At Eggleston & Eggleston Medical Practice Management, we realize that one of the critical, yet difficult, aspects of medical practice administration is determining the appropriate staffing levels for your unique practice; and we stand ready to help. The tips below offer a sound introductory basis for clinical and administrative medical staffing assessment.
Too Many Or Too Few?
When it comes to streamlining the business aspects of your medical practice, it’s important to look at staffing levels. Having too many or too few staff can impact your bottom line:
- Higher than needed staffing levels can lead to overspending on salaries.
- Lower than needed staffing levels can lead to lost income, either through unhappy patients leaving your practice due to poor service or lack of billing and collections revenue.
Compare
To begin, you can compare your current staffing levels to industry benchmarks and practices that are similar to yours in size and specialty. You can compare things like:
- Appointment slots per day per provider.
- Average appointment time (in minutes).
- Percentage of appointments that are same-day appointments.
- Ratio of support staff to full-time physicians.
- Percent of revenue spent on staffing expenses.
- Balance of clinical and non-clinical staff.
Other Factors To Consider
Once you compare your practice to others and see where you stand, it’s tempting to immediately jump to conclusions about whether you need to increase or decrease your staffing levels. Before you do this, though, you need to consider other factors that influence how many staff you need, such as:
- Location and size.
- Employee and patient satisfaction levels.
- Physician productivity and practice styles.
- Payor mix.
Your practice’s unique characteristics may mean that your needs may be higher or lower than the industry benchmarks.
With the high stakes involved in determining appropriate staffing levels for your practice, it’s best not to go it alone. Eggleston & Eggleston has many years’ experience with evaluations and works closely with you to determine what “just right” looks like for your practice.
Please contact us at (540) 345-3556 or complete our brief online form to request a complimentary practice assessment.