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Selectively choose what works for your practice and get involved with whats available to you and you won't get left behind during these great changes in healthcare. Prioritize financial and management decisions and fine tune your practice for success.

1. The Right Staff

Train your Staff Well

Staff members who are courteous to individuals when they call and can answer questions in a friendly manner make your practice look more appealing to individuals in need of a doctor. If a staff member is rude or unhelpful to an individual when he calls, he will likely seek his medical care elsewhere. By eliminating the following small issues your staff will convey a spirit of friendly concern to the caller. If you don't bring the entire staff up to a higher standard, you risk turning away patients who could be your valuable clients for years to come.

Phone Etiquette Tips

Clicking and clacking of computers can be distracting to both sides of the conversation.

The sound of swallowing food or chewing gum carries through the telephone.

Rapid or choppy speaking to the other person may not be rude, but it comes across as being rude.

Letting the phone move away from the speaker's mouth creates changes in volume and indistinct speech.

A hurried, breathless greeting can make the caller feel unimportant.

Have Your Staff Place Outgoing Calls of Introduction

Have your staff call to introduce your practice and to ask other physicians to refer patients to you if you are a specialist. Individuals often need additional treatment that a general practitioner cannot provide. If you practice a specialty discipline, you will be able to provide more thorough care for patients with conditions in your field than a standard family doctor.

Staff Reliability

Your staff is a direct representation of you and your practice. If you have a staff member that is always calling in late or not able to come into work at all, you need to put a stop to it immediately. Typically, staffing is an area of weakness for many practices. Medical practices tend to attract lazy workers who get stuck in traffic, or have to take their sick child to the doctor or are sick themselves many days out of the month. They are an infection and you must not allow them to infect other members of your team. They are not to be allowed to take advantage of you this way and should be discarded like a dirty tissue. On the flip side, efficient staff members should be praised every so often but not too much- we don't want them to go away now. Your staff should be a collection of people who operate like interchangeable parts so that the whole system doesn't fall apart in the absence of just one staff member who you rely on too heavily.

2. Organization through Automation

You should incorporate "systems" for everything. Make a protocol for daily tasks. Do that through staff training as mentioned above and through the use of software. You can find software for just about anything today and you should implement it so you can focus on people because it is people who are bring their money to you. People will make you rich, that is the point after all, you didn't become a doctor to make your mark on the world but live like a starving artist. So you need to focus on volume not office tasks. Your phone "system" should be carefully planned out with a telephone professional either from the phone company or your answering service to produce the best results for your practice.

Time-Saver Tips

Patient Paperwork

Send your patients a copy or download link via email of your patient paperwork your office requires or refer them to your website when the make the appointment by phone. Give them the opportunity to complete it before coming into the office.

Have your staff scan paperwork into your electronic medical system at their desk rather than go file it manually.

Automate appointments

Have patients make appointment requests through your electronic medical record software so that your staff can approve or reschedule the appointment online.

Telephone Tips

Order "Remote" Call-forwarding from the phone company to forward your phone from home if you forgot to forward the phones when you left the office. Common staff fault. Will save you a trip back to the office.

Install "Busy Don't Answer" from the phone company on your office phone lines so that you don't miss a call. Your staff has the opportunity to pick up, but if after 4 rings or however many rings you set it to your answering service picks up and sends you the message. Automatic call-forwarding is the added benefit of this feature. You can leave the office at the end of the day without forwarding your calls to the answering service because they'll get them after 4 rings anyway.

Always promote yourself and your accolades on your hold music in on your office phone system.

Always pay your answering service bill before it's due. They'll go the extra mile for you.

3. Charge Reasonable Fees

Insurance companies rarely cover 100% of a patient's care. If the out of pocket expenses are too high, your patients will find a cheaper doctor. Reasonable fees ensure that you can keep your current patients while also attracting new ones. If you can afford to do so, you may opt to write off additional charges for lower income patients such as coinsurance or deductibles. Nobless oblige, there are some patients who can't afford to pay a $20 copay.

Offer payment plans for the uninsured. Many medical practices will refuse to take on new clients if those clients do not have adequate insurance. By accepting patients with no insurance and allowing them to make regular payments to you to cover your services, you are providing them with the medical care they need while they help you to grow your medical practice. You may also join your state's Medicaid program. This will allow you to provide care for those who are covered by Medicaid and receive reimbursement from the government for your services. However, use good judgment. Get as much upfront as you can.

4. Design and Implement a Website (with caution)

If you graduated from MIT as well as becoming a doctor, go for it full speed ahead because you'll be able to get it done right without being conned out of some serious cash. Beware, marketing a website, directing traffic to the site, advertising, etc... all ads up and doesn't really produce much. There are tons of companies who will be glad to assist in not only designing your site but marketing it for you and it is important to have a comprehensive website up but most likely your best bet for attracting patients is our next viable and cost-effective way to grow your practice...

5. Word-of-mouth Referrals

Word-of-mouth referrals are the way car sales are done and are definitely going to generate a significant amount of patients for you. People talk, so the patient experience you give matters. Unfortunately, you can't pay your patient to give referrals, advertising them in the media just isn't convincing. Don't waste your advertising dollars that way. Lets go back to your staff for a moment, your properly trained and courteous staff should be making connections for you with other physician's so that you reap the rewards of physician referrals. The other way to get them is by treating people well because about half of primary care patients take the recommendations of close friends and family members when choosing a new primary care doctor. Follow the tips below and your patient base will grow as you show yourself to be friendly and helpful.

Word-of-mouth Referral Generating Tips

Have a Happy Staff. You get the recurring theme here, right? If your receptionist, office manager, nurse, PA and other team members like you a lot, it will show. A bit of banter, a surprise box of chocolates, free lunch once in a while, friendly smiles for everyone are all ways to endear your office staff to you. Caution- chicks really dig doctors, don't turn on too much charm. You want them to like you not love you. The MD alone already makes you sexy regardless of how you look. Trust me. So many ugly doctors get dates, it's definitely an advantage with the ladies as you probably already know. So play it down with certain staff members- go with your gut here.

Get acquainted with prospective referring people in your community. Make friends with leaders such as the clergy, realtors, police officers, and people already serving the public in a healthcare setting. Remember- people will make you rich. Get involved, join groups, regularly attend your synagogue, your mosque, your church, whichever applies to you. There are usually meetings held afterward at which you can socialize and get the pulse of the community. At synagogue you can be recognized by the Rabbi for any donations you make or Israeli bonds you buy and afterward its like a meeting of the minds and you can see where the community is being steered, its amazing and all this from going to synagogue. You'll hear "Thank you to Dr. So & So for a $5000.00 donation", so everyone will hear your name and it will spark interest. Okay, so this is not so cost-effective as the other tips but it will get you results so I've included it.

Give a hearty welcome to new physicians coming to the community, whether they are primary care providers or specialists. They are not your competition, patients will go to you because they like you and you need to put these new doctors to work for you by sending you referrals. Introduce yourself, make sure they know who you are and what you do. Give them your card. If you become friends, you can discuss plans of care and treatment. See how it goes. Be friendly with all hospital staff and the office staff of other physicians. First impressions count and you will pop into their minds when they need to refer a patient. It's that simple. You are your own PR person. You must leave a good impression with all you come in contact with. Yes, it is difficult to be this way all of the time to all people especially if you haven't slept, or have a high testosterone level but train yourself, it's for your benefit. Fake it if you have to.

A simple "Thank You" card mailed to your referring physician is appreciated and will ensure that the referrals keep coming.

Choose your favorite topics and prepare a list of them with a statement about your availability to go on local TV or radio. Writing for a newspaper is also effective and don't forget you can become a blogger online. Being on TV is best because you can play your appearances in your office and on your website and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

6. Give Your Patient a Comfortable Experience

Comfort and hospitality and efficiency for patient visits is imperative to recurring revenue from patients. Treat all patients with respect and kindness, no matter how silly their concerns may seem and no matter how irate they may be. This will result in your patients holding you in high esteem and referring your services to their families and friends.

Tips for Making Your Patient Comfortable

Get them in and out quickly

Stock your waiting area with varied reading material and snacks to make the time pass quickly

Offer secured WIFI and comfortable, go to Starbucks and copy what they do- make a living room

Setup a couple of desktop computers with your website as the homepage

Take pictures of your waiting area/living room and talk about how you make a patient's visit pleasant.

7. The Rent's Past Due- You're Desperate (Let's hope it hasn't come to this- but unpleasant stuff does happen sometimes)

If all else fails or if you're feeling kind of shaky, consider taking on a partner with a different specialty than your own or just rent out space in your office to a doctor with a different specialty. A partner or a tenant will bring his own client base with him and attract additional patients to the practice and they'll take notice of you. Plus you'll get first and last month's rent and the month, depending on your communication skills and you'll immediately feel better.

Let me know how these 7 Secrets to Success for Your Medical Practice have worked for you in your practice. Tell me what you use already, the pros and the cons of these ways, what you like and don't and if this was helpful to you. All the best to you. Click Here for more information.

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By Alexandra Brooks Cabot
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alexandra_Brooks_Cabot