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Ah, the start of a new year—the traditional time for resolutions, for turning over new leaves, for promising (yet again) to break all those annoying bad habits once and for all.
As long as you're pledging to break bad habits at home, why not set your mind to breaking some bad habits at the office as well?
I can't presume to know what your professional bad habits are, but I do know the ones I get asked about most often, so I can offer a top 10 list that might provide inspiration for your personal list of resolutions:
Start on Time
Many physicians complain about running behind. Guess what? Your patients complain about it, too. Waiting is the most common patient complaint, and you can't hope to run on time if you don't start on time. No single change will improve office efficiency more than this.
Spend Less Time on the Web
Okay, I confess that this one is on my own list this year. Fear not, RxDerm-L and DermChat members. I'll still be there, but you will notice from now on that my posts will be time stamped early in the morning or late at night and not during office hours. It is just too easy to start clicking that mouse and to continue until you're half an hour behind. We all have plenty of other short tasks that we could be completing during those brief office lulls.
Permit Fewer Interruptions
Phone calls and pharmaceutical representatives seem to be the big interrupters in most offices. Make some rules, and stick to them. I'll stop to take an emergency call or one from an immediate family member; all others get routed to the nurses or are returned at lunch or after hours. Reps are instructed to make appointments, like everybody else, and I generally limit rep appointments to one a day, scheduled a few minutes before I start my afternoon hours.
Organize Samples
We strip all of the space-wasting packaging off of our samples and store them, alphabetically, in cardboard parts bins that can be purchased from many industrial catalogs. Besides always knowing what you have on hand, you'll always know what you're out of and your staff will waste far less time searching for the samples that you want. Also, a bin system makes logging samples in and out much easier, should that become a requirement (as the Food and Drug Administration keeps promising).
Clear Your Horizontal File Cabinet
That would be the mess on your desk—all the paperwork you never seem to get to. (Probably because you're answering e-mail.) Set aside an hour or two and get it all done. You'll find some interesting stuff in there. Then, for every piece of paper that arrives on your desk from now on, follow the DDD Rule: Do it, Delegate it, or Destroy it. Don't start a new mess. There's an entire column on this subject in the Archive Collection.
Keep a Closer Eye on the Office's Financial Situation
Most physicians delegate the bookkeeping, and that's fine, but ignoring the financial side completely creates an atmosphere that can facilitate embezzlement. Set aside a couple of hours each month to review the books personally. And make sure that your employees know you're doing it.
Make Sure Your Long-Range Financial Planning Is on Track
This is another aspect physicians tend to set and forget, but economic conditions change all the time. Once a year, you should sit down with your accountant and lawyer and make sure your investments are well diversified and that all other aspects of your finances—budgets, credit ratings, insurance coverage, tax situations, college savings, estate plans, retirement accounts—are in the best shape possible.
Pay Down Your Debt
Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, make sure that you set up a plan to pay it off as soon as you can.
Take More Vacations
Remember Eastern's First Law: Your last words will not be, “I wish I had spent more time in the office.” If you have been working too much, this is the year to start spending more time enjoying your life, your friends and family, and the world. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
Look at Yourself
A private practice lives or dies on the personalities of its physicians, and your staff copies your personality and style. That being the case, it behooves you to take a hard, honest look at yourself. Identify your negative personality traits and work to eliminate them. If you have any difficulty finding the things that need changing, ask your spouse. I'm sure he or she will be happy to outline them for you … in great detail.
Ah, the start of a new year—the traditional time for resolutions, for turning over new leaves, for promising (yet again) to break all those annoying bad habits once and for all.
As long as you're pledging to break bad habits at home, why not set your mind to breaking some bad habits at the office as well?
I can't presume to know what your professional bad habits are, but I do know the ones I get asked about most often, so I can offer a top 10 list that might provide inspiration for your personal list of resolutions:
Start on Time
Many physicians complain about running behind. Guess what? Your patients complain about it, too. Waiting is the most common patient complaint, and you can't hope to run on time if you don't start on time. No single change will improve office efficiency more than this.
Spend Less Time on the Web
Okay, I confess that this one is on my own list this year. Fear not, RxDerm-L and DermChat members. I'll still be there, but you will notice from now on that my posts will be time stamped early in the morning or late at night and not during office hours. It is just too easy to start clicking that mouse and to continue until you're half an hour behind. We all have plenty of other short tasks that we could be completing during those brief office lulls.
Permit Fewer Interruptions
Phone calls and pharmaceutical representatives seem to be the big interrupters in most offices. Make some rules, and stick to them. I'll stop to take an emergency call or one from an immediate family member; all others get routed to the nurses or are returned at lunch or after hours. Reps are instructed to make appointments, like everybody else, and I generally limit rep appointments to one a day, scheduled a few minutes before I start my afternoon hours.
Organize Samples
We strip all of the space-wasting packaging off of our samples and store them, alphabetically, in cardboard parts bins that can be purchased from many industrial catalogs. Besides always knowing what you have on hand, you'll always know what you're out of and your staff will waste far less time searching for the samples that you want. Also, a bin system makes logging samples in and out much easier, should that become a requirement (as the Food and Drug Administration keeps promising).
Clear Your Horizontal File Cabinet
That would be the mess on your desk—all the paperwork you never seem to get to. (Probably because you're answering e-mail.) Set aside an hour or two and get it all done. You'll find some interesting stuff in there. Then, for every piece of paper that arrives on your desk from now on, follow the DDD Rule: Do it, Delegate it, or Destroy it. Don't start a new mess. There's an entire column on this subject in the Archive Collection.
Keep a Closer Eye on the Office's Financial Situation
Most physicians delegate the bookkeeping, and that's fine, but ignoring the financial side completely creates an atmosphere that can facilitate embezzlement. Set aside a couple of hours each month to review the books personally. And make sure that your employees know you're doing it.
Make Sure Your Long-Range Financial Planning Is on Track
This is another aspect physicians tend to set and forget, but economic conditions change all the time. Once a year, you should sit down with your accountant and lawyer and make sure your investments are well diversified and that all other aspects of your finances—budgets, credit ratings, insurance coverage, tax situations, college savings, estate plans, retirement accounts—are in the best shape possible.
Pay Down Your Debt
Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, make sure that you set up a plan to pay it off as soon as you can.
Take More Vacations
Remember Eastern's First Law: Your last words will not be, “I wish I had spent more time in the office.” If you have been working too much, this is the year to start spending more time enjoying your life, your friends and family, and the world. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
Look at Yourself
A private practice lives or dies on the personalities of its physicians, and your staff copies your personality and style. That being the case, it behooves you to take a hard, honest look at yourself. Identify your negative personality traits and work to eliminate them. If you have any difficulty finding the things that need changing, ask your spouse. I'm sure he or she will be happy to outline them for you … in great detail.
Ah, the start of a new year—the traditional time for resolutions, for turning over new leaves, for promising (yet again) to break all those annoying bad habits once and for all.
As long as you're pledging to break bad habits at home, why not set your mind to breaking some bad habits at the office as well?
I can't presume to know what your professional bad habits are, but I do know the ones I get asked about most often, so I can offer a top 10 list that might provide inspiration for your personal list of resolutions:
Start on Time
Many physicians complain about running behind. Guess what? Your patients complain about it, too. Waiting is the most common patient complaint, and you can't hope to run on time if you don't start on time. No single change will improve office efficiency more than this.
Spend Less Time on the Web
Okay, I confess that this one is on my own list this year. Fear not, RxDerm-L and DermChat members. I'll still be there, but you will notice from now on that my posts will be time stamped early in the morning or late at night and not during office hours. It is just too easy to start clicking that mouse and to continue until you're half an hour behind. We all have plenty of other short tasks that we could be completing during those brief office lulls.
Permit Fewer Interruptions
Phone calls and pharmaceutical representatives seem to be the big interrupters in most offices. Make some rules, and stick to them. I'll stop to take an emergency call or one from an immediate family member; all others get routed to the nurses or are returned at lunch or after hours. Reps are instructed to make appointments, like everybody else, and I generally limit rep appointments to one a day, scheduled a few minutes before I start my afternoon hours.
Organize Samples
We strip all of the space-wasting packaging off of our samples and store them, alphabetically, in cardboard parts bins that can be purchased from many industrial catalogs. Besides always knowing what you have on hand, you'll always know what you're out of and your staff will waste far less time searching for the samples that you want. Also, a bin system makes logging samples in and out much easier, should that become a requirement (as the Food and Drug Administration keeps promising).
Clear Your Horizontal File Cabinet
That would be the mess on your desk—all the paperwork you never seem to get to. (Probably because you're answering e-mail.) Set aside an hour or two and get it all done. You'll find some interesting stuff in there. Then, for every piece of paper that arrives on your desk from now on, follow the DDD Rule: Do it, Delegate it, or Destroy it. Don't start a new mess. There's an entire column on this subject in the Archive Collection.
Keep a Closer Eye on the Office's Financial Situation
Most physicians delegate the bookkeeping, and that's fine, but ignoring the financial side completely creates an atmosphere that can facilitate embezzlement. Set aside a couple of hours each month to review the books personally. And make sure that your employees know you're doing it.
Make Sure Your Long-Range Financial Planning Is on Track
This is another aspect physicians tend to set and forget, but economic conditions change all the time. Once a year, you should sit down with your accountant and lawyer and make sure your investments are well diversified and that all other aspects of your finances—budgets, credit ratings, insurance coverage, tax situations, college savings, estate plans, retirement accounts—are in the best shape possible.
Pay Down Your Debt
Debt can destroy the best-laid retirement plans. If you carry significant debt, make sure that you set up a plan to pay it off as soon as you can.
Take More Vacations
Remember Eastern's First Law: Your last words will not be, “I wish I had spent more time in the office.” If you have been working too much, this is the year to start spending more time enjoying your life, your friends and family, and the world. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
Look at Yourself
A private practice lives or dies on the personalities of its physicians, and your staff copies your personality and style. That being the case, it behooves you to take a hard, honest look at yourself. Identify your negative personality traits and work to eliminate them. If you have any difficulty finding the things that need changing, ask your spouse. I'm sure he or she will be happy to outline them for you … in great detail.