MAY 19, 2017
An Administrator’s Secret Tool for Reports Practice Owners Love
Enter your practice’s data – for free – through June 15 to get valuable insights on your practice.
What if there were an easier to way to prepare high-level reports on how your ophthalmology practice is really doing? Learn how this AAOE board member uses the Academy’s powerful benchmarking tool to produce clear, detailed reports for practice owners.
AAOE board member Sue Loen serves as practice administrator of Bucks-Mont Eye Associates, a mid-size ophthalmology practice in Sellersville, Penn.
AAOE: How does Academetrics help you run your practice more effectively?
Loen: Our patients are the main priority as to how we run our practice. However, we are also a business that can’t continue to serve our patients if we are not running efficiently and productively. Benchmarking gives you a clear view of what you are doing right as well as where you can improve. It is easy to see it in black and white and to clearly recognize things that set you apart from the pack.
When you gather this material and present it to your owners, they are amazed at the amount of data that you can clearly explain. You really will come off looking like you really know what you are doing when the truth is that most of this work is done for you already. You just have to use it!
I always have a strategic planning meeting at the beginning of each year with my owners. They each get a nice little notebook with all of these facts and graphs with every little detail. They are amazed at how I did this. Little do they know that I just input my figures, AcadeMetrics does the rest for me!
I also always do my own benchmark comparisons with our previous years to compare to as well, but those two things really will give them all the information they need on a business level.
AAOE: Did Academetrics help you improve operations in any other ways?
Loen: There has been no bigger help that these benchmarks. It is very important to see how your peers compare to you, and the more people contribute, the more important it becomes.
Besides the typical benchmarks, the salary benchmarks are also very helpful to have. Why not share that information with particular staff to show how others are similar to you.
I can guarantee you though, once you participate, you will wonder how you ever got along without these figures. You will be amazed.
Loen’s tips for using the benchmarking tool
- Don’t let the first time discourage you. The first time around, it may seem overwhelming, but it gets easier each year. What used to take half a day to correctly complete, now only takes me an hour or so.
- Allow enough time. Take your time and don’t over think things. There are very clear and precise directions to help you get what you need.
- Align your accounting categories with the benchmarks. After the first couple of years, I have adjusted how I categorize certain things in my Quickbooks accounting. So now I know that the figures I need are in the format that I need and there is no longer much need to calculate differently. I wish I could tell you what those items would be, but it is something you may not realize until you actually get into it.