If you define your medical practice by specialty, as most practice managers do, you may think that patients see your physician(s), and thus your practice overall, as an “expert” in that specialty.  Certainly some patients, such as those who have received care at your practice for many years, do see it as an expert resource on their medical conditions.  But because patients today are generally more informed and think much more critically than in the past due to the extensive coverage relating to various medical conditions and procedures on the internet, in magazines, and on television shows, you need to actually brand your practice as an expert on the diagnoses and procedures on which you’d like to attract new patients.  Your medical practice’s expert status will drive patient traffic and revenue, so promotional branding is a necessity in today’s healthcare environment.

As a medical practice manager, you are largely responsible for determining and implementing the marketing strategy for your practice.  Even if you have limited contact with patients, you have great influence over the culture of your office and the attitude of the physicians and staff.  Many physicians simply don’t take an interest in marketing strategy or realize its importance.  Your staff probably doesn’t have the knowledge to implement marketing strategy; they are also likely to get distracted from it by day-to-day tasks if no one offers regular and consistent direction.  But like it or not, patients make both conscious and unconscious assessments about your practice and make treatment decisions and recommendations to other potential patients based on those assessments.  Having accepted that you do have a large degree of control over what patients think about your practice, how do you develop a medical practice marketing strategy as a practice manager?

Given the state of the economy, dwindling healthcare reimbursements, escalating malpractice costs, and increasing operating expenses, many medical practice managers are finding that it’s advisable or even essential to cut costs, sometimes drastically.  But how can you reduce overhead without compromising the quality of your practice, either as a workplace or with regard to patient care?  As part of our continuing series on auditing your medical practice, we’ll look at ways to analyze and cut overhead costs with a minimum of difficulty. 

Environmental concerns are on many people’s minds today.  Individuals and businesses alike are looking for ways to be “Greener” and to stretch energy dollars.  The medical office is no exception, and there are many ways that the Practice Manager can lead the effort in making a doctor’s office more environmentally friendly.

As a medical office manager, I often wonder if anything is really getting ‘done’. On my way to the office I think of what I should do when I arrive. I should answer email, retrieve voice mail, return phone calls, plan my day and then everything will be okay. Right? It will run like clockwork and many, many tasks will get done.

The role of the Medical Office Manager or Practice Manager is varied and complex.  The OM basically runs the business side of a medical practice, clinic, or group of physicians.  That means he or she is responsible for billing, scheduling of patients and staff, maintaining inventory, balancing the books, complying with Regs, and a whole host of other day-to-day tasks.