Lead through crisis with confidence: A health care leader’s playbook for resilience and reputation

A crisis is no longer a rare disruption — it’s a defining feature of modern leadership. Today’s health care executives don’t face just one crisis at a time. You manage many layered and compounding crises: labor disruptions, patient safety incidents, cybersecurity breaches, public misinformation, AI-driven disinformation and shifting regulatory demands.

We are now operating in an era many call 'permacrisis' — a time defined by ongoing societal disruption, where the next challenge is never far behind. According to PwC, 96% of organizations have experienced disruption in the past two years, and 76% of leaders said it had a medium to high impact on business operations. Considering these high levels of disruption and impact, organizations without a well-integrated crisis response plan risk serious operational and reputational fallout.

For health care leaders, this means crisis is not a matter of if, but when, making readiness a strategic imperative. Whether they are leading a small practice or a large health system, health care leaders must be prepared to lead through volatility without sacrificing trust, care quality or organizational integrity. Crisis readiness is not a reactive task. It’s a well-planned strategic imperative. Crisis readiness can protect brand reputation, support continuity and strengthen stakeholder relationships when they matter most.

When health care organizations lead with values and communicate with transparency and urgency, they don’t just survive disruption, they grow trust, culture and credibility in the process.

Protect what you’ve built before crisis hits

The first step in your crisis readiness journey is protecting what you've already built: your organization's hard-earned reputation. This reputation is one of an organization’s most valuable and vulnerable assets.

Health care brands are built on credibility. A single crisis — whether a data breach, malpractice claim or public protest — can unravel a brand reputation if not handled with speed and purpose. In a digital-first world, where every mistake can quickly become a headline, how you respond matters as much as what happened. Silence often creates more harm than the incident itself. Leaders must act fast, speak clearly and connect every message to the organization's core values.

• Start here:Identify your top five reputational risks
• Align your leadership team on who leads response efforts
• Pre-approve messaging templates that reflect your values, not just legal language

This isn’t about crafting the perfect message — it’s about communicating in a way that reflects who you are and what you stand for.

Earn trust before you need it

Trust requires continuous, proactive investment. It’s both your most powerful asset and your most fragile. Internally, employees look to leadership for clarity in a crisis. Externally, patients and community members watch what you do, not just what you say.

Data tells us trust in health care has declined measurably. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public trust in health agencies dropped sharply — and it still hasn’t fully recovered. That shift raises the stakes for health care leaders. Clear communication and visible leadership are no longer optional. They’re foundational.

But trust isn’t built through communication alone. It’s sustained through actions that align with your purpose. In a crisis, people pay close attention to whether you follow through on what you say. Do your decisions reflect your values even under pressure?

Your internal and external messages and actions must also align. What your staff hears should reflect what the public sees. Trust is earned through consistency and built with empathy. Speak early and be honest about what you know and what you don’t. Explain the actions you’re taking and how they reflect your values. When your words and actions align, trust follows and credibility grows.

Many organizations, however, overestimate the trust they’ve earned. PwC found that while 86% of executives believe employees highly trust their leadership, only 67% of employees agree. And 22% say they’ve left a company due to trust issues. In crisis, that disconnect becomes even more damaging. Trust isn’t just a message — it’s a measurable business risk.

• Trust-building actions:Align decisions with stated values even under pressure
• Create a unified messaging approach for employees and external audiences
• Follow through visibly on commitments made during disruption

Don’t let an old plan create new problems

With trust as your foundation, your next priority is ensuring your response systems are current and ready to activate. Most health care organizations created or updated their crisis plans during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the years since, the risk environment has changed dramatically.

AI can now generate fake videos, alter clinical messages or spread disinformation in minutes. Hackers target electronic health records. Labor actions escalate quickly in public view. Turnover at the executive level means fewer people know how to activate your plan — if a current plan exists at all.

A crisis plan must be more than a document. It should be dynamic, accessible and well-rehearsed. Every leader should know their role. Every employee should understand the basics. Your plan should flex to distinct potential incidents, with scalable tiers and clear operational actions communication pathways.

• Refresh your plan with these steps:Incorporate AI risks, misinformation and digital threats into your scenarios
• Review and update your crisis plan annually, and after leadership changes or major events
• Run tabletop drills twice a year with executive leaders and designated crisis team members

The best time to revise your crisis plan was yesterday. The next best time is before a headline breaks.

Prioritize continuity because care can't wait

Your responsibility to provide care doesn’t pause in the midst of a crisis. Even when systems fail, patients still need access. Your organization’s ability to maintain continuity and a high level of patient care — without compromising safety, service or trust — is one of the clearest tests of crisis readiness, and a challenge unique to health care.

Continuity isn’t just about keeping the doors open to care for patients. It’s about sustaining clinical quality, protecting employee well-being and ensuring patients receive accurate, timely information. Whether leading an independent practice or a complex health system, you must prepare to operate through disruption — not around it.

That level of preparation starts with a strong infrastructure and practiced coordination. Cross-functional response teams. Localized decision-making authority. Communication plans that reach patients and staff across multiple channels.

Essential continuity actions:Map your critical systems and identify points of failure
Establish backup communication methods such as text, phone, signage, and digital tools
Train clinical and administrative leads to coordinate clearly and calmly in real time

Continuity is more than best practice in health care. It’s a commitment to those who depend on you most. While disruption is inevitable, disorganized response doesn’t have to be.

Create a culture that responds with resilience

Your ultimate defense against crisis is your organizational culture — the values and behaviors that guide your team when systems are stressed.

Every crisis is a cultural stress test. It reveals whether your values are just words on the wall or whether they are deeply embedded in how you operate. Health care teams that trust leadership and feel informed respond with stronger unity. Teams left in the dark often fracture under pressure.

Leaders have the opportunity to set the tone in every moment. Show up early and speak honestly. Acknowledge what you know (and what you don’t) without fueling fear. Offer clear actions and anchor every decision in your organization’s purpose.

Crisis-ready cultures do not emerge overnight. They are intentionally built through communication, leadership modeling, psychological safety and continuous learning. Invest in those traits now, and your organization can emerge from disruption stronger than it started.

To support culture during a crisis:

• Define crisis response expectations in onboarding and role descriptions
• Recognize calm, mission-aligned action after high-pressure events
• Align internal messaging with your values and mission or purpose

Lead forward through uncertainty

Health care leaders cannot prevent crisis, but they can accept and prepare for the inevitability of a crisis and lead through one with confidence, clarity and care.

The health care practices that invest in crisis preparedness today will be the ones key stakeholders trust tomorrow. The clinics that communicate with transparency and humanity will retain staff during turbulence. The health care leaders who respond with values-driven purpose will find opportunity on the other side of disruption.

Your next crisis is coming. You decide today whether your organization will be ready to lead or forced to react. Resist the urge to feel overwhelmed. Start where you are by updating what’s outdated. Lead with purpose, and protect what matters most: your people, your reputation and the care your community counts on.

____________________________________________

Ayme Zemke, APR, is Chief Client Officer and certified crisis expert at Beehive Strategic Communication. She brings more than 25 years of experience guiding executives across health care, education, financial services and manufacturing through crisis and change. Ayme specializes in helping mission-driven organizations lead with purpose and communicate with confidence during high-stakes moments.

Medical Practice Supplies

VIEW ALL

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Yellow)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Pink)

Manual Prescription Pads (Bright Orange)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Pink)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Yellow)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Blue)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - White)

VIEW ALL

__________________________________________________

Appointment Reminder Cards

VIEW ALL PRODUCTS

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-White)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-White)

$56.30

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Pink)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Blue)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Pink)

$56.30

15% Off

VIEW ALL PRODUCTS

Structures of medical practice transactions

Medical practice acquisitions represent a challenging and risky strategic decision. Here are three main legal structures for acquiring a medical practice: asset purchase, stock purchase, or a merger. All three of these structures are different types of acquisitions. A merger is a type of acquisition that has a particular legal meaning. The decision to buy, sell, or merge a medical practice is more complicated than ever, and Physician owners must have a clear understanding of the legal structure of the potential transaction.

Asset purchase

In an asset purchase, the buyer purchases specific assets of the target practice that are listed within the transaction documents. Buyers may prefer an asset purchase because they can avoid buying unneeded or unwanted assets and liabilities. Generally, no liabilities are assumed unless specifically transferred under the transaction documents. Because the liabilities remain within the selling practice, buyers can eliminate or reduce the risk of assuming unknown liabilities. Further, buyers typically receive better tax treatment when purchasing assets as opposed to stock. Buyers may also be able to reduce their taxable gain or increase their loss when they later sell or dispose of the assets.

The main risk to buyers in an asset purchase transaction is that a buyer may fail to purchase all of the assets it needs to effectively run the practice. There are also various aspects of an asset sale that can be time-consuming and drive up transaction costs, such as listing specific assets and determining their value. For some assets, third-party consent may be required before the assets can be transferred to the buyer. The manner in which title of an asset is passed to the buyer will vary depending on each kind of asset. Finally, there is always the risk that the seller could retain sufficient assets to continue as a competing going concern. This risk is usually mitigated by requiring that the seller enters into a covenant not to compete with the buyer.

Sellers generally disfavor asset transactions because the seller is left with potential liabilities without significant assets it could otherwise use to satisfy those liabilities. Also, the tax treatment of an asset sale is generally less favorable to sellers than a stock sale. The practice and its shareholders can each potentially incur taxable income, which could result in double-taxation of the sale proceeds. Entities that have pass-through taxation such as partnerships, LLCs and S corporations can avoid the problem of double taxation and thus may be more likely to accept an asset purchase structure.

Stock purchase

In a stock purchase, the buyer purchases the stock of the target practice directly from the target's shareholders. The practice remains an existing going concern after the purchase, and its business, assets, and liabilities are unaffected by the transaction. A stock purchase may be preferred if the buyer wishes to continue operating of the target practice after the purchase. Further, absent unusual circumstances, consent from third parties would not be needed to approve the transaction.

However, the buyer may be exposed to unknown risks by buying the entire practice, assets, and liabilities. Buyers can reduce its risk by holding back some of the purchase price in escrow to satisfy any liabilities that arise after closing.

Obtaining approval for a stock purchase can be problematic if the target has a large number of shareholders. Unless there are agreements in place before finalizing a deal, buyers cannot force shareholders to sell. Thus, a holdout shareholder could refuse to sell to the buyer. This result can be very undesirable for buyers and could ultimately cause the deal to fall apart.

Buyers may have less preferential tax treatment in a stock purchase. However, in certain circumstances, buyers can elect to treat the stock purchase as an asset purchase, thus securing a desirable tax treatment.

Merger

In a merger, two separate legal entities become one surviving entity. Under state law, the assets and liabilities of each are then owned by the new surviving legal entity. There are several structures that mergers can take.

The simplest is a forward merger, whereby the selling practice merges into the purchasing practice, and the purchasing practice survives the merger.

Sometimes, buyers will wish to keep the target practice as a separate legal entity for liability reasons, so the buyer will instead merge the target into a wholly-owned subsidiary corporation of the buyer, called a forward triangular merger. When complete, the subsidiary survives the merger, holding all of the assets and liabilities of the target practice.

Both a forward and a forward triangular merger generally require consent from third parties, as the target practice ceases to exist after the merger and all of its assets are owned by the surviving entity.

A reverse triangular merger is similar to a forward triangular merger, except that the target practice is the surviving entity, instead of the wholly-owned subsidiary of the buyer.

How a merger is taxed depends on its structure. Generally, forward and forward triangle mergers are taxed as asset purchases while reverse triangular mergers are taxed as stock purchases.

In terms of required corporate approvals, mergers generally require approval only of the seller's board of directors and a majority of its shareholders (absent other requirements in its charter documents). This lower threshold is particularly appealing when a target practice has multiple shareholders. However, shareholders who vote against the merger will generally have appraisal rights under state law. Appraisal rights, or Dissenters' Rights, enable dissenting shareholders to petition a court to obtain the fair market value of their shares. This can complicate transactions and increase the buyer's costs.

Clearly, medical practice transactions can be complicated.Consequently, it is imperative that physicians have an experienced and competent team consisting of a consultant, accountant, and attorney who help you review all of your options and choose the option that ensures your practice’s continued success.

Medical Practice Supplies

VIEW ALL

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Yellow)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Pink)

Manual Prescription Pads (Bright Orange)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Pink)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Yellow)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Blue)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - White)

VIEW ALL

__________________________________________________

Appointment Reminder Cards

VIEW ALL PRODUCTS

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-White)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-White)

$56.30

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Pink)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Blue)

$44.05

15% Off 

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-Light Pink)

$56.30

15% Off

VIEW ALL PRODUCTS

Align multilocation clinics for better efficiency and higher profit margins

In the field of health care, you can’t simply hand out training manuals and expect every branch of your business to run seamlessly. Over time, you may find that some locations will begin to invent their own intake processes, training strategies and operations policies, not directly aligning with your core procedures. Over time, I’ve tested, tweaked and solidified a handful of practical strategies to keep each location aligned with our vision, in compliance and ultimately growing the bottom line. Now, I’d like to share the strategies that have helped unify our teams across multiple states — and can do the same for your practice.

Clear communication and regular meetings/training

No matter how comprehensive your policies are, they don’t mean much if they’re not consistently communicated. When you realize just how crucial direct, ongoing conversations are, make a point of scheduling frequent check-ins and cross-departmental sessions at every clinic you operate. These shouldn’t be just standard conference calls or email blasts. Organize in-person or video conference meetings designed to tackle specific areas of the business — patient care protocols, compliance updates, marketing strategies and more.

In these sessions, encourage open dialogue. I’ve found it’s vital to give local managers and staff members a platform to voice issues or share innovative ideas that arise from on-the-ground experiences. After all, each location has its unique challenges, and acknowledging them fosters an inclusive culture that values collaboration.

Regular training supplements these discussions. This goes beyond a stale PowerPoint presentation on standard operating procedures. Instead, try coordinating hands-on workshops and skill-building exercises where employees at all levels can learn best practices in patient interaction, data compliance or new technologies.

When your teams are given a recurring forum to learn, share feedback and exchange success stories, you cultivate a sense of unity and transparency. Suddenly, protocols become collective goals everyone is invested in achieving.

Balanced local clinic culture with companywide consistency

One of the biggest mistakes CEOs tend to make early on is assuming that once a new location starts using your brand name and wearing matching uniforms, everything will fall in line. The reality is that each branch comes with its own set of cultural norms — especially true if you’ve acquired a clinic that has been in operation for years. Ignoring these nuances can lead to resistance, confusion and, eventually, a fractured brand image.

Instead, learn to embrace these local cultures while carefully integrating them into your company’s overarching identity. Start by sharing your mission, vision and values in ways that resonate with the team’s existing strengths. If a particular site excels at patient outreach but struggles with internal communication, tailor your training and resources to shore up weaknesses without undercutting what they do well.

It also helps to have companywide events — whether virtual or in person — where staff from different locations can interact and learn from each other. In these settings, people discover shared values and objectives, bridging any gaps between “their way” and “our way.”

Uniformity across clinics for profitability and patient trust

When you’re running multiple clinics, consistent service delivery equates to profits. Patients and clients expect the same quality of care and professionalism regardless of which branch they visit. If they sense disorganization or experience a dip in service at a particular location, their trust in your entire brand can falter.

The same logic applies to your staff. High-performing employees want to work where standards are clear, collaboration is encouraged and advancement pathways are transparent. If each clinic is operating in a silo, talented staff members may jump to locations or companies that better align with their career expectations.

Moreover, uniformity enables predictable and measurable growth. When every site adheres to the same guidelines for patient intake, billing and follow-up, you can accurately measure key performance indicators across the board. These data are invaluable for strategic planning; if one clinic outperforms another, you can pinpoint best practices and replicate them systemwide, optimizing revenue generation.

Taken together, strong retention and predictable operations create a virtuous cycle of satisfied patients becoming loyal advocates who refer friends and family, while motivated employees drive efficiencies that keep costs in check. In my experience, it’s this alignment that sustains profitability over the long term, far more effectively than any one-off marketing campaign ever could.

This system, when implemented intentionally, can ensure that no matter where patients or employees engage with your company, they experience the same standards of excellence. And that, in my book, is the key to long-term growth.

15% Off Medical Practice Supplies

VIEW ALL

VIEW ALL

3 marketing metrics for medical practices

Most of the readers of this blog do not have a marketing background and may not have both an MD and an MBA. However, there are a few metrics that you should consider when using marketing techniques to attract new patients to your practice. I know that diving into the business side of your practice can feel intimidating, especially if you are like most physicians, including myself, who have never received any formal marketing training. It is not necessary to take on the job of a large-scale marketing department to understand the basics of medical marketing, but just measuring a few marketing metrics can go a long way in ensuring your practice's success. This blog will discuss the cost of acquiring a new patient using a marketing campaign, the patient acquisition cost, and the return on the investment from your marketing dollars. When you understand this concept, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts.

Let's begin with calculating your cost per lead (CPL). Your cost\lead is the cost to attract a new patient to your practice. The CPL describes the cost for someone to become a patient in your practice. For example, this would be the cost for a web surfer who reads a blog post on your website and enters their email to receive additional information. The cost may represent the potential patient who clicks a Google AdWord for your practice and comes in for a free consultation you are conducting on a weight loss program.

Knowing your CPL can help you make important decisions about where to spend your money to maximize the value of your marketing dollar. You can also see what isn't working and discontinue that marketing campaign.

In the past, healthcare marketing required a lot of guesswork to understand the value of your marketing efforts. You know how much you spent but measuring the patients who came to your practice directly from your marketing was murky, and you were marketing by the seat of your pants.

These days, with all the latest technology at your fingertips, you can track your cost per lead. Accurate trackers can be enabled so you know if a patient is reaching out from an online ad, an email, a postcard, or a billboard. You can even track that person through your practice from the beginning to the end of their patient journey. In other words, you can know the exact patient value your marketing campaign brought in—no guesswork needed.

In the healthcare industry, the cost per lead ranges from $36 to $286\patient, with an average of $162 per lead. The average CPL for health and medical companies using Google AdWords is approximately $125\patient. These are broad averages over the whole industry. Still, they give an idea of what you may expect as you begin calculating the cost per lead for each new patient that enters your practice.

Calculation of the CPL

The CPL is a simple math equation.

The calculation consists of the campaign cost or marketing expenses divided by the number of patients who called the office for an appointment, which is the patient cost per lead. For example, if the practice spent $2000 on Google Ads over three months and received 500 calls from those ads, the cost per lead is $2000 divided by 500, or $4.00 for each patient lead.

Cost per acquisition (CPA)

However, not all initial callers will convert to paying patients. The 50 patients who made appointments can be plugged into the same equation: campaign costs divided by patients who became paying patients or $2000 divided by 50 equals $40, representing the patient acquisition cost (PAC). Now, each patient who entered the practice spends $800 over the patient's lifetime. In that case, that's an increase in income of $40,000, not shabby for $2000 in marketing expenses.

Return on the investment (ROI)

The return on the investment (ROI) is the income derived divided by the marketing expense X 100. For example, $40,000 divided by $2000 x 100 is 200% as a return on the initial investment.

ROI = income\marketing costs X 100

You can measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The available data gives us the power to make informed decisions that will increase our practice if we have the knowledge and expertise to tap into it. You're missing valuable information if you don't consider your patient cost per lead when making marketing decisions.

Bottom Line: Understanding your patient's CPL, PAC, and ROI positions you to bring in new patients and grow your practice with the confidence of data-backed decisions. Leads from your marketing efforts are the lifeblood of growing your practice. Your marketing goal is to create a steady stream of new, loyal patients and add significant revenue to your bottom line. Knowing these three metrics provides you with objective data to make good marketing decisions.

15% Off Medical Practice Supplies

VIEW ALL

VIEW ALL

Value-based care is a team sport: How to optimize roles for better outcomes

As leaders of the care team, physicians rightfully take their role in driving patient outcomes very seriously. This is equally true when practices pursue value-based care. To succeed in these arrangements, physicians must continue to act as the “captain” of a patient’s care, however they also must leverage the skill sets of their full team to support early identification of conditions, care plan execution, and ongoing patient monitoring and treatment.

Leveraging the care team to their full potential can be a challenge. Many organizations place the entire responsibility for risk capture and patient management on physicians. Unfortunately, this not only overburdens even the most dedicated providers, it also results in missed diagnoses, insufficient documentation and risk capture, and suboptimal reimbursement.

Conversely, when every staff member works at the top of their license and shares responsibility for identifying, documenting, and managing patient conditions, it creates a collaborative, purpose-driven environment that enables reliable care management and promotes accurate risk capture and reimbursement. Practices that pursue this team-based approach also see greater staff satisfaction and retention because staff feel more connected to each other and fulfilled by their work.

Embracing a new model

It’s easy to say “work as a team” but to truly achieve the right level of collaboration, physician practices must rethink how they function. Approaching this in a methodical way can lead to lasting and sustainable success. Here are a few strategies to consider.

Conduct a role-based inventory.Before making changes, it is imperative to understand the work being done by each role. Taking the time to complete a thorough inventory will identify work that isn’t adding value and pinpoint who may have capacity to take on more responsibility. This review should span the entire care continuum, from appointment scheduling to patient checkout, and must include what happens in-between visits. During this review, practice leaders should think through what tasks could be handled differently for greater efficiency and effectiveness. For example, while a physician must diagnose a patient and develop the appropriate care plan, other qualified staff members can facilitate parts of the assessment and examination, calling out important information the physician should address when meeting with the patient. Similarly, the team member can collaborate with the provider and check on patients between visits to answer any questions, discuss concerns, and make sure a patient is following the care plan.

Involve physicians early on.Practice physicians must be at the table and engaged in any restructure or alignment activities from the outset. Provider insight is critical to these changes, especially the integration of evidence-based care. Physicians will also have key insights on what they should handle versus what may be supported by another team member. If providers don’t have confidence that things will get done well and in a timely fashion, they may try to manage everything on their own, which will stall a practice’s efforts towards greater collaboration and teamwork.

Depending on a practice’s size and current dynamics, it can be helpful to bring in an expert third party to facilitate an unbiased inventory and help identify areas that may be ideal for restructure. An outside resource can remain objective as they consider assorted perspectives and recommend the optimal structure based on the practice’s unique characteristics.

Accessibility is key. Accessibility is the greatest leading indicator of success in value-based care.Still, many practices struggle to help patients get the care they need when they need it. Using your staff to their full potential can assist with proactive risk identification, fostering a positive patient experience and enabling strong quality performance.

The move to quality starts at the front door. For example, when the patient arrives for an appointment, patient access staff can assess demographics, document preferred communication methods, assess social determinants of care, review insurance information, and check eligibility for payment programs the patient may not be aware of or is using. The team can also administer certain screenings, such as the PHQ-9 questionnaire, which assesses a patient's risk for mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

After the patient’s appointment, staff can help schedule follow-up visits or get information about referrals, helping the patient navigate the next steps for additional care. Throughout these interactions, staff can get to know and develop a rapport with patients, increasing the likelihood that patients will reach out to the practice when they have a problem instead of waiting until the issue becomes an emergency that requires a hospital stay.

Care adherence is a team effort.Medical assistants serve as a liaison between patients and physicians. For instance, instead of physicians having to answer 15 patient messages during their lunch break, medical assistants can triage patient questions, answering those that are administrative and surfacing to the physician those questions that warrant the doctor’s attention. Medical assistants can also ensure that patients have the information they need before departure, facilitate patient education, provide medical supplies, and answer basic questions patients may have. They can also proactively reach out to high-risk patients between visits to check how things are going. During these interactions, medical assistants can ask patients whether they are taking their medications, check for side effects, provide education, and answer questions. This can help improve care plan adherence and avoid acute situations while building patient trust.

Standardizing workflows is foundational to optimal outcomes. If you don’t have a standard way to do a task, don’t expect a standard outcome. Practices should establish clear care processes and pathways to ensure that risk identification and care management tasks are performed by the right person at the right time. This is especially important for managing chronic conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure and COPD. For these conditions, practices should have systematic and standardized care pathways which outline team actions to facilitate strong condition management and clinical outcomes.

Document the new approach. We’ve all heard the phrase, “if it isn’t documented, it isn’t done.”This has never been more true than as practices optimize and standardize tasks and workflows. As practices develop new ways of working, they should document each step to ensure that everyone in the practice has a clear understanding of what they are supposed to handle, why it’s an essential function, when it should happen, and how it connects to everyone else’s work. If practices don’t document the new workflow, standard performance often doesn’t happen, allowing tasks to fall through the cracks and causing frustration for patients and staff—not to mention increasing risk.

Educate patients about the new model.Some patients may feel uneasy relying on staff members other than physicians to meet their needs. Clearly and intentionally communicating the purpose and value of each role—and how these functions seamlessly work together to ensure high-quality patient care—is crucial to help patients feel confident they’ll receive timely, knowledgeable assistance regardless of who they interact with at the practice.

When collaboration happens by design, practices see better outcomes

By approaching value-based care as a team sport, practices lay the foundation for better performance. This degree of collaboration doesn’t happen by accident. Physician practices must design roles and processes intentionally, ensuring everyone works at the top of their license and follows choreographed, evidence-based care pathways. Taking the time to methodically approach the work at hand will help the practice identify risk and manage care more effectively while fostering an environment where everyone is focused on achieving the same goals.

15% Off Medical Practice Supplies

VIEW ALL

VIEW ALL

Three-step annual review process to keep your medical practice on mission

Medical group owners know that conducting an annual review of their practice is not only imperative to running a successful business, but key to identifying both operational gaps and clinical care issues. It’s also one of the most impactful actions you can take to remain focused on your practice’s core purpose—the reason you became a private practice owner in the first place.

Because a comprehensive annual review involves looking at your most critical KPIs and evaluating them against previous performance, many practice owners fail to dig into the data that can significantly impact their business. Instead, they simply do what they’ve always done to ensure everything is on the up and up.

But, when done correctly, an annual review can uncover hidden opportunities that greatly improve your patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and revenue cycle management strategies. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a complex, drawn out process. In fact, it only takes three steps to conduct an effective annual review to help you stay focused on fulfilling your practice’s core purpose.

Step #1: Measure your practice’s performance against previous KPIs and other metrics

The first step to conducting an annual review starts with the data. A strong focus on a small number of business-critical KPIs that directly impact your practice’s core purpose is optimal for managing and directing a thriving practice. Annual earnings is an obvious KPI, but it also helps to evaluate metrics like patient satisfaction and appointment trends, clinical outcomes, and, if you have multiple providers on staff, physician billing trends.

The goal is to assess current practice performance against the previous year’s results. Have they improved? Is there work to be done in some areas? Underperformance in any area is an opportunity to figure out where the roadblocks are so that you can course-correct whatever may be throttling your practice’s success.

After gaining a solid grasp of your practice’s KPIs, it is also beneficial to compare your results to industry standard benchmarks. It’s important to know how your practice is doing compared to the others in your field so that you are not operating your business in a vacuum. Comparing your performance to other practices also offers insights on the KPIs you track and whether or not they are the right metrics to measure your practice’s success.

Step #2: Analyze trends that show how the data is shifting over time

Once you have a snapshot of your practice’s annual performance, the next step is to analyze operational, financial, and clinical trends so that you can determine how the data is shifting over time. Your metrics should show you which way the data is moving and how fast. Does it vary month-to-month? Do you see spikes or downfalls during certain times of the year? Are there irregularities that may be signaling problem areas? Are there anomalies in your data that require more attention?

The trends in your data are crucial indicators of your practice’s momentum as a business. It’s the closest thing you have to a crystal ball, helping you better understand what is likely to happen six months, or even a year, from now.

Taking the time to analyze how your most important KPIs may be shifting from year to year offers insights on upcoming opportunities, while also shedding light on potential challenges ahead.

Step #3: Determine if your practice is fulfilling its core purpose … and what actions may be needed to get back on track

Once you have identified which KPIs best reflect your practice’s core purpose and evaluated your practice’s performance for the year, then analyzed your practice’s business-critical trends, it’s time to take a step back and look at the big picture. Does the data support what you want to achieve as a health care provider? In other words, are you truly fulfilling your practice’s core purpose?

As a medical group owner, it is easy to get overwhelmed by daily operations. Caring for patients, supporting your staff, managing the business—it’s a lot to handle. A successful annual review will make clear if the time and resources you are investing in your practice are paying off. It also will give you the insights you need to address the bigger questions: Are you fulfilled professionally? Are you happy with your work-life balance? Is your practice meeting its foundational goals?

A successful annual review will provide answers to these questions, while also offering insights on what actions need to be taken to align your outcomes with your practice’s core purpose. Once you have a clear view of the data, it is much easier to make necessary adjustments that have a major impact on your practice’s success.

15% Off All Products

Medical Office Supplies

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - Blue)

Manual Prescription Notepads (White)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Yellow)

Manual Prescription Pads (Light Pink)

Manual Prescription Pads (Bright Orange)

Manual Prescription Pad (Large - White)

Patient Excuse Form Notepad (Blue)

$28.00

Appointment Reminder Cards (100 pack-White)

$44.05

Pearl Finish Business Card Template

$60.05

Clinic Letterhead (White Linen)

$1.50

VIEW ALL 

Medical Office Supplies