have much more meaning if you first start with these numbers before drilling down into the details with your practice manager. Typically, your medical and dental system will not report these numbers in a useful way, so you must do it with some kind of daily ‘Key Performance Indicator’ report. It is important to see the trends, month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year and to plan. If you don’t have a solution to do this, we invite you to use the Doctors CFO KPI Tracker. In this article, we will list reasons why it is better to to have less information more frequently than more information less frequently.
Filter Out Useless Data
- Reports may provide data such as patient information which is unimportant when analyzing daily numbers.
- Only tracking a few crucial numbers gives you more time to focus on the numbers that really matter.
- Tracking fewer numbers means it’s easier and therefore more likely to accomplish the task.
Create a Meaningful Trend
- Having sufficient history will create a more meaningful analysis of data.
- Viewing trends by days, months, and years is instrumental in planning and reaching goals for your practice.
- Also it is difficult to break trend data, so your plan must be based on the trends, this is your reality.
Encourage Good Habits
- Tracking and examining KPIs daily, monthly, and annually will make the plan more accurate and more relevant .
- You will always know where you are with monthly and quarterly objectives.
- Making this part of your daily routine will make you more successful because it will always be on your mind.
Mistakes Are Caught Early
- By looking at a few important numbers frequently, it is easy to catch mistakes or major problems that day instead of a month out.
- For example if your average charge is too low, but nothing changed, it is likely some charges were forgotten.
We recommend tracking important daily numbers in the Doctors CFO KPI Tracker. This is one small part of our Doctors MBA program which provides you with the tools you need to run a successful practice. By entering a few simple and easy to find numbers every day, it will give you an in depth mini analysis that can help your practice plan for upcoming days, months, and years. Doctors MBA also provides you with a ‘Salary and Raise Planner’, ‘New Patient Tracker’, and ‘Pricing Calculator’.
To participate in our poll this week, please subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Instagram. ,“How Many Items Are You Tracking Daily?”
Prior Article Poll Results
Our previous article discussed the importance of having an independent reporting system different than your medical or dental software. Our poll asked, “Is Your Practice Using a Reporting System Separate From Your Medical/Dental System?” One-third of respondents said “Yes”, and two-thirds said “No”.
The reason we are publishing these articles is so that your office can increase its success. We appreciate your feedback on how we can help you more and love it when you pass these articles along to other practice owners and office managers.
Developing a management report is not easy and Doctors CFO currently has a robust model for most practice types that is customized for our monthly and bi-monthly clients. If you have questions on how this model applies to your practice or you are interested in applying the Doctors CFO model in your practice, via one of our annual, bi-monthly or monthly assessments, please contact us.
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