Although coming up with the next category killer, the next "big idea," is sexy business, the day-to-day pursuit of marginal revenue, cost control and profit gains is still the most predictable way for you to plump up economic performance in your practice. Even the best-run practices in America waste dollars and miss out on profits daily. One example only: In the typical practice, seeing just three more patients per day can result in a $100,000+ net annual profit gain. Anybody can find and see three more patients a day. Don't just swing for the fence. You may win the game just as well or better by racking up bunts and base hits.

Get more expert perspective from John Pinto live at Hawaiian Eye 2010, to be held January 17-22, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Learn more at OSNHawaiianEye.com.

Comments (0)

Economic historians posit that companies and markets commonly sink when there is a collision between falling prices and the rising cost of inputs (labor, raw materials, etc.). Depending on the twin trajectory of health reform and future Medicare fee adjustments, surgeons will continue to accommodate to higher cost margins and lower profits. Gross mitigation, in the form of optical shops, ASCs and related ancillary development, is a tapering opportunity — most practices that can readily develop such entities have already done so, which means that raw efficiency and marginal output gains (seeing 60 patients, when you once maxed out at 45) are the easiest strategies still under your direct control. Adding optometric providers as durable associates, while harder and riskier, remains the most under-utilized mitigation opportunity at present, along with the acquisition of local competitors.

Get more expert perspective from John Pinto live at Hawaiian Eye 2010, to be held January 17-22, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Learn more at OSNHawaiianEye.com.

Comments (0)

If you think you have picky customers now, just wait. As baby boomers age and increasingly populate your waiting room, their expectations for Lexus service at Kia pricing will be a growing fact of practice life. They will expect spotless facilities, snappy service and one-stop cures, accompanied by a customer experience that is educational, entertaining and thrifty — all at a time when you and your management team are trying to pack in the masses and trim the fat.

Do the best you can and paint on a smile; you and your staff will continue to bear the brunt of patient frustrations, which would be, in a fairer world, borne not by you but by their employer, their insurance company and their elected government officials. Press on.

Get more expert perspective from John Pinto live at Hawaiian Eye 2010, to be held January 17-22, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. Learn more at OSNHawaiianEye.com.

Comments (0)