Thursday, October 8, 2009

QUALITY CONTROL

A key administrative division in our company is the Quality Control Division. In actual fact, our company operates on an organizational system that divides up any business into 7 different Divisions. A previous blog article has gone through, in a summary form, what each of those divisions are. In future articles I will detail each of those areas more closely and how they apply and can be used in any health care practice. In any case, as stated above, one of those divisions is the Quality Control Division. Any business, whether a health care office, a restaurant, a car dealership, IBM, etc. must have a Quality Control area of the company that inspects the products that are coming out and determine whether the products meet the quality standard expected and, if not, see that both the product and the product producer are properly corrected. This is a routine activity in our company.

I recently asked one of our quality control staff to summarize a recent client completion and thought I'd pass along this summary report to give any reader any idea of what we do with our clients. I hope you enjoy it.

SUMMARY REPORT ON A RECENT CLIENT COMPLETION
Prior to coming to us, this client was aware of problem areas but he wasn’t confident that he had recognized the actual source of the trouble. The solutions he tried to implement were not resulting in the changes he wanted. He was overloaded with administrative duties, scheduling was inefficient and he was not monitoring his expenses closely which was creating financial problems.

After carefully examining and evaluating information about the practice, his consultant created a step-by-step plan tailored for him. One of the first areas addressed was his recall program. The consultant recognized that there was a “gold mine” that had not been tapped due to inefficiency and staff problems. A recall program was established which yielded results right away.

The second problem that was confronted was the doctor’s lack of case presentation skills. With more patients beginning to come in, it became vital for him to develop skills that would allow him to deliver all the treatment they needed. The consultant had the doctor do a specialized training program which teaches effective treatment plan presentation After working with the consultant for three months the practice’s gross income rose from an average of $50,000 per month to an average of $80,000 per month, with no increase in the amount of time worked.

While these situations were being handled, the doctor had his office manager take part in management training at Silkin. Since the doctor had been overloaded with administrative duties when he originally came to us, the increase in business would have created more work without a trained Office Manager. With training, the Office Manager was able to take over the day-today management of the practice. She implemented job descriptions for each position, got office policies in use, managed staff and ensured the scheduling was done correctly and efficiently. This reduced stress in the practice and greatly facilitated the doctor.

All of this client’s staff members have participated in Silkin training seminars and now perform as a cohesive, efficient team. The statistics of the practice remain in a higher range and the growth pattern has continued. He now spends less time in the practice and enjoys working without the stress he once had.

Based upon quality control interviews with the client and his staff we verified that he is a very, very happy client for the following reasons:
    a) his office is now well organized and efficient;

    b) he has a well trained Office Manager in place that handles the day to day administrative duties;

    c) he is working significantly less hours;

    d) has much less stress; and e) his personal income has greatly increased.


We welcome any comments. You can do so by clicking on the "comments" link below.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin Management Group

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

MORE KEY MARKETING ACTIONS

Silkin Management Group has helped accomplish significant growth for thousands of practices using marketing procedures that really work based upon results. As a follow up to our June 26 blog, here is another list of key marketing actions for a health care practice.

Our tailor made marketing programs include some of the basic techniques mentioned in these tips, but also include the "how to's" of each tip with template examples of most ideas presented. Our consultants develop surveys and questionnaires that health care practitioners all over the country have used to drive more new patients into their practices – and keep them coming back. As the number of patients increase, Silkin continues to provide management and organizational consulting that supports stable growth. This is accomplished by offering specialized administrative training for doctors and their staffs, job descriptions, office policies, organizational charts and much, much more.

Key Marketing Actions:


1. Research your market.
2. Create surveys for existing patients/clients.
3. Create surveys for potential new patients/clients.
4. Conduct surveys with both publics.
5. Tabulate survey results.
6. Categorize internal versus external marketing efforts.
7. Create a promotional calendar.
8. Reactivate past clients.
9. Prospect for new clients.
10. Create a referral campaign.
11. Begin new resident contact campaign.
12. Create/refine letters and promotional items for the practice (welcome letter, thank you letter, educational material, financial information, reactivation letter, etc.)
13. Address the appearance of the practice.
14. Upgrade practice signage.
15. Hold an open house for the practice.
16. Utilize web-based marketing and contact management.
17. Upgrade logo on business cards, letterhead, web site, etc.
18. Use newsletters for existing patients, referral resources and potential new patients/clients.
19. Create a practice brochure to educate, outline expectations and improve patient/client interaction.

I invite you to share any thoughts through our Discussion Forum at the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin

Silkin Management Group Home Page
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Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine

Friday, June 26, 2009

Marketing tips

Collect and tabulate information such as age, occupation, gender, income and location from your current patient records to get a profile of your typical patients. Then tailor your promotion and public relation events to target this majority group

Conduct a Referral Survey to find out if your patients are referring. Discover why they do or do not feel comfortable referring others to your practice. The information you get will help you generate more referrals and give you more control over your internal marketing.

A Quality Control Survey of patients gives you feedback regarding whether or not you’re meeting their expectations and what, if anything, you can do to improve your service to them. Patients appreciate being asked if they are happy with the level of care and service they’re receiving and will be happy that you care enough to ask.

Design a series of questions you can ask of potential patients to find out what they need and want – find out such things as what services they are interested in receiving, what they value most in a health care provider and what has disappointed them in previous practices. Enclose this survey in your new resident letters and use the information you get back to help you write and design ads, brochures and other promotional items.

When surveying by mail, encourage response by enclosing a postage-paid return envelope or reply card. If needed, mailing lists can be purchased to target specific groups you want to attract.

Use phone surveys to get back in touch with inactive patients. Ask them questions designed to find out what you and your staff can do to reactivate them. They will appreciate the personal contact and you’ll have an opportunity to interest them in returning to your practice for services.

Set aside time to work with your staff on getting referrals from patients. The best way to get referrals is simply to ASK FOR THEM. Your staff will be more comfortable in making this a part of their daily routine if they get a chance to practice during staff training sessions.

Silkin Management Group has helped thousands of practices grow using marketing procedures that really work. How do we know they work? They get results! Our tailor made marketing programs include some of the basic techniques mentioned in these tips, but reach far beyond what we’ve been able to include here. Our consultants develop surveys and questionnaires that health care practitioners all over the country have used to drive more new patients into their practices – and keep them coming back. As the number of patients increase, Silkin continues to provide management and organizational consulting that supports stable growth. This is accomplished by offering specialized administrative training for doctors and their staffs, job descriptions, office policies, organizational charts and much, much more.

I invite you to share any thoughts through our Discussion Forum at the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin

Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

An Argument for developing a Web Presence

An impressive web presence is generally not a high priority for most private practice health care owners. Although many practices now have website, the importance and use of them is often not taken to seriously.

I am not a computer genius nor do I know the first thing about HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language - used for creating web sites) formatting. I use a computer at work and like many people, I have a computer at home that I use for email and more importantly, to "Google."

By "Google" I am of course referring to the massively popular activity of searching for information on the web to find a restaurant, a vacation spot or a doctor's practice that I am considering going to.

Over the past three years, it has become more and more obvious that Americans are more and more using the World Wide Web to find out about companies that they wish to do business with. The days of looking up a doctor's phone number in the bulky, yellow, phone book are gone. I am not implying that paper phone books are no longer useful, they most certainly are. I use mine at home to shore up a short leg on my basement desk. However, if I am interested in finding a good doctor to visit, I am just a mouse click away from the largest resource of information of doctors in my area ever known.

For example, my Veterinarian's site provides directions to her practice so that I can easily refer my friends to her. Her site also lets me know about new services for my pet, background information on her new employees and emergency hours. I even discovered that her office is starting a grooming service! (Hmm, good idea, I am scheduling an appointment for my dog "Bo" next week.)

The idea for this blog was created from an incident that occurred just recently. In the normal course of doing business, I was invited to speak with a Veterinarian in Colorado. Prior to my call, I decided to look up the doctor's practice on the web to find out more about the doctor himself and his practice. As a professional, I find it helpful knowing something about a client before meeting them. I was surprised that I could not find any information regarding the doctor on-line. I attempted to find him on several search engines; I even varied my search. I tried his name, I tried his name plus DVM in "City Name," CO. I even did a search just for Veterinarians in his town. Finally, I was able to find the doctor's name in the web site of his competitor in the same town! His competitor's site was very beautiful with plenty of information about his practice, the staff, his facilities, etc. If I were a resident with a pet in this beautiful town in Colorado, I would now know exactly which practice to go to, and it wasn't his. And yes, I did call the doctor as scheduled and made the doctor very aware of what was happening in his neighborhood. Interestingly enough, the doctor was wondering why his practice was contracting in a community that was expanding quite rapidly.

Unfortunately this is not only a true story it is also very common.

Developing a web presence now is more important than ever. Home computer use is not going to slack off in the years to come. More than ever, Mr. and Mrs. Patient and Client are going to go to the World Wide Web to find information regarding the doctor or practice that they are going to visit.

And yes, word of mouth is still the number one draw of new patients and clients to your practice. But know this - after I hear your name and how wonderful your practice is from my best friend, I promise you, I will Google you. What happens after that is up to you.

We also invite your feedback to this blog or previous blogs by participating in our
Discussion Forum at the Silkin Facebook Page BY CLICKING HERE.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin Management Group

Silkin Management Group Home Page
Visit our Facebook Page
Silkin Management Group Press Room
Solutions Magazine

Thursday, May 14, 2009

THE REAL SITUATION

Here is Part 2 of the latest article by Mr. Bruce Wiseman regarding the sources of the worldwide financial crisis.  Part 1 can be seen in our previous Blog below. If you haven't read Part 1, please do so before reading Part 2, below.

Larry Silver
President Silkin Management Group

THE REAL SITUATION


More to the point, you may have noticed that you weren’t consulted on this setup. Neither was Congress. In other words, the command channel for implementing global financial strategies goes from the FSB leadership to its central banker members and from them to the world’s financial institutions. You don’t get a peek, neither does Congress, nor, for that matter, does the White House.

And while there may be some accountability in some of the member countries, by and large these central bankers have the authority to implement these regulations and strategies. And they are held responsible by the FSB to do so.

In short, on April 2, 2009, the President signed a communiqué that essentially turns over financial control of the country, and the planet, to a handful of central bankers, who, besides dictating policy covering everything from your retirement income to shareholder rights, will additionally have access to your health and education records. There is also this troubling little line about “clear specification of the structure and functions of government.” What the hell is that suppose to mean? There is no oversight here. Not by you, not by Congress, not by anybody. No oversight over a handful of central bankers who operate out of a clandestine organization that is above the law and is responsible for having implemented and enforced the “standards” that froze world credit markets and precipitated the worst financial crisis in the planet’s history (see “The Financial Crisis: A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain”).

I haven’t heard word one out of Congress about this, but I’m afraid they are a few clowns short of a circus up there. Which begs the question, what do we do about this?

THE SOLUTION


There are two critical things that need to be done. The first lies in the fact that the communiqué signed by the President is an agreement that is binding on the United States and, as such, requires approval by Congress. If classed as a Treaty, it requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate. At the very least, approval should be by Congressional Executive Agreement, which requires a majority of both houses of Congress. The agreement signed in London on April 2 has been called a New Bretton Woods (Bretton Woods being the location of a meeting of world leaders toward the end of the Second World War, which gave birth to the international financial organizations the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund). The original Bretton Woods agreement was put in place as a Congressional Executive Agreement. So this “new Bretton Woods” should at least do the same. But this step is just to get Congress to recognize their responsibility here. The Federal Reserve Act, the bill that established the Federal Reserve System, was passed in 1913 two nights before Christmas by a sparsely attended Congress. People have been complaining about this ever since. What do you say we don’t let this happen again? Not on our watch. Congress needs to understand that it has a responsibility to approve any agreement signed by the President that is binding on this nation. But the point is not to get Congress to approve what has been done. It is to first get them to recognize that agreements have been made that affect our entire financial system and that it is their responsibility to shape these agreements in a way that is beneficial to our Republic AND to provide a mechanism for real oversight of this international body. Central bankers should not be making decisions about international finance without oversight and a system of checks and balances that are reflective of those provided by a republican form of government. I am, of course, not talking about a political party here. No, no. I’m talking about the American form of government where citizens elect others to represent them.

A republican form of government is one that is operated by representatives chosen by the people. Congress must step up to the plate. They must insist that the Financial Stability Board be ratified either by Treaty or Congressional Executive Agreement. And that ratification must include the creation of a body with oversight and corrective powers that is comprised of representatives of all the nations involved who are chosen from each country’s elected officials. There is nothing inherently evil about an international financial organization. As much as we might protest it, it is a global world today, and a body that oversees the smooth flow and interchange of currencies and other financial instruments is needed in today’s world. But the organization cannot be controlled by international bankers who are not answerable to the citizens of the countries in which they operate. It should be overseen by a senior level group which itself is organized as a liberal republic, following the original model of the United States. Why? Because the system of government originally created by the United States has been the most successful form of government in man’s history. Any problems with the system have come about as a result of deviations from the original structure—a representative form of government with adequate checks and balances. Such a body could help create an international economic system in which those that want to be successful can be so. It would also allow them to take an active role in controlling their futures by effectively participating in the legislative process. ACT!

Let your Representatives and Senators know: the Financial Stability Board must be approved by Congress and must be subject to oversight by elected officials of the
countries involved. Personal visits, followed by calls and faxes to both Washington and local offices, are the most effective. Don’t be surprised if they don’t know what you’re talking about. Politely insist they find out and take action. And understand this when dealing with legislators or their staffs: they are focused almost exclusively on legislation that has already been introduced—a bill with a number on it.

That is not the case here. You want them to take action on this matter by introducing legislation that brings the approval and structure of the Financial Stability Board under congressional control. This can be accomplished.

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” —Thomas Jefferson

Find your elected officials here:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

Bruce Wiseman
bdwiseman@earthlink.net
www.Brucewiseman.net
Copyright © 2009 Bruce Wiseman