What are your Practice goals for 2020?
New year, new opportunities! In no time at all you will be back into the daily grind and ongoing pursuit of maintaining clinical excellence, ensuring a fantastic patient experience, and keeping your Practice running smoothly. On top of this you add maintaining professional obligations, fulfilling CPD requirements, plans to grow, managing finances and one of the hardest – managing people. It is no easy task that’s for sure and this seems like an apt time to restate the quote that: if it was easy, everyone would do it.
What you’re doing is hard, but there is no need (and it really doesn’t make sense) to go it alone.
Also as you already know, to make any business successful, including yours, you need to set aside time to work on the business, as well as in it. This can prove challenging if you are wearing many hats and heavily involved in the operational side of things. Even more challenging if you aren’t prepared or equipped to respond to growth. By growth I don’t only mean more patients, I also mean more staff, more compliance and more risk which inevitably come packaged together and then you realise – it’s sink or swim!
As a smart operator you know it is important to invest in being prepared and proactive, rather than waiting for the unknown and getting stuck wasting precious time and resources on putting out fires. If you don’t already know this, then you will probably learn it and then you won’t forget it.
What type of client are you?
As an employment lawyer at ClinLegal, I normally work with two types of clients. First are those whose necks are on the chopping block and need immediate help. This is the client who didn’t know the law, didn’t understand it, had the right intentions but didn’t follow the process and are now facing a stressful and costly claim having realised the cost of not preventing it, and are usually also suddenly left short staffed. This is generally always crippling for the Practice and these clients suffer financially and emotionally before coming to me.
The second are those who have been exposed to, or trained in running a successful business beyond just seeing patients. These clients might have critically analysed other Practices they have worked in, might have financial interests in other businesses, have studied more broadly than their clinical degree, or simply have a commitment to growth and learning and have read up on the most effective ways to run a Practice. These clients are generally calm, organized and proactive, and quite easy to work with because there is no critical financial or emotional pressure points being pushed. In either case, I will get both clients to the same position – feeling liberated and supported to run their Practices effectively, but I do use this example to encourage you to consider how you are currently managing your obligations and if you are unnecessarily exposed to risk.
To get the most out of your efforts and your Practice, I am asking you to take some time before getting back into the daily grind, to map out some goals (both the what and the how) for your Practice for 2020. You can start high level then drill down into the detail on an operational level as you need. This plan will be a good resource for you to track your goals against during the year. One area I obviously suggest you look at is: do you understand employment laws AND are you able to utilise them to meet your Practice goals. There is a real AHA moment when you realise the law can be used to help reach your Practice goals – it doesn’t need to be a stumbling block or seen as frustrating red tape – but can truly be a tool to propel your Practice towards your goals. Even more beautiful is that this can be done super efficiently, helping to free you up to work more in the areas you are passionate about.
I am keen to know who takes me up on this suggestion and develops a 2020 Practice plan. Please let me know how you are tracking, if you are not sure where to start, or if you want a set of fresh eyes, and I will only be too happy to help. If you already see the value in more effectively utilising the law to benefit your Practice and want a hand – then you know who to contact – and you can contact me here [email protected].
Happy 2020, and good luck in making the most of the remaining 364 days of opportunities this year.
Yasmine Healy
Employment Lawyer at ClinLegal