In a healthcare practice, the Practice Manager (PM) is central, core, key…! So many adjectives could describe the role they perform, but basically, they drive and underpin the service provided to all your internal and external stakeholders. In most practices, they’re the difference between practice failure or success and whether or not a practice is a good place to work. They’re crucial!
Whilst the importance of the role is understood and agreed, it’s a broad title, and actual responsibilities can vary significantly from one practice to another. The upshot can be different understandings between the PM and the practice owner/principal, leading to challenges and problems.
If you’d like some essential practice management strategies and tips to help practice managers succeed in this crucial role, check out our article, “Key Practice Manager Tips & Tricks.”
Clarity in the PM role
Getting a clear definition and agreement of the PM role in your practice helps with things like:
Agreement about what they’ll be focusing on, and therefore what needs to be covered by others/in other ways.
Defining the skills, experience and attributes needed to successfully perform the role.
Identifying where training/support/development might be needed to build those skills and that experience.
Setting and reviewing remuneration.
Recruiting the right person for the role first, then reviewing performance over time.
Determining facets of the role that could be handed over to others to offer them the opportunity for growth and challenge, plus provide the PM time to focus on things only they can do.
The best tool you can have is a really comprehensive position description (PD)!
Defining the PM role in your practice - where to start
A generic PD can be helpful but should be treated as a starting point, with alterations and refinements to ensure that your specific practice needs are included.
To work out what the PM role needs to include in your practice, consider:
What do you need them to do and focus on? See below for a list of common areas of responsibility.
How much time do they really have to dedicate to the different areas of the role? For example, if it’s part of the PM’s role to cover reception staff lunches or when people are away, their time on other tasks will be severely impacted.
If time is short, what could be outsourced? Maybe things like bookkeeping, IT and marketing/promotion?
Typical areas of PM responsibility
As we’ve mentioned, what’s included in your PM’s role will depend on your specific practice – size, stage of growth, number of sites, what responsibilities are covered by the owner/principal, etc. Common areas of responsibility include:
Day-to-day management of the practice
Reception support/coverage/backup
People management and support
Patient experience management
Quality management
Financial management
Business development
Strategic growth projects
Accreditation
The breadth and depth of tasks within these areas should be clearly defined and agreed upon!
For example, if your PM is responsible for financial management, does this include tasks through budgeting, projections, reports and calculating ROI? If they’re covering people management, will this be all recruitment and training, including things like performance management of clinicians?
A comprehensive PD might initially seem a bit daunting, but it will provide a clear definition and understanding for both you and your PM about their role and enable you all to get down and do your jobs.
Next steps…
With the PD established and agreed upon, the next step for you as practice owner/principal is to empower your PM to perform their role. A few strategies to support this are:
Committing to regular meetings and following through on the tasks that come from them.
Being accessible should your PM need to touch base during sessions/the day.
Training, support, coaching and mentoring to help them build and extend their skill set.
Finally, work to notice and acknowledge what your PM brings to your practice. A little recognition and appreciation go a long way!
If you’d like assistance in developing a position description for your PM or coaching and mentoring to help them perform their role, get in touch to chat about how the Augmentum team can assist.
The Augmentum team provides a broad range of consultancy and management services, supporting healthcare business owners and decision-makers in key areas, such as strategy development and action planning, building effective foundations and teams, keeping your finger on the pulse, and driving growth and success.
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