Numbers Don’t Lie-Using Sound Financial Principles to Manage Your Practice

Many physicians manage their practices from the gut and look at a paucity of numbers to evaluate the progress or lack of progress of their practices.  Now there are numbers that can give you a real handle of your practice and numerical indicators that can provide you with valuable information on how to fix issues and problems that may be affecting your bottom line. Your practice performance can be directly tied to the numbers it produces.  Useful information can be obtained from a practice statistical report, a balance sheet, and an income statement.  These reports should reviewed by the physician and the office manager at least once a month.  I strongly suggest you make an effort to benchmark your medical practices. This allows you to measure your practice against your peers and colleagues.

As physicians you make use of goals to monitor patients’ progress.  For example you monitor the blood pressure of hypertensive patients.  You check lab tests and x-rays to evaluate the progress of your therapeutic interventions.  The same type of monitoring must be done on a regular basis so you can evaluate the financial health and progress of our medical practice.