Improving Your Processes to Enhance Practice Operations

To take your behavioral health practice to the next level, focus on improving your workflows and patient outcomes. Streamline clinical and administrative tasks to save time, and track patient progress to gain insight into the most effective treatments. As you become more skilled in practice management, you will see improvements in revenue and overall success.

Learning How To Grow Your Practice

Guidance for New Behavioral Health Practices

Growth requires expanding your client roster and creating the administrative infrastructure to support it. Don’t get caught off guard by the new demands that growth will bring. Prepare to scale up your workflow accordingly.

1

Draw New Clients to Your Services

Make it effortless for potential clients to request your services. Allow clients to request appointments online at their convenience, rather than having to call during business hours. Identify marketing channels that effectively reach your target client population. Your practice’s reputation is also critical to marketing success. A good reputation can attract clients through word-of-mouth and referrals. Consistently delivering exceptional treatment and providing a welcoming patient-centered experience at your practice can help build your reputation.
2

Be the Expert on Your EHR

EHRs can make your work easier and give you an edge on profitability, but only if you understand how to use them to their full potential. Familiarize yourself and your staff with EHR features that can streamline work, keep you organized, and improve the patient experience. Ask the EHR you choose what ongoing training resources they offer so you stay up to date on new features and best practice workflows.
3

Reduce Admin Load for Work/Life Balance

To make administrative work more efficient and less time-consuming, implement a few best practices such as automating repetitive tasks like appointment reminders, standardizing workflows for everyone at the practice, using templates whenever possible, and cross-training staff to relieve bottlenecks in the patient cycle.
4

Keep an Eye on Your Reporting

Regularly reviewing key performance indicators is essential for gaining insight into the success and challenges of your practice. Begin by generating reports on financials, billing, client retention, provider productivity, and operational metrics like appointments scheduled and average wait times. Initially, it may seem overwhelming, but starting with just one or two KPIs, such as clinician appointment bookings or client retention rates, can provide valuable insight into your practice’s performance. By basing your decisions on real data, you can build a strong foundation for a thriving behavioral health business.

Learning How To Grow Your Practice

20 KPIs for Private Practice

Experts in behavioral health metrics, Valant has put together a comprehensive white paper outlining 20 key performance indicators private practice owners should take into account when tracking the progress of their practice toward its goals.

Common questions asked by others like you

How can using outcome measures improve my clinical outcomes?

Outcome measures provide an objective view of your clients’ symptoms over time, allowing clinicians to assess the severity and evolution of conditions more precisely. Outcome measures provide concrete data on how symptoms respond to certain treatments, which can be used to hone treatment plans and achieve faster outcomes. They also provide patients with evidence of their improvement, which can become powerful encouragement.

How can I better engage patients without expending too many resources?

Engaging patients can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be a drain on your resources. By automating patient engagement efforts, you can keep clients plugged in without overwhelming your workload. Appointment reminders, auto-sending documents like outcome measures and “homework” between appointments, and a patient portal with a messaging feature are all easy ways to keep clients engaged without demanding copious amounts of maintenance on the practice end. With the right tools, you can improve patient outcomes and keep clients happy without expending too many resources.

Should I manage my own billing or outsource the work?

Your billing method will depend on your individual needs and goals. In general, in-house billing may save you money, give you more control over the process, and reduce the potential for data security breaches. However, it comes with a steep learning curve of billing and coding skills, and you may realize higher reimbursements in the long run by utilizing professional billers. Outsourced billing is more expensive and affords you less control over the process, but it is also less time and labor-intensive, and allows someone else to manage organization and deadlines. For more information, read our list of pros and cons for in-house vs. outsourced billing.

Read More

How do I keep up with documentation as my patient load increases?

Automate as many aspects of your clinical notes as possible. It’s faster to edit and complete an automated note than to create the entire thing from scratch. Valant speeds your documentation with auto-generating narratives, the ability to carry forward information from previous notes, and automatic population of outcome measures into the note. Say goodbye to the pileup of documentation work!

Learning How To Grow Your Practice