Driving Revenues

] Amanda Carones, co-presenter at the ESCRS Practice Management and Development Masterclass Delegates at the 37th Congress of the ESCRS in Paris, France, attended a highly interactive and didactic workshop-based course led by Amanda Cardwell Carones, Managing Director of CARONES Vision and founder of Eligite SRL, and Mike Malley, President and Founder of 
CRM Group. In the session devoted to ‘Building A Patient-Centric Ophthalmic Practice That Maximises Profitability’, Carones and Malley challenged surgeons to assess their effectiveness in various aspects of their clinics. This included physician time management; practice profit margins; patient education processes; premium services planning; staff conversion training; practice culture commitment; exit-strategy evaluation; staff incentive strategies; maximising surgeon production; and costs controls. Mike Malley,co-presenter at the ESCRS Practice Management and Development Masterclass Malley began the session with a question for the audience: “What factor most interferes with your success?” Attendees answered waiting times, expenses for acquiring new technologies, form completion and appointment schedules. The experts helped to address these pain points with what they referred to as the “ophthalmic holy grail”, best summarised with a quote by Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos: “When you reduce friction and make something easy, people do more of it.” Driving revenues Carones then went on to discuss the most effective way of driving revenues by converting more patients to premium procedures and adjusting the practice flow. She said: “Stop penalising premium patients who come in willing to spend their money. Streamline the flow of these patients and improve their educational process, rather than having them lose confidence in the practice and the surgeon.” Pushing patient care to the lowest provider level was another key takeaway from the session. Malley explained: “As reimbursement continues to drop – and the shortage of ophthalmologists continues to rise – it is imperative for surgeons to understand the value of their time and how it relates to the bottom line. By pushing care to the lowest provider level, surgeons can maximise their time seeing the right kind of patients in the clinic, and spending the rest of their time in the OR!” The session ended with a summary of the ‘best patient-centric approach’ and alluded to the “hyper-sensitivity of patients” considering ocular surgery. A famous quote by Maya Angelou, expressed this point: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Malley and Carones urged practice managers to pay closer attention to their clinics from the patient’s perspective, to ensure all staff are aware of their contribution and role in the care of the patient, to involve the patient’s family when possible. Carones concluded with the statement: “A medical practice can say what they want about who they think they are and what they think they deliver... but patients will believe what they actually experience.” Amanda Cardwell Carones: 
acarones@carones.com Mike Malley: 
Mike@RefractiveMarketing.com

Tags: practice management