Staffing efficiency can be an elusive goal for practices

Practice Management. By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Oct. 25, 2004.

There are three common scenarios that can define a physician office environment.

The first is a frantic, stressed workplace where tasks are piling up and staff members are sinking in work.

The second is the opposite: a monotonous, slow-moving office with not enough work to keep everyone busy. One staff member might not be able to handle his or her tasks, while another staff worker kills time by surfing the Internet.

The third scenario is the ever-elusive nirvana most physicians seek, where staff members keep up with their work, allowing the doctors to be productive and the revenue to flow.

But "rightsizing" your office staff, as consultants call it, is far more difficult than simply adding or subtracting people.

"Physicians are well in tune with the clinical side, but it's difficult to put a face to the administrative side," said Ginny Martin of Jasin Martin & Associates, a health care consulting firm in Perrysburg, Ohio.

"The best indicator [of a problem] is no money. When doctors say they're working their fannies off and there's no money, there's a problem."

There are other symptoms as well.

An understaffed practice, for example, could have high stress levels and low patient satisfaction. Maybe a phone rings longer than it should on a regular basis, or perhaps your accounts receivables are piling up.

"Things that aren't fires at that moment don't get done," said Merikay Tillman, director of client services and professional development for HealthCare Consulting, an NCRIC Group company based in Greensboro, N.C.