We hope your 2019 has started with a bang both professionally and personally. While you craft your personal resolutions for the new year, it might be a good motivational tool to create a few for your practice. You can even pin them up in your office for the entire staff to see throughout the year.

You can also encourage your staff to create their own resolutions for personal career development. When you have quarterly or monthly check-ins, these resolutions can be a marker for growth and job satisfaction. That's part of your HR plan for 2019 sorted! Read on to see suggestions for a few resolutions that can jumpstart your planning and organization for the coming year.

Top 10 Resolutions for ODs in 2019

We liked the idea of using motivational language for the resolutions, but you can definitely tweak these broader goals to be more specific and measurable if you're looking for something more tangible. 

1. Balance

Although balance isn't usually the first value that comes to mind when considering your optometry practice, it's definitely important to keep in mind. Make sure you're balancing your accounts, expenses, marketing campaigns, sales, and any other events every month so that you don't create busy periods or lulls for yourself.

2. Broaden Your Scope

We urge you to get out of your comfort zone when it comes to running online ads, attracting local patients, and freshening up the design of your practice. Consider ways you can broaden the demographic of your patient base, incorporate new equipment, or even procure new frame brands this coming year.

3. Modernization

A modern practice is one that invests in the latest medical technology as well as operational software to fit the needs of its growing, modern patients. If your patients come from a wide array of backgrounds and you feel your practice becoming overwhelmed with juggling a multitude of tasks, an all-in-one EHR, practice management, and claim management solution could be the answer for you.

4. Automation

The buzzword for 2019 is automation because we think busy administrative work should be kept to a minimum. If there is any process in your practice that can be automated through software, then it might be the time to do so. This could apply to patient recall, prescriptions, performance tracking, and more.

5. New Growth

Perhaps you've been thinking about hiring a few new staff members in order to expand your patient base or cope with an existing influx of work? This could be the year you outsource your claim management, hire a second technician, or even bring on an operations intern.

6. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Everyone wants to reduce their carbon footprint, but it's hard to put words into action. We've detailed small and large ways your practice can become more eco-friendly on our blog to make your goal stick.

7. Cost Reduction

You can make it an annual tradition to go through all your recurring expenses, overhead, and other operational expenses that fly under the radar. Remove accounts you no longer require, put practices in place to reduce your bills, and negotiate new agreements with vendors who might be overcharging you.

8. Monthly Reports

Depending on your practice management software, you could already be receiving monthly performance reports detailing trends in your patient visits, expenses, insurance claims, and more. If you're not, it's a good idea to take the time out to compile these reports in excel so that you can visualize your practice's growth forecast.

9. Learning

Aside from taking courses for CE credits, there are plenty of business skills and certifications that your staff can learn through online courses too. These skills aren't usually taught in formal education for ECPs, but they're more valuable than ever as the eyecare industry grows.

10. Surveys

Soliciting feedback can be extremely nerve-wracking, but it's also helpful. Administer short, possibly incentivized surveys to your patients through email or in person. Ask them either multiple choice or open-ended questions about how you're doing to see where you can improve. You might be surprised at what you find.

Want 2019 to be the year of efficiency? Read our ebook to find out 10 simple ways to streamline your workflow.