Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Value of a Slow Day

While busy is great, an occasional slow is ok too; as long as it is only every so often. Here's what to do on a slow day so that you can stay productive and proactive.

1: Do your bills—always important

2: Refine your processes—take the slow day to think about your inefficiencies, mistakes, and successes over the past few weeks and then refine your processes for the better. For example, you may find that patient flow improves simply by eliminating one form or another or use the time to record some new macros or templates

3: Pick-up a book—not Tom Clancy (who I love), but a business school book and use it to learn about marketing, business development, business strategy etc

4: Do some CME—perfect way to turn 2-3 slow hours into CME credits

5: Check your back-ups—use the time to make sure your back-ups are running as planned

6: Perform QA—run a random chart audit, check to may sure your insurance policies are in-force, make sure your reagents aren't expired, etc

7: Review your P&L statement—use the time to find areas in which to cut costs

8: Call your post-ops—where good doctoring and good business intersect

9: Market—an on-going process

10: Blog—of course

Thanks,

The IU