Dear Physicians – Start paying attention to your practice

Does this scenario sound familiar: Medical practices delegates all oversight, supervision, and daily office management to the practice administrator yet only to find out later that things are REALLY screwed up? I recently saw this again at a large specialy practice and the situation was familiar to those in the past - the doctors just wanted to practice medicine and leave everything else to the administrator.

This just can't happen; physicians need to realize that a medical practice IS THEIR medical practice and as such need to take ownership of it. To avoid such instances from happening, a physician or physician group should do these things:

1. Have a monthly financial meeting. Review the finances of the practice and engage a formal agenda to review and discuss all other practice issues;

2. Implement checks and balances. Make sure your CPA is looking at your finances on an ongoing basis and is asked to attend your monthly financial meetings;

3. If large enough, implement physician committees. This will keep physicians involved;

4. Survey the employee group. Employees see what is going on each and every day - get their feedback on how the office is running, how they are being treated, and ideas to improve the office.