If you’ve listened to the most recent SUMMIT TALK Podlecture, you know the question of Yes or No on Vision Plans? is a hot topic; heavy on colleagues’ minds this day-and-age within private practice. That’s been the case for some time, of course, but I’m asked about this a good bit more these days than ever. That question – yes or no – definitely seems to be coming to a head for many frustrated colleagues.

I just finished a Zoom TEAM TRAINING WORKSHOP with one of our partner colleagues, and we had a great team-wide discussion on the three main keys to managing practice metrics:

1. Having a clearly defined objective for each metric (what good is checking my acuity if you don’t have that objective regarding 20/20?).

2. The entire team knows the outcome relative to that objective.

3. Remembering the entire point of tracking metrics – that we have opportunity for department-specific and team-wide dialogue about IMPACT!

What that team and I have discovered as we’ve progressed through the Training Workshops is the practice is doing a fantastic job of engaging the team in regard to outcomes. We’ve also discovered we still have great opportunity to further clarify and bring the team closer to defined objectives for these vital signs, and to a team-wide understanding of the extent to which we’re achieving them.

As we discussed last time, it’s a fine thing to be keeping some metrics in the practice. And a finer thing to be keeping those metrics relative to clearly established objectives so we know for what we strive. And even finer yet to engage your team by having staff give the metrics reports in those Weekly Vital Signs Reviews. But we do all of that with one simple end goal – IMPACT!

It’s a fine thing to be keeping some metrics in the practice. We’ve been doing that together these past few months. It’s an even finer thing to be keeping those metrics relative to clearly established objectives for each of them (which I HOPE you’re now doing). And it’s a finer thing yet to be having team members report outcomes relative to those objectives in what I call the Weekly Vital Signs Review. These things and more have been the fodder of our last couple blog conversations, and that’s all great. But I think you’ll agree at some point, the idea is to actually IMPACT those outcomes!

As I mentioned in my last post, the partners were definitely ready for a dialogue on managing practice metrics. Colleagues have continued lighting-up the Help Desk with great comments, questions, realizations, etc., and so quite literally by popular demand, let’s continue our discussion about managing the “vital signs” of your practice.

Holy cow, Colleagues! Were the practices of Summit ever ready for some discussion and work on metrics or what? You’ve been lighting up the Help Desk with great comments, questions, observations, realizations, etc., and I’m more than a little excited about the stir we’re creating on this.