By Stephen W. Earnhart, MS
CEO
Earnhart & Associates
Austin, TX
Like you, I have bills to pay and expenses to cover in my business and personal life. It is not something I particularly enjoy, but by meeting my obligations, I can keep a roof over my head.
Much of my business involves generating income for clients. As I essentially am an employee of my own company, that function, in turn, generates income for myself. My goal, for clients and myself, is to bring in more revenue than I pay out. I am always looking to find ways we both can benefit. Here are some ideas that might work for you in 2015.
Income generation:
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Income goal. Most of us have a personal financial goal but not necessarily one for our place of employment. An annual budget for that business is fine, but someone other than you often determines that budget. Set your own goal for your surgery center or department in cooperation with your peers. Make it realistic, achievable, and fun. The saying that “a person’s reach should exceed their grasp” sounds good, but it’s not always realistic. A good goal might be to have your surgeon bring in six more cases per year. Constantly pushing them to do so often can make it happen.
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Payer contracts. If you have one person in charge of the process, shake it up a bit by putting together a panel of staff members to examine your reimbursement and outliers. I always am amazed at what a second set of eyes and a fresh look can pick up that others might have missed.
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New procedures. Pain management physicians have taken a nasty reduction in their professional fees in the last couple of years to the point that many will have to move procedures out of their offices and into surgery centers if they want to stay in business. Reach out to them, and be receptive to inquiries. The facility reimbursement for some of these procedures has increased significantly.
Cost saving:
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Supply costs.Many fail to understand that if you save $20 in supplies per case, you have generated $20 in income. Money saved is new revenue. Multiply that by the number of cases you do per year. I can assure you that I could find a way to cut $20, and if I can do it, you can.
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Incentives. Offer an incentive to staff members, or recommend an incentive for staff members be offered. Go back to income goal number one (at left). Let your staff know you have a goal to find “x” amount of money to save this month, quarter, or year. Give awards to those who find them. While cash prizes are sweet, I have found that peer recognition is just as effective in incentives to staff members.
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Unknown cost. Anesthesia supplies almost always are overlooked when looking at cost per case. Because many leaders in hospitals or surgery centers are somewhat reluctant to examine these costs, audit those expenses and work with the anesthesia staff to find out how you can reduce cost. There often is expensive waste.
Increase efficiency:
- Cross training. Cross training staff not only makes life interesting, but it is a more efficient way to utilize personnel. As a former OR nurse, I enjoyed mixing it up once in a while.
- Turnover. Sending full-time staff home when their cases are complete, with no reduction in their pay, incentivizes them to become more productive witho fast turnover time and happy staff.
- Part-time staff. If the above tip d leaving when their cases are complete.
- Agency staff. Avoid “agency”
personnel as they rarely consider an
occasional shift at your facility to be
fulfilling, and they often are not as
motivated to be efficient.
In short, while we all work in an exciting, often enriching service industry, we can make it more rewarding by keeping it finely tuned. The one thing I enjoy about working with professionals is the way they can rally around a worthwhile cause. [Earnhart & Associates is a consulting firm specializing in all aspects of outpatient surgery development and management. Earnhart & Associates’ address is 5114 Balcones Woods Drive, Suite 307-203, Austin, TX. 78759. Phone: (512) 297-7575. E-mail: [email protected]. Web: earnhart.com.]
