There is no way to sugar coat it. Sometimes running your own business can be hard, especially when your business is a healthcare practice that is constantly having to comply with new industry and government standards and regulations. The market is more competitive than ever, and it can sometimes feel like it takes 110% of your effort to run a successful practice.
But, at the end of the day, providing exceptional care to patients and having a direct impact on your patients' quality of life through vision care is a rewarding and exciting job to have. That's why we came up with a list of five things every optometrist should be thankful for this year.
What is Your Eyecare Practice Thankful for this Year?
You couldn't make a living without them. Your patients are your number one asset to practice success. While you may find you're having to fight harder and harder to compete against online retailers and cheaper vision alternatives, your loyal patients keep coming back for more. Things like local convenience, a personal experience, wide frame selection, and supporting local business are all selling features of your practice. When it comes to healthcare, most patients want a comfortable experience with an expert they can trust, and that's not something easily found online.
Your Stellar Staff
We said before that your patients are your number one asset, but your staff is definitely a close second. An engaged and knowledgeable staff keep the wheels turning in your practice day in and day out. And often times, your patients will end up spending more time with your staff than the OD, so you should make sure you're filling up your team with the right people.
Staff turnover can cause big headaches for many eyecare practices. Turnover can become very costly and hurt the morale and energy of your best employees. Focus on employee retention this holiday season and start implementing fun ways to show how thankful you are for their hard work throughout the year. Check out some of our best resources on reducing staff turnover.
- Can You Retain More Staff with Career Development Plans?
- 6 Questions to Ask When Dealing with High Staff Turnover
- Why It's Important to Refer to Your Staff as Experts
- Motivating Staff with Great Company Culture
New and Improved Technology
New technology is evolving at a quicker rate than ever before, making tasks that were once challenging in your practice much easier. Whether it's technology on a new piece of imaging equipment that makes it easier and faster to identify specific eye issues, or technology advancements in the cloud making it easier to access your software. Technology has also improved the way your practice can communicate with each other, your patients, and other specialty doctors in referral cases.
A Stronger and More Cohesive Healthcare System
While it can oftentimes be painfully annoying to comply with every government regulation out there, a large part for all the new rules (you know, programs like MIPS) are to make a stronger and more unified healthcare system. Not only are healthcare practices require to make some changes, but technology providers are as well. That means only the best and most modern software providers will last and you'll be able to choose from the best software left standing to help you get the job done.
Wide Access to Knowledge and Advice
Running a healthcare business is a lot of hard work from providing patient care to managing employees to marketing your business and checking off all your legal check boxes. In today's modern business world, no OD is left alone in their struggles of running a business. The internet has created countless opportunities for collaborative work to help you learn valuable information from others. Whether you're reading popular industry blogs or participating in conversations across social media forums you have easy access to a wide network of peers and business professionals to bounce ideas off of and gain new insights from.
Keep up your small business tactics with our handy ebook.
Editor's Note: This was originally published in Nov 2016 and updated for richness in Nov 2021.