Can office design really increase profits in my small medical practice?
The good news is… absolutely, positively “yes!” on so many levels…
- Space and furniture plans that supports workflow
- The right equipment — in the right locations
- Ergonomic solutions that increase team’s energy levels, focus and attitudes with our patients
- Visual clues that help our patients trust they have come to the right place
Just to name a few!!!
Running a successful, profitable, small medical practice certainly has its’ challenges. Between the overhead expenses of…
- Providing a safe, clean facility
- Ever-changing equipment and technology
- Securing and retaining just the right team members
- Insurance processing
- Investing time with our patients and meeting their expectations
- Communicating with and attracting new patients
Profits can easily leak out of your bank account. We want to say… We Hear Ya! Let’s look at how to leverage the investment in your facility assets by doing just one thing …Perform a traffic-flow audit.
A traffic-flow audit can easily shine a light on some profit leaks, and you may be amazed at the golden nuggets of knowledge we uncover when we perform this type of audit. Here’s how we do it.
Perform a traffic-flow audit
Take a floor plan – label it up! Think – places, things, and people:
- Places: exam spaces, waiting – sick and well, labs, restroom/s, supply closet, lunch and lockers, conference/meeting rooms, team entrance/exits, reception, nurses, private office, billing/ insurance, etc.
- Things: equipment by type, scales, supplies for office, supplies for patient care, etc.
- People: here is the fun part 😊 each team member gets a different color, meet w each team member and map-out their typical day and/or type of activity (like patient care). Don’t forget to map out the patients’ traffic-flow with a different color !
Find the golden nuggets. Ask yourself questions like these…
- Are my support places too far away from the people who use them most frequently ?
- Are my support places (like labs) overly open and centralized ?
- Maybe in the center of the facility… good for foot traffic… but also a place for team members to chat about their weekend plans, or worse, sharing patient information … while other patients are passing by ?
- Does my equipment locations/ causes traffic jams?
- Are my patient supplies too far away, encouraging some off-task activities and unnecessarily cause lingering times in my exam rooms ?
Leverage the data and develop solutions… short and long term
- Support places too far away ? re-purpose a private office into an additional support space where it is needed?
- Support places overly centralized ? can you create a satellite lab/s and repurpose part or all of the centralized lab ? the investment in additional equipment may have greater ROI than you think
- Supplies too far away ? can the addition of furniture solutions bring supplies closer to the patient areas?
We hope you find some gold nuggets and increase your ROI … re-investing in our practices and increasing ROI can refuel your dreams!
Ready to make some changes in your office! Let’s chat!