Any business benefits from effectively cutting costs without compromising the quality of service you can give. Applying strategic ways of saving money in your medical practice enables you to provide more toward your patients’ proper care. If you’re looking for more ideas on how to cut back expenses, the tips below can help you manage your business better without overspending:
1. Pinpoint Efficiency Blockers
Any medical practice deals with multiple blockers that could compromise efficient budget planning and time management. The staff encounters numerous issues daily, such as cleaning and disinfecting medical equipment and ordering disposable supplies. You can analyze the costs once more and look for better suppliers to minimize equipment repairs. Also, limit resources to packing tools and equipment and cleaning agents.
2. Avoid Credit Card Processing Fees
Medical practices accepting credit card payments may be accustomed to accepting up to 4% in processing fees. You can look for merchant service providers that have lesser costs compared with your current one. Simultaneously, adapting credit card money saving strategies means getting more for what you’re paying for. A 24/7 technical service from your partner is crucial if you even encounter errors.
3. Improve Scheduling
Your staff also needs enough time to rest to be more efficient at work. Track your staff’s schedules and shifts in line with patient flow. Analyze evaluation and management guidelines and review contracts if any of the team is overdue for additional compensation.
4. Use Affordable Services
The use of messaging services became even more necessary because of the pandemic. They’re crucial for the safety of both patients and health workers when scheduling appointments. Instead of using and paying for an answering service, opt for VoIP service instead. A cloud-based phone system allows calls from anywhere globally through Wi-Fi using your laptop or mobile device. It’s affordable because you’re just using your Internet connection. There’s no need for an additional phone line.
5. Make Smart Purchases
Office supplies and equipment can often cost your business hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on your suppliers. It’ll serve you good to buy reconditioned office equipment such as computers and printers from auction websites or other legitimate secondhand equipment sources. You can also order medical supplies directly from trusted manufacturers to avoid additional costs than buying from retailers. Discuss delivery terms along with contract negotiation.
6.Consider Alternative Human Resource Strategies
Many businesses are looking for alternative means of showing appreciation to their staff for their work. Instead of raises, you can come up with vouchers instead as a reward to your team. Interns who are looking to add some experience to their resumes for little to no pay can also do basic administrative tasks for you. If you can, you can send some people to work from home instead to save on operating costs.
7. Use Online Fax Service
If you need to send documents or contracts that need signing, use phone systems like online faxing instead of printing them. Printing can add expenses on ink and paper supplies. Plus, hard copies of documents tend to clutter your space. Online faxing allows you to send documents electronically and save them via cloud storage. Moreover, you can have your electronic records signed using a PDF signing service by drawing signatures online. There’s no need to print on paper for handwritten signatures and scanning. It saves not only paper supplies, but also time.
8. Adapt Standardization Strategies
Like other types of businesses, clinics and hospitals can save costs by looking into bundling alternatives. Multiple contracts with different vendors are detrimental, so you can reduce these to a single agreement. For example, a single clinical engineering service can provide all of the equipment you need for diagnostics and treatment.
Cost reduction strategies also apply to food service in hospitals. Service staff can track food waste and analyze meals that are left untouched. Taking the needs and wants of both customers and patients, the team can prepare portion sizes that won’t go to waste and note food preferences.
9. Rent Out Or Share Space
If you’re a private practitioner, you can look for a shared space instead of choosing a huge space that you don’t need. Or if you choose to rent a large office, you can make changes, divide the space into two, and rent out the other half if the lease agreement allows it. If not, you can save on rental payments monthly if you have another renter paying for the same space. You don’t have to operate at the same time as well. You can always schedule your daily appointments.
10. Invest And Adapt Energy-Saving Solutions
Electricity bills can rise over time, especially in facilities that operate 24/7. Whether small and private practices or large hospitals, you can invest in solar panels that can be installed on the roof to allow solar energy to fuel equipment operation. Motion-sensing light switches and LED lamps are built to save on electricity as well. You can also instruct your office staff to turn off computers during breaktime and to ensure that the office lights are off when not in use.
11. Optimize Patient Flow
Without proper management, overcrowding in hospitals and clinics can happen. A chaotic patient flow is detrimental because patients in need of the most care may not receive it. Sometimes, those with diseases have to be ejected from the emergency room and the ICU due to poor organization. It may also lead to rising costs because these facilities need more staff to attend to the surge of patients. You can reduce the problem by providing more postoperative care, surgeries, and radiology services. Proper scheduling of specialists will also help by offering them incentives to reschedule the times they need to be in the office.
In Conclusion
Medical practice doesn’t have to cost you so much. There are still many ways you can save on costs and offer more to your patients. Adapting strategies enables you to invest more in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. Larger businesses such as hospitals can save on operational costs with only one provider to avoid unnecessary expenses and wastage.
