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How Can Physician Services Help You Succeed In the Management
Of Your Practice
We live in a time where the healthcare industry continues to consolidate
and move toward larger and more complex delivery platforms. Larger
practices have an advantage over smaller practices due to size, or to put
it another way, economies of scale. Their economies of scale allow them to
cost effectively purchase the higher level management skills and resources
needed to succeed in today’s healthcare environment. Unfortunately, small
practice owners haven’t been able to afford the same level of management
expertise and support resources enjoyed by the larger practices. Physician
Services has developed a solution for the small practice owner. By sharing
higher level management and support resources among several small practices
the cost becomes affordable. Physician Services’ programs make it possible
for small practice owners to compete effectively with larger practices in
today’s increasingly complex healthcare environment.
Why Physician Services
Physician Services is a unique alliance of seasoned practice management
and practice support professionals that are committed to bringing physician
owners success in the achievement of their professional goals. Physician
Services is a healthcare practice consulting and management firm that works
exclusively with healthcare providers that own their medical practices. You
do not have to sign long term agreements nor give up control of your
practice in order to obtain the services offered by Physician Services. How
would you feel if you could have a seasoned chief executive officer, a
chief financial officer, and a physician services organization helping you
manage your practice at a cost that is reasonable.
For those practice owners that are committed to succeeding, we invite you
to consider Physician Services and to see which of its’ programs will be
best for you.
YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT MD
IS NOT THE SAME AS MBA
CEO Program
CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, which is what healthcare
practices need in order to succeed into today’s complex healthcare environment.
Until recently, smaller practices couldn't afford the skills of a CEO.
Physician Services uses a model whereby smaller practices can share the
cost of a CEO thus affording them access to CEO level skills at a fraction
of the cost.
The success of Physician Services’ CEO program hinges on the effective use
of physician governance, executive leadership, and onsite office
supervision to create, implement, and manage practice policies and
procedures in a cost effective, efficient manner.
A Physician Services CEO provides leadership and management direction in
the following practice management areas:
• Governance
• Practice Operating Plans
• HR Policies and Procedures
• Operating Policies and Procedures
• Legal coordination and risk minimization
• Financial management and reporting
• Practice operating plans implementation and management
• Strategic/marketing
• Financial (operating/capital)
• Staffing mix (provider/staff)
• Facilities/assets
• Safety and disaster
• HR and staff management
• Operations management
• Quality improvement initiatives
Ask a Physician Services’ representative to share with you Physician
Services’ proprietary Administrative Responsibilities Matrix and how it is
used to clearly define authority and responsibility between the physician
owners, Physician Services, and onsite management.
What does it Cost
Cost is only relevant when studied in light of the benefit being
achieved. Research studies on the effectiveness of professional management
show that the practice owners who consistently use professional expertise
in managing and directing their practices do much better than those that
don’t. The financial benefits far outweigh the costs. With that said, we
can state that our cost is reasonable and very competitive. We charge our
clients an hourly rate, just as if we are an employee of the practice. To
estimate your cost, we first determine the hourly administrative charge,
based upon practice size, using the Medical Group Management Association’s
yearly professional management compensation survey. You basically pay the
hourly compensation that would be paid if you were to hire a professional
manager on your own. The big difference is that you only pay for what you
use, which is great, since most small practices only need a part-time
professional. Second, we estimate the amount of time that will be needed
after defining the responsibilities of onsite management and Physician
Services’ administrator. This varies depending on the experience and skill
of your office staff. Our aim is to supplement and support onsite staff with the experience and skills that are missing in
order to provide a complete management package that is cost effective. A
common scenario is that our clients spend more in the early months as we
fix and improve practice governance and operations, then the CEO cost
declines dramatically as systems become more efficient and staff become more competent. We also see our clients
taking home more money as a result of increased profits, primarily due to
revenue enhancements and/or expense reduction improvements. Our ultimate
goal is to train support staff to do as much as possible, leaving
governance and overall direction activities to Physician Services and the
owners of the practice. With Physician Services as your partner, you will
begin to realize the goals you had for being in private practice. Let us
name them again.
• Having a practice that is profitable and meets your financial goals,
both professionally and personally.
• Being able to come to work everyday to practice medicine and serve
patients without being intruded upon by business responsibilities.
• Having peace of mind knowing you are managing the legal and financial
risk associated with practicing medicine and running a small business.
• Having the type of practice that gives you the freedom to structure your
professional and personal demands so that you succeed in living a balanced
life.
Where Do We Go From Here
The first step is for Physician Services to perform a comprehensive
practice evaluation. The practice evaluation or assessment is similar to a
“history and physical” physicians recommend for patients to ensure their
health and well-being. Medical practice owners should obtain a thorough
check-up periodically to determine if they are “operationally” and
“financially” healthy.The practice assessment
includes a review of all major “vital signs” of a medical practice to
identify problem areas and provide direction for eliminating the problem
areas identified. The practice assessment includes the following items in
the review.
1. A practice performance benchmark report card is prepared comparing
the practice’s performance with a representative sample of the same type of
medical practice.
2. A thorough onsite practice review is conducted in the following functional
areas.
• Organizational assessment
• Legal entity management
• Strategic planning and marketing
• Financial management and reporting
• Human resources management
• Information systems
• Facilities
• Materials management (equipment/supplies)
• Medical records
• Patient care systems
• Compliance
• Risk management and CQI
3. A practice assessment report is prepared that includes the results of
the performance benchmarking analysis and the onsite review along with a
master work-plan that lists action items that need to be addressed to
improve practice viability and profitability. Everything is kept
confidential.
The results of the practice assessment will provide both Physician
Services and the practice owners a clear roadmap on what Physician Services
can do for the practice and the cost. It has been our experience that for
every $1.00 you spend on our practice assessment you will experience at
least $2.00 in savings as a result of the suggestions made for improving
revenues, lower expenses, and/or reducing legal risk. You benefit from the
assessment whether or not you use any of the services provided by Physician
Services. If, however, you choose to use Physician Services’ CEO Program,
Physician Services will credit your practice assessment cost towards the
cost of the CEO Program.
Physician Services, LLC
4500 South 310 East, Suite 470
Salt Lake City, Utah 84107
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