Data, facts and instruments on the German health system
What it’s all about
A smoothly functioning practice management is an indispensable foundation for the quality of patient care and practice success, given the changes in the operating framework for primary care physicians and specialists and the associated dynamics. However, only very few practices have such a foundation.
An overview of the approaches
A physician in private practice can use a variety of approaches to examine and optimize the practice management of his or her operation:
Internal analysis
He can gather internal data and information about his practice, such as patient numbers, staff performance, financial metrics and workflow. By analyzing this information, strengths and weaknesses can be identified.
- Advantages: Such a survey is free except for the physician’s analysis time, which is valued in money; all data are available and do not have to be obtained separately.
- Disadvantages: The analytical perspective is limited by a lack of comparative benchmarks, evaluations are made on the basis of subjective assessments, and often the business expertise to conduct them is not available.
Employee surveys
By surveying female employees, e.g., in one-on-one interviews or on the occasion of practice meetings, a practice owner receives valuable feedback on the efficiency of work processes, internal practice communication and employee satisfaction.
- Advantages: This form of analysis is also largely free of charge; staff are involved in practice processes on a daily basis and have the opportunity to quickly identify bottlenecks and misalignments via this insight
- Disadvantages: Again, the subjective view dominates, possibly the information is incomplete or distorted, there is a lack of analytical skills and references for orientation, moreover, the whole thing depends on the honesty and openness of the female staff.
External consulting
A practicing physician can hire an outside consultant who specializes in practice management. These experts can perform a comprehensive analysis of the practice and make recommendations for optimization.
- Advantages: The physician has recourse to expert knowledge and specific experience; the practice operation is viewed from an external perspective
- Disadvantages: Very high costs in some cases, implementation times that cannot be controlled, dependence on the experience, skills and qualifications of the consultants, many of whom also specialize only in subareas of practice management
Practice management business comparison
The method of comparison of operations, practice management benchmarking, puts the work of the practice in relation to the conditions in the associated professional group and the best practice standard. The standard describes all regulations, instruments and behaviors that are indispensable for a smoothly functioning practice operation even under changing requirements. In this way, the physician learns how his practice compares to others, but above all, where the detailed potential for improvement of his operation lies. One figure shows that this potential is very large:
General practitioners and specialists do not use almost half of the best practice standard in their operations.
- Advantages: validated procedure, use of objective comparative data, classification of practice performance in a context, identification of potential for improvement, possibility of learning from best practices, low costs, as the analysis is questionnaire-based without the need for a consultant, but at the same time can be adapted to the individual needs, resources and goals of the practice
- Disadvantages: None
Conclusion.
Practice management benchmarking can be considered the best method because it is the only one that provides objective comparative data. It allows physicians to evaluate their performance in context and learn from best practices of other successful practices. By comparing himself with other practices, he can identify weaknesses and take targeted action to improve.
R2049 