JOB LOSSES, FORECLOSURES AND YOUR PRACTICE

"We are about to have a big problem...Foreclosures were bad last year? Its going to get worse, " says Morris A. Davis, a real estate expert at the University of Wisconsin. Davis isn't the only pundit talking about this. Mark Zandi, the brilliant author and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com is saying: "... loss of jobs and loss of overtime hours and being forced from a full-time to part-time job is resulting in [mortgage] defaults." All over the US, doctors are having to deal with individuals who cannot cover deductibles, co-pays, and are less reluctant to see the doctor. Where elective type treatment is involved, patients are just not accepting treatment as readily as they have in the past.

Silkin research in over 50 practices in the past 3 months indicates that doctors in every category of health care are having a much more difficult time getting patients to comply with treatment plans. Let's face it. The general public is scared when it comes to spending money, and the doctor and staff have to know how to deal with this. Otherwise, their practices go the same direction as the economy!

Allen Jackson, one of Silkin's senior analysts and consultant for over 20 years made this observation recently: "When credit was lax, and everyone was getting 0% credit card offers in the mail, it didn't require any skill to get a patient to comply with a treatment plan. If a practice was not growing during that period at a solid 15-20% then something was wrong. Now, its a different world; management skills like, "selling" treatment, keeping staff motivated and efficient, and increasing profitability in a private practice take expertise and knowing what to do. Doctors need to start managing and they need staff who are on their toes and know their jobs cold. During those "good times" lack of management expertise in a practice was hidden by the fact that patients had an abundance of credit available. The danger of that time period, Jackson says, "led to complacency and not being as alert as possible to the signs of downturns practices."

We recently did a survey on about 150 of our clients and found that they have continued to grow at a solid rate over the past 12 to 18 months, while revenue in private practices nationally continues to decline. We asked these clients if they felt things had slowed down for them with the economy being so poor. Over 90% said no, that they were continuing to grow.

Some of the comments were:

"We're in control of our new patients, so it's not a problem."

"It (the economy) hasn't been a problem with the things I've learned from you."

"I'm still moving up, last month was the best month of my entire practice." "We've actually grown. March growth was 7% and April was 20%."

Learning basic practice management skills puts one in control of the growth and profitability of any practice. As a philosopher once said, "knowledge is power" and that holds true whether referring to running a country, a business or a health care office. Get yourself trained in practice management, whether you use Silkin or another practice management program. It will help you be pro-active during these tougher economic times.

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

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