Medical and dental practices are profitable businesses, right? Not necessarily.
Having a solid business plan and the right systems and processes in place can mean the difference between a successful and profitable practice, and an unsuccessful practice with many losses.
At Crest Accountants on the Gold Coast, we have spent many years consulting with medical and dental practices, to help them improve their overall profitability and we want to help you too.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled 4 ways to improve medical and dental practice profitability.
Review your fee structure
Take the time to review your fee structure. Are you charging your patients enough?
Whilst there are appropriate circumstances in which you bulk-bill your patients, there should be a strict policy and criteria surrounding this agreed upon by all practitioners.
Take control of your costs
Like any business, managing your practice costs is fundamental to improving your profitability ratios. Start by looking at your highest costs such as wages and rent. Whilst managing wages are difficult (you need to keep your staff and pay them what they’re worth), rent can easily be controlled, with various methods such as sub-letting of any empty rooms to allied health practitioners. Not only is this a great way to mitigate rent costs, it adds to the value of your practice and provides further services and convenience to your patients.
Patient management efficiency
Matching demand and supply is a tricky business. You could say it’s the single greatest challenge in practices. Not enough supply and too much demand means you’ll have too few doctors, but having too much supply, without the demand means you’ll have either too many doctors sitting in empty rooms — earning you and them no income. So, how do you get the balance right? There are a few ways:
- Review your Online Booking System – is yours as efficient and transparent as it could be?
- Train your staff correctly – do your staff know how to ask patients the right questions in order to get them the right appointment times?
- Employ nurses – do your doctors or dentists have the assistance they need for optimal patient management?
Get the right advice
As a doctor or dentist, you’re extremely busy – perhaps one of the busiest of the professionals out there. Often, this busyness can lead to spending so much time working in your business, that you don’t spend enough time (if any) working on your business. Taking the time to meet with business professionals such as accountants and lawyers, to get the right advice for your practice, could save you time, money and tax. In fact, it could even save your business.
Your medical or dental practice can be extremely profitable, and having a solid business plan and the right systems and processes in place, can make it happen.
At Crest Accountants on the Gold Coast, we have spent over 45 years, consulting with medical and dental practices, to help them improve their overall profitability and we want to help you too. We take the time to get to know our clients so that you feel confident we have your best interest at heart. Crest Accountants, accountants you can trust.
Contact us and book an appointment to discuss ways to improve medical and dental practice profitability today.
