Revenue secrets from well-managed practices (Proceedings)

Relying solely on fee increases to grow revenue and improve profitability is a thing of the past. Now's the time to look for new opportunities to keep your practice moving forward. Well-Managed Practices® focus on three key areas:

Core health services

Drs. Bob Beede and Brett Bingham, owners of Intermountain Pet Hospital in Meridian, Idaho, say they've rededicated themselves to educating clients and staff members about the core pillars of pet health. "We're committed to improving our skills to better communicate with our clients about their pets' needs and the benefits of our core services," they say.

Client service and convenience

"We continue to provide five-star service, add value, and exceed client expectations," says Dr. Charles Curie, owner of Country Doctor Veterinary Clinic in Jefferson, Ohio. Forty-four percent of this year's study participants offer outpatient appointments Monday through Friday starting at 7:30 a.m., while 37 percent schedule the last appointment at 6:30 p.m. or later. How's that for client convenience?

Compliance with the hospital's standards of care

Compliance is a powerful thing—good for the patient, good for the client relationship, and good for your practice's bottom line.

To effectively manage your expenses, it's important to prune, cut, and weed out what you don't need. But when it comes to revenue, continue to plant seeds for future growth. Identify your opportunities using the recommendations below.

12 ways to boost your practice's revenue

     1. Get involved in your community. Bump up the return on your marketing investment and expand your practice's name recognition. You can easily provide educational classes at your hospital on topics of interest to the community. Topics suggested by participants in Benchmarks 2009: A Study of Well-Managed Practices include pet first aid and CPR, bite prevention, zoonotic disease prevention, behavioral training, helping pets adjust to new household additions (animal or human), and pet hospice care.

     2. Join a local civic association and participate in community events. Ask all employees to participate in the associations of their choice. Offer to sit on the board of the humane society or chamber of commerce. Libraries, elementary and high schools, 4-H clubs, and Girl and Boy Scout troops offer great opportunities to educate the next generation about pets and the veterinary profession. Sponsor a float in a local parade. Participate in the Adopt-a-Highway program or sponsor a fun run to benefit homeless pets.

     3. Contribute articles or information on pet-related topics to your local magazine or newspaper. Take advantage of opportunities presented by local TV and radio stations for interviews on pet-related topics. Dr. Chris Ravary, co-owner of Temperance Animal Hospital in Temperance, Mich., hosts a weekly call-in show on a local radio station to create awareness about the importance of pet care, answer callers' questions, and enhance community awareness about his practice.

     4. Educate clients through your Web site. Your Web site is available 24 hours a day, offers clients a reliable resource for information about their pets' healthcare needs, and gives you an opportunity to promote your practice and plant seeds for practice growth. If it's been a while since you last updated your Web site, now's the time to spruce it up. If you haven't launched a Web site yet, there's no time like the present.

     5. Host an open house. A community open house provides an opportunity to thank existing clients for their patronage, teach brief educational sessions, showcase your facility and equipment with practice tours, and generate new clients. Hand out a thank-you gift to clients who bring a friend.

     6. Offer reward points for referrals. Airlines and hotels hand out rewards points. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and retail stores offer them, too. Existing clients are your number-one source of new clients, so encourage referrals with a tiered points system in which the client receives rewards points for each client referral. Develop reward tiers based on the number of reward points clients have. For example, each referral is worth 10 points. Reward tiers might be:

          › 10 points = T-shirt with the practice's logo on it

          › 20 points = $10 gift certificate for practice services or products

     7. Enhance consistency. Differences in medical philosophy confound doctors, staff, and clients. They can also lead to shortcomings in patient care. For example, if your medical standard is to perform a fecal exam on every patient but only two of four doctors follow the protocol, half of your patients are at a medical disadvantage. Don't make doctors guess what you want. Define your standards of care, put them in writing, and use them as a teaching tool to communicate your expectations. Your goals are to provide high-quality care, nurture lasting client relationships, cultivate happy, productive doctors and staff, and enjoy a fun, profitable practice.

     8. Encourage staff involvement. Every team member at your practice must be knowledgeable about your standards of care for the sake of consistency and continuity. It's up to you to teach and mentor your employees and communicate your expectations for upholding those standards. An effective training program ensures that new team members start off on the right foot and become successful. Regular internal and external CE encourages employees to grow and will net rewards for your practice in the future. Improving staff expertise frees you up to focus on other things, like seeing more patients, taking a lunch break, and ending the day on time. Now wouldn't that be nice?

     9. Enhance compliance. Give clients concise, clear, and specific recommendations—everyone on your team should deliver the same message to clients. Set compliance targets for the services that you perform most often and that are most important to your patients, then monitor the results. If you provide clients with timely reminders about important services they'll be more likely to follow through. And take the lead with clients by offering to schedule the next appointment at the end of the visit instead of waiting for the client to ask about additional care. Or call the client at a later date to schedule. See www.wellmp.com/ under Management Tools for a Compliance audit worksheet.

     10. Assess employees' telephone skills. Ask team members to log all potential clients who call the practice for a four-week period. This market research will help you identify how people find out about your practice, determine if your hours are convenient, assess team members' skills, provide insight about whether you're staffed appropriately during busy days and times, and reveal your scheduling rate. Target a 70 percent to 75 percent scheduling rate for callers. Repeat the Call Log on a quarterly basis to evaluate your team's progress. See www.wellmp.com/ under Management Tools for a Potential New Client Caller Log and Worksheet.

     11. Be diligent with reminders. Review your medical records each time you handle them to see if a patient is missing any necessary care. At the conclusion of a pet's visit, suggest that the client schedule the pet's next appointment. If clients aren't able to immediately schedule an appointment, call them in the next day or two to follow up. Call clients before an upcoming appointment to minimize no-shows. If clients haven't responded to written reminders, call them and ask to schedule an appointment.

     12. Introduce a new service. Is the time ripe to offer something new in your practice? Perhaps you've been considering dental radiography, rehabilitative therapy, laser therapy, behavior consultation, or another service as a new niche in your practice. Something new can recharge your healthcare team's enthusiasm, enhance patient care, and add profit to the bottom line.

Figure 1 – Critical components of revenue