The Meeker Minute

Nothing reduces your productivity more than unplanned open slots in your schedule. New technologies can help you obtain solid confirmations from patients.

3 easy steps to reduce unproductive time in your practice. Truly efficient people place a high value on their time and do not waste it. Here’s a three-step process to creating higher efficiency in your own schedule.

The benefits of regular exercise are not only physical, but also mental. Check out some of the known payoffs of regular physical activity.

Even when your business is growing steadily, there are probably areas where improvement is needed. Dr. Meeker discusses the process of identifying places where you can build success.

When a patient complains, lead by example and view the complaint as an opportunity rather than a burden.

Biggest gains are realized when the doctor is an active participant in improvement plans. These strategies can allow ECPs to use their valuable time most effectively:

It seems like it took forever to get here, but we’ve finally reached the point where most areas of the country have lifted nearly all COVID restrictions....

Every practice should have a template for information that needs to be obtained before booking a new patient examination.

After the initial round of interviews, ask only top candidates to return and spend a few hours shadowing those with similar job descriptions.  

My decision to buy and renovate a building at that time was a turning point which set the stage for success. Among the factors that made this a great decision were:

Here are the top items you should consider to determine if building ownership makes sense for you:

Part 1 of this series outlined many of the positive attributes of building ownership. Now let’s consider the argument against purchasing.

Of course, there are many important factors to consider before deciding if it makes sense for you. This week I’ll present the arguments in favor of owning rather than leasing.  

Creating a mission statement involves melding your core business values, your professional intentions and your products and services, then distilling all of this down to a sentence or two.

Apart from your opticians, many of the tasks performed by others on staff can be taught on the job. The must-have attributes, especially for front desk employees, are . . .

If your new patient percentage is lower than you’d like, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at the components that influence new patient perceptions.  

Advance planning for the inevitable can make the best of an otherwise bad situation. Here's how you build a game plan to handle it. 

Educate your staff on this topic and review it regularly; make sure they understand the financial impact each individual patient can have over their years of care in your office.  

Improvements that you control can add interest or even excitement for you, your staff and your patients. 

With an average staff turnover rate of 15-20%, most optometry practices are faced with replacing at least one staff member per year. 

To be most successful, the person signing your patients out as they leave the office needs to possess a unique combination of knowledge, firmness and pleasantness. 

Opticians fill an important role as the backbone of the retail side of your business. Their sales and service acumen is critical to your success.

Providers can make a major impact on your revenue by becoming as efficient and effective as possible during this critical portion of each patient encounter.  

As the initial clinical contact with the patient, your techs set the stage for the care the patient receives that day.

Here are a few strategies to help you engage your front desk staff and cut down on the number of gaps in your appointment book.

How do you avoid a perception of being money-focused, but still improve your capture rate?

Juggling personnel management and practice management is challenging; it can be hard to focus on your priorities if you're dealing with the minutiae of staffing issues and communication.

Get in the habit of ending every patient encounter with a summary of your findings and then ask:

Striking the right balance between being responsive to your patients’ needs versus disturbing the patient flow you have scheduled so carefully can be challenging. 

Every employee likes to be recognized and know that excellent performance can lead to additional rewards. Often, this comes in the form of a raise in salary.