The Optometric Minute

Make Data-Driven Decisions to Grow Your Practice

Feb. 22, 2017

Video interviews conducted at the Rev360 Executive Retreat in Atlanta, January 2017.

Make Data-Driven Decisions to Grow Your Practice
with Scott Jens, OD, CEO Rev360
Independent ODs will flourish, says Scott Jens, OD, CEO of Rev360, if they access the full range of digital tools that empower them to compete with optical chains, online retailers and emerging market competitors. A secondary element in practice success, he adds, is that ODs and staff must work as a cohesive team to build value-based relationships with patients in a way that independents are specially positioned to do.

Take the Time to Improve Your Practice
with Mike Rothschild, OD
Every OD-owner needs to set aside time to work on improving their practice, says Mike Rothschild, OD, who heads the practice-coaching program Fitify for Rev360. Setting aside time to plan and strategize is critical even for ODs of successful practices that have reached a plateau and want to climb higher. Further, they must make the investment in a plan to achieve growth, and keep in sight the long-range payoff that comes from every dollar and every minute you invest in growing your practice.

Make Data-Driven Decisions to Grow Your Practice
Take the Time to Improve Your Practice

UNDERSTAND & APPLY DATA. Your EHR and practice management system provider can help you better understand and find ways to use data to improve your practice.

FIND SOLUTIONS TO NEW CHALLENGES. The changes to practices required by the new fee-for-value systems of MACRA & MIPS requires practices to use data to aid in better patient outcomes.

FIND NEW RESOURCES. Two books, in particular, help to build healthy organizations that are equipped and motivated to carry out a growth plan: Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business and Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McCrystal.

CREATE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES. Create a practice where everyone on staff knows what everyone else is doing, and how each person can best contribute to overall practice goals.

INVITE BOTTOM-UP THINKING. Cull ideas from support staff who are on the front lines of patient care, and can sometimes offer the practice leader ways of providing a better patient experience, and more efficient practice.

 

MAKE TIME TO IMPROVE. Empower staff to do more without you, so as practice leader you can focus more on the big picture, and how to achieve long-term goals.

ENHANCE COMMUNICATION. Create a practice where communication between practice leader and staff, and between employees, is valued.

CHANGE WITHIN. You can’t control, or change the world around your practice, but you can control how your practice changes to keep pace.

CREATE A SAFE SPACE. Cultivate an environment where is it OK to make a mistake–and learn from it. Examine the language you use to critique and correct faulty actions.

EMPOWER AND LET GO. Once you equip staff to make everyday decisions, you need to let go and not micro-manage or second-guess them.

 

Scott Jens, OD, is the owner of Isthmus Eye Care, with offices in Middleton and Madison, Wis. In addition, Dr. Jens is the CEO of Rev360, a provider of online-based electronic health records and practice-management programs. He can be reached at: sjens@revolutionehr.com.

Mike Rothschild, OD, is the founder of West Georgia Eye Care in Carrollton, Ga, and head of Fitify, a practice-coaching program from Rev360. To contact him: mrothschild@rev-360.com.

 

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