Practice Management
Fall 2024

by Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE, and John Pinto

Your back office is the most dynamic department in your practice setting, with more moving parts and a lower tolerance for error than any other dimension of your company. While doctors and administrators are ultimately in control of what happens with patient care, clinic managers play a crucial, front-line role in ensuring the smooth operations up and down each corridor. Running a clinic floor presents numerous challenges that require a blend of leadership, experience, and practical how-to knowledge. Here are 12 key challenges and five success factors essential for effective management of your clinic.

Key challenges

1. Reporting structure: Clinic managers should report to the administrator rather than a doctor. This ensures clear communication channels and accountability, allowing managers to make unbiased decisions focused on operational efficiency.
2. Hands-on experience: Effective clinic managers have hands-on experience working on the floor. Spending at least 2–3 days per week as a working manager keeps their skills sharp and helps them stay in tune with the daily operations and challenges their staff face.
3. Standard operating procedures (SOPs): Keep SOPs updated and relevant. Clinic managers must be required to create or refresh SOPs regularly to ensure all staff follow consistent protocols, enhancing patient care and operational efficiency. These SOPs are also used to enhance the training of newly hired staff.
4. Human resources and leadership skills: Clinic managers should possess formal HR and leadership skills. These include conducting performance reviews, holding regular department meetings, cross-training staff, and ensuring written position descriptions are clear and up to date. Since many clinical managers have moved up the ranks after being an excellent technician, the practice needs to offer education and training to help newer managers learn how to manage their former peers. This is not an easy transition and should not be taken lightly.
5. Fair and tough leadership: Managers need to balance being tough and fair. They should hold all staff to the same standards, avoid favoritism, and ensure personal relationships do not interfere with professional duties. Again, this is especially challenging when a technician has moved from being a peer to a supervisor.
6. Being a role model: This includes understanding the practice’s future goals and sharing it with staff, being punctual, being flexible and not rigid, and personally exhibiting that customer service and patient satisfaction are the highest of priorities.
7. Learning from peers: Periodically visiting other practices to observe success in other settings can provide valuable insights. This helps clinic managers adopt best practices and innovative solutions to common problems. Invest the time and resources for management skills improvement to help them be successful.
8. Team collaboration: Close collaboration with all mid-level managers creates core strength for the practice. Working together and tying their success together reduces finger-pointing and leads to more cohesive problem-solving when issues arise.
9. Delegation and training: Having a formally designated and trained second-in-command ensures continuity in leadership during a manager’s absence. Delegation skills are vital for maintaining operations during overwhelming times (new PM/EHR system adoption, compound new staff or physician hires, construction and office renovations, etc.) and handling unexpected challenges (broken equipment, scheduling issues, staffing shortages, etc.).
10. Avoiding burnout: Given the demanding nature of their job, clinic managers must apply good self-care practices to avoid burnout. This includes managing stress, maintaining work-life balance, and seeking support when needed. Most new managers (and many experienced ones) need help identifying when they are heading toward burnout. Holding regular meetings with the clinical manager (and all mid-level managers) helps you observe the difficulties that they may not see when they over-strive for high performance.
11. Multitasking ability: Effective clinic managers are adept at multitasking. They can seamlessly transition from preparing a staff schedule to directing traffic on the floor to scribing or working up a patient, ensuring smooth operations.
12. Understanding KPIs: Managers need a memorized command of key performance indicators (KPIs) that frame up the benchmarking standards for their department. They must be provided with the data and resources to assess department and individual staff productivity. These KPIs include staffing hours per patient visit, error rates, workups accomplished per day, work-up times, etc.

Additional success factors for clinic managers

1. Strong communication skills: Effective communication with physicians, staff, management team individuals, and administration is paramount. This includes clearly conveying expectations, providing constructive feedback, and actively listening to concerns.
2. Adaptability: Clinic managers must be adaptable to changing circumstances, whether it’s new technology, updated protocols and procedures, or shifts in practice goals or policy that impact the department. The ability to see the big picture is key to being a successful leader.
3. Empathy and support: Demonstrating empathy toward staff and patients fosters a supportive work environment. This includes recognizing staff achievements and addressing patient concerns with care and professionalism.
4. Continuous improvement: A commitment to continuous improvement drives success. This involves staying updated with industry trends, pursuing further education, and being prepared to suggest or implement new and innovative methods that the practice embraces.
5. Resource management: Efficient management of resources, including time, staff, and equipment, ensures the clinic operates within budget and maintains high standards of care.

Running a clinic floor effectively requires a multifaceted approach that combines leadership, experience, and advance planning for excellent department functioning. By addressing the challenges proactively and helping your clinic manager achieve the key success factors, clinic managers can help create and lead the practice toward a well-organized, efficient, high employee morale and patient-centered practice. This not only enhances the overall patient experience but also contributes to the long-term success of the practice. 

About the authors

John Pinto
President
J. Pinto & Associates
San Diego, California

Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE
President
C. Wohl & Associates
San Diego, California

Contact 

Pinto: pintoinc@aol.com, 619-223-2233
Wohl: czwohl@gmail.com, 609-410-2932