National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues - News Feeds

Office efficiency strategies

• Give patients a place to play ... or recover
  Give patients a place to play ... or recover
  
• Use this easy method for keeping casts clean and dry
  Use this easy method for keeping casts clean and dry
  
• Implement service codes to crack down on missed charges
  Missed charges can result in thousands in lost revenue for your practice. But here's the good news: The solution is as simple as developing a few service codes.
  
• Save money by making your own laundry detergent
  Tired of shelling out cash for name-brand soap every month? Make your own, and you could save hundreds of dollars each year.
  
• 7 ways to stop interruptions from derailing your workday
  Handle coworker questions and nonemergency interruptions with panache.
  
• Banning social media won't keep team members off the Internet
  Employees continue to use Facebook and Twitter on the job—despite company policies.
  
• Behavior history form
  A behavior history form for use in adolescent and adult pet consultations.
  
• Q&A: Replace the waste by creating a recycling program
  Our practice produces a lot of waste. How can we create a manageable recycling program?
  
• Don't let no-shows slow you down
  Work to eliminate these schedule gaps and wasted opportunities for revenue.
  
• Use empty trash cans to take purrfect photos of fractious cats
  Empty, clean trash cans make a great background for photos.
  
• 7 from-the-trenches ways to go green (part 1)
  April 22 is Earth Day. Celebrate in style by following these green tips from your colleagues.
  
• More than the Red Flags Rule
  Secure your clients' and team members' private information against identity theft and mitigate your own risk of future fines
  
• Q&A: The pros and cons of surveillance cameras
  Should my practice install video surveillance cameras?
  
• What is a technician appointment?
  Examples of services that technicians can provide by themselves or with little supervision.
  
• Put unused space to work as a central pharmacy
  Scattered inventory and inefficient procedures cost you time and money. Here's a solution.
  
• 25 ways to untangle your veterinary practice snarls
  Try Dr. Jeff Rothstein's 25 tips to get your practice purring like, well, a cat.
  
• Use signs to alert staff to sensitive cases
  Signs on exam room doors create immediate awareness that a sensitive case is present.
  
• Practice Management Overhaul forms
  Download the tools you need to transform your practice.
  
• Overhaul outcome: Finding the tools for success
  Practice Management Overhaul winners reveal what they've learned throughout the process and how it's transformed their practice.
  
• Converting to electronic records
  How one practice followed a conversion plan to the promised land.
  
• When employees get on Facebook
  Team members can express themselves with social media as long as everyone understands the rules.
  
• Energy cutbacks increase savings
  Three ways to go and save green.
  
• Connect team members with employee intranet
  Keep team members up to date with this handy online tool.
  
• 5 reasons you should use a payroll service
  In a time when cutbacks are necessary, don't skimp on this valuable commodity.
  
• Punch-outs identify problem patients
  Use this strategy instead of color-coding patient records.
  
• Find a place for your pamphlets
  Use this handy storage solution to keep brochures in one place.
  
• The veterinary practice manager's role increases during hard times
  Every practice, whatever its size, needs a strong, reliable manager to oversee associates and staff. Once trained, he or she should have a relatively free hand to deal with all management problems as they arise.
  
• Your role with referrals
  What can team members do to help veterinarians as they refer more cases?
  
• The 5-to-7 ratio
  Violate the 5-to-7 ratio at your risk. That is the ratio between a veterinary practice's gross revenue and the cost of paraprofessional staff. Anything outside that ratio is bad for the practice.
  
• Get client compliance back on track
  The recession may have derailed your compliance numbers, but you can take steps to stay on top of your game.
  
• Now's the time to overcome your technophobia
  Rethink your strategy to using technology in your practice, and things might run more smoothly.
  
• Employee involvement leads to workplace diversity
  Offering programs to increase efficiency can result in a varied culture at your practice.
  
• Want to earn $50? Submit a Practice Tip
  You could also win a $250 portrait of your favorite pet from Pet Picassos!
  
• Why technology is your friend
  This practice cut labor costs and improved efficiency by investing in practice software.
  
• 5 ways a veterinary practice manager can help
  Owners: Look at what you don't have time to do and learn to delegate.
  
• Duty bound: What do team members do?
  Find out your primary job responsibilities by position.
  
• Hiring a practice manager is profitable
  Find out how many practices have practice managers and how much those practices earn.
  
• Keep water blankets watertight
  Cat claws and hot water blankets don't mix. Here's how to fix a water blanket when it springs leaks.
  
• Q&A: Get out of the office and back to the exam room
  As a practice owner, I feel like I'm spending too much time on management tasks. How can I balance my dutes as a practice owner with my role as a veterinarian?
  
• Hire help to speed up your invoicing
  Don't horse around with invoicing. Hire a bookkeeper to help.
  
• How to be more efficient every day
  No one becomes a lean, mean, efficiency machine overnight. It takes time. Watch Denise Tumblin's, CPA, video and see how you can become more effective every day.
  
• Need to save time? Here are two easy ideas
  Team members are already texting and downloading forms, so why not put this technology to use in practice?
  
• FTC delays 'Red Flags Rule' enforcement
  Washington — The Red Flags Rule will not go into effect until Aug. 1 to give creditors and financial institutions more time to develop and implement written identify-theft prevention programs.
  
• Video: Make your day run more smoothly
  The key to efficiency in your veterinary practice lies in how you start your day. Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member Denise Tumblin, CPA, offers three tips for getting off on the right foot.
  
• Trends: Generational interplay
  Lacey heard the tell-tale chirp from her cell phone.
  
• Don't trash those vaccine trays
  Recycling is easy by simply reusing old vaccine packaging.
  
• Master problem sheets
  Forms to make record-keeping easier.
  
• Break rooms give your team a place to sit
  An employee break room serves multiple functions and eliminates staff-training headaches.
  
• What's your role?
  Your patient care position.
  
• Managing the 50+ employee practice scheduling for efficiency: Parts 1 and 2 (Proceedings)
  Assessing the hospital's schedule, team scheduling tips, team utilization and ratios, and requested days off forms
  
• How to practice smarter not harder! Enhancing your operational efficiency (Proceedings)
  Goal planning enables you to set a course of action to achieve goals and reach your objectives.
  
• Is client compliance possible in this economy? (Proceedings)
  Maintaining consistency in a multiple-doctor practice is a common challenge.
  
• Stop struggling to find supplies
  Here's a tip: Hold a scavenger hunt for your practice's hard-to-locate items. That way, every employee will know where to look when asked for an "obscure" object.
  
• "I dunno" isn't an answer
  Stop scrambling to find obscure objects.
  
• A scheduling emergency
  How to schedule emergency slots.
  
• Opperman responds
  An expert's tips to scheduling.
  
• Give your practice an inventory intervention
  Solve inventory problems with this nine-step guide.
  
• Audio tip: Get back to basics
  Mark Opperman explains why you need to review the success of your reminders system.
  
• Keeping employee records safe
  Organize and file employees' sensitive personnel documents with these tips.
  
• Make your equine practice eco-friendly
  Going green doesn't have to cost a lot. Here are 7 small—and 4 big—ways to go green without spending a lot of green.
  
• Phased training program
  A handy, step-by-step guide on efficiently training receptionists.
  
• Make your practice run like clockwork
  Does the daily grind cause tasks to fall by the wayside? Follow these tips to put the gears back in motion.
  
• Use towels to comfort patients
  Used towels can make great bedding for patient recovering from procedures.
  
• Sleep helps you remember complicated tasks
  Did you already forget what you learned in that CE session yesterday? Get some sleep!
  
• Medical records checklist
  Don't find yourself with inadequate patient medical records. Use this checklist to audit your records.
  
• Take notes to avoid legal problems
  Failure to properly document procedures and exams can result in legal trouble down the road.
  
• High-five! Uh, not until you wash your hands.
  Both genders have more germs on their hands than previously thought—and women have more than men.
  
• Reduce stress to increase productivity
  Follow these tips to improve your time management skills.
  
• Monitoring your practice in today's economy
  Paying attention to demographics, finances, diagnostics yields benefits.
  
• Applicant evaluation form
  Use this form to help you document hiring decisions.
  
• Put hiring decisions in writing
  Keeping employment documents in order helps prevent problems down the road.
  
• Practical practice tips (Proceedings)
  Working smarter, not harder, should be the mantra of every business today. It seems there's too much to do in too little time.
  
• How to power up your software
  Practice management software can allow your practice to run more smoothly.
  
• How to dispose of leftover medications safely
  Here's a hint: Don't flush them down the toilet.
  
• An outpatient charge sheet that works for me
  Advice from our community message board on handling outpatient charges
  
• Staying safe at work (Proceedings)
  Most people who work with animal do so because of an intense love for animals and desire to help them.
  
• Tackling turnover
  Lakewood, Colo. — Associate veterinarians are jumping jobs faster than the average American worker, according to a new study, and salaries that don't keep pace with inflation could be partly to blame.
  
• Scheduling for efficiency (Proceedings)
  Identify the demands and requests of your client base.
  
• Getting change ready (Proceedings)
  To deal with growth, we are really talking about how we handle change in the workplace.
  
• Prescription pad pages
  Make prescription refill requests easier on clients and receptionists with these easy-to-use prescription refill pad pages.
  
• Six simple tips to rev up refills and revenue
  A few tweaks to your paperwork and front desk, and refill annoyances will be a thing of the past.
  
• Take five
  A few minutes per appointment can save you a lot at the end of the day.
  
• Satellites need communication with the mother ship
  Communication failures between facilities lead to disconnect and tension.
  
• Ten practice management tips you can take home and start (Proceedings)
  Practice Tip Ten: What have the referral centers taught us?
  
• Why clinic mascots could be a bad idea
  The clinic cat may be sweet, but she's also a safety hazard.
  
• The benefits and challenges of paperless practice
  What to consider before going electronic.
  
• Creating a business plan (Sponsored by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health)
  The reason business owners create a business plan is the same reason why horse owners keep up with annual exams. Giving a horse vaccinations ma reduce the risk of disease and death. As an equine entrepreneur, consider these five core areas when creating a business plan: teamwork, concept, customers, cash, and purchasing.
  
• The paperless plunge
  The only thing that anyone can count on for sure in the arena of paperless veterinary practice is that the experience is different for everyone.
  
• The integrated practice: How integrating medical and financial information leads to a more efficient practice (Sponsored by IDEXX)
  Progressive practitioners from around the country who have implemented an integrated system into their practices discuss how it has helped ensure the best healtcare possible for patients, made their practices run more efficiently, and increaed revenue.
  
• What's backing up your computer?
  I've had quite a few mishaps with my cell phone. I wasn't worried this last time, though, because I'd opted for the "backup assistant" service provided by my wireless carrier. At least my contact list would be safe—so I thought.
  
• Get new employees up to date on safety
  Safety and workplace hazards: Here's what to teach your veterinary team's wide-eyed, innocent new recruits, and how to teach it effectively.
  
• Can you hear me now?
  Q. What is VoIP? Should my practice consider switching our traditional phone system?
  
• Avoid your own Andromeda strain
  Your enthusiasm should be infectious, not your hospital. When treating disease, make sure one sick animal doesn't turn into many.
  
• Make spring cleaning egg-citing
  An Easter egg hunt for cash- and candy-filled eggs makes spring cleaning fun for the team at the Maul Road Animal Clinic in Camden, Ark.
  
• Extinguish fire safety worries
  Are your veterinary practice's fire extinguishers properly placed and inspected—or do you need them at all?
  
• Finding files
  Our client folders are arranged by last name, but approximately one-third of them are in the wrong place. Is it most efficient to file customer folders by name, or is there a better way?
  
• Fresh start
  Clean up with 12 monthly resolutions for your best year yet! Plus! Three more must-do's from the experts!
  
• Don't get tangled in the Web
  Avoid sticky liability issues, and make sure your team knows what you expect when they navigate the 'Net.
  
• 10 tips to boost profitability
  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Implementing these ideas that boost the bottom line.
  
• Phone room gives clients equal attention
  We pulled the phones from our front reception area, and we've never looked back.