ENHANCING PRACTICE PERFORMANCE BY CORINNE Z. WOHL, MHSA, COE, AND JOHN B. PINTO COLLABORATE WITH YOUR 1. ADMINISTRATOR TO TUNE UP THEIR MANAGEMENT SKILLS skills but also enhance your working relationship as business collaborators. P Try these exercises to enhance professional and practice growth. ractice administration has sev-eral models to choose from that can all work well. Mid-sized practices (let’s say three to five pro-viders) typically have a somewhat au-tonomous “administrator” who works closely with the practice owners or managing partner. They have some level of authority to make independent decisions within agreed parameters. Larger practices (let’s call that six providers and more) typically employ “executive directors” (even CEOs) to manage the business, with more day-to-day decision-making autonomy and reporting to a board of directors. These senior leaders typically have advanced management skills, many years of ex-perience and an internalized ambition to grow the company to the next level. However, for sma ller practices, t he “MD a s CEO” model is more common. A physicia n-owner is t he leader, often supported by an “office manager” or high functioning “exec-utive assistant” who has been with the practice for many years and is happy to follow the physician’s lead and day-by-day direction. But whether you have a small, me-dium or large practice, you probably have a lay leader (whether they fall into the “assistant” or “CEO” ends of the spectrum) who could benefit from your direct coaching and support as a physicia n a nd business owner. Here are some of the approaches we use as executive coaches that you can adopt to help your practice’s managers im-prove their performance. As a practice owner or managing partner, here are eight exercises to do with your admin-istrator. These drills will not only help improve your tea m’s ma nagement ADMINISTRATOR EXERCISES Scenario-based planning. The objective is to develop advanced planning and decision-making skills. Exercise: • Present your administrator with one or more hypothetical scenar-ios that could impact your prac-tice, such as a sudden change in healt-hcare regulations, a new competitor in your market or a sizable drop in patient volume. • Ask your administrator to out-line a strategic response to each scenario, including immediate actions, long-term strategies, and any necessary risk management plans. • Discuss the potential outcomes of each response and how to measure the success of these actions. Tip: Use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis framework for each scenario to ensure a compre-hensive approach. 2. Corinne Z. Wohl, MHSA, COE, is president of C. Wohl & Associates, Inc., a practice management consulting firm. Corinne earned her Masters of Health Services Ad-ministration degree at The George Washington University and has over 30 years of hospital, physician practice management and management consulting experience. Her latest book, co-authored with John Pinto, is “UP: Taking Ophthalmic Adminis-trators and Their Management Teams to the Next Level of Skill, Performance and Career Sat-isfaction.” For information on how to purchase this book or other inquiries, she can be reached at czwohl@gmail.com or 609-410-2932. John Pinto is the founder of J. Pinto & Associates, Inc., an ophthalmic practice consulting firm established in 1979. He is the most published author in the world on the subject of ophthalmic management and economics. The firm serves organi-zations worldwide, ranging from solo practices to high-volume market leaders, teaching centers and medical product companies, providing strategic planning, financial benchmarking and analysis, operations enhancement and marketing counsel. He can be reached at pintoinc@aol.com or 619-223-2233 . Conflict resolution role-play-ing . The objective is to enhance conflict resolution and negotiation skills. Exercise: • Create role-playing scenarios where the administrator must mediate conflicts between differ-ent stakeholders, such as between ophthalmologists and support staff, or between patients and the practice. • Include complex scenarios, such as disputes over resource allo-cation or differences in clinical opinions. • After each role-play, provide feedback and discuss alternative approaches that could have been taken. OPHTHALMOLOGYMANAGEMENT.COM NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024 11
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