| Abstract: Today’s health care environment is tumultuous, uncertain and costly. Governmental regulations and fee structures change frequently. Pharmaceutical and device companies create new products and technologies. Professional medical associations develop new guidelines and protocols to meet these changes. How does a medical practice improve or maintain profitability in the face of these changes? Practice leadership knows the practice must become more efficient. Usually there is no lack of ideas or solutions on how to do this. However, what is less well known are which variables to select and monitor in order to determine success. This presentation is about one practice that had seen a steady increase in overhead and a 3-year trend of reduced net income for physicians. A reasonable solution had been identified. However, the practice had a history of poorly implementing solutions. Consultants were hired to help determine if the practice had identified the correct solution and to recommend implementation strategies and tactics that would enable the practice to succeed. One and a half years after the consultants made their recommendations, the practice saw a 299% increase in profitability. In addition, the administrator could supply anecdotal information that demonstrated the practice had learned to identify the correct variables, collect data and implement an appropriate solution.
Karolyn A. Smalley, a Performance and Instructional Systems Consultant, is a graduate of Michigan State University, the programmed-learning workshop of the University of Michigan, and the MA program in Industrial / Organizational Psychology at Western Michigan University. She helps improve performance at the organization, process and the job level for large, medium and small business organizations. She specializes in process improvement projects, performance management systems, and instructional systems. Karolyn combines her understanding of performance systems and instruction to define organizational change strategies and tactics that provide sustainable results to the organization. In addition, she has successfully, developed, mentored and coached individuals at all levels of the organization. |