The outcome of any negotiation is in part the result of the behaviors we display at the negotiating table. Our behaviors can reveal information about what we are thinking and feeling. The most dangerous behaviors are those that indicate we feel fear. Those behaviors weaken our position and betray us at the negotiation table. To improve your results at the negotiation table, use practice and implement these behaviors and you’ll witness the results your negotiations improving over time.

No talking. When you’re asked a question, answer the question as succinctly as possible and then stop talking. Get comfortable with dead air. Silence can be uncomfortable for some people. When they become uncomfortable, they will fill the space with words. Don’t do that. Let them do that. Always be friendly and engaging, but be careful what and how you give answers and share information. Avoid planning your response to them. Take your time and listen to what it is they are...

Often I work with physicians who have effective decision making in clinical practice. They are smart people who have challenging times making decisions. It seems the steps to successfully make a good decision in the business can sometimes seem beyond their grasp. I think this has to do with the nature of being a physician. We tend to believe we must solve all the issues, have all the answers, and take all of the responsibility. In medicine, that might be true for your patient, but in your business, the reality is something entirely different.

Over the years, I’ve applied what my mentor taught about problem-solving to many different situations. His advice has not failed me, and I’m honored and excited to share it with you. The concepts are simple, but the implementation might require you to change your mindset.

1. Properly define the problem before attempting to fix it. To fix something, we should first figure out how it’s broken. Too many times, we rush out and treat...

As I help physicians with their negotiations, I’ve noticed one thing that seems to take them all off the rails and sour the talks. Unfortunately, it’s common behavior for most folks. We learn early in childhood to rely upon these habits. To be fair, these habits do at times protect us, but at the negotiation table, they can hurt us.

Assumptions & Expectations

Those dangerous habits are holding assumptions and then creating expectations based upon those assumptions. These two beliefs will do more to torpedo our negotiations and here’s why.

Assumptions arise from the false belief that we know everything there is to know about a negotiation. We often tell ourselves that we know what the other side will or will not accept or consider. We believe we know exactly how they think and will respond. We assume a lot about the other side. Often these assumptions are based on past experiences, yet we rarely if ever test those assumptions.

I’m not surprised by the...

Any service will have some downtime or wait time. It’s safe to say you will encounter block necks in your office. What is a bottleneck? A bottleneck is a part of a process that constrains or restricts capacity and typically results in queues.

Queues aren’t much fun and the time spent in one can hurt the entire customer experience. Sometimes we tolerate the queue and other times we don’t. Think back to the last time you had to wait for a flight or at a restaurant. How did you feel about the waiting time? How did the wait make you perceive the entire experience? Your patients experience the same feelings when they wait in your clinic.

Given the fluid and dynamic nature of clinical medicine, bottlenecks and queues will occur. But we can plan for them and help our patients experience those queues more positively.

The Effects of Queues

When your patients experience bottlenecks, they are spending time that doesn’t accomplish anything. We’ve all experienced...

After you’ve picked the metrics you want to monitor, the next, and perhaps most critical, is implementation. I’ve witnessed metric after metric, which were good, poorly implemented. It only led to frustration, finger-pointing and a general drip in morale. To help you avoid making these same mistakes, I’ve outlined a few points to provide guidance.

Tips on Implementing Metrics

1. Keep everyone informed. It can be hard to perform well when you don’t know how you’re being evaluated. To overcome their hesitation, let everyone know the reasons for choosing the metric. How does it support the mission and purpose? How will using it help them be better at their jobs?
2. Post the metric where people can see it. Once they know how and why the parameter is being used, place the results in a space where everyone can view it. Give them up to date information. Do this so they can see the consequences of their actions and make the appropriate changes. You’ll see...

Profit. Often during medical school and residency, this word was uttered with a sneer by my attending when I asked about the business side of healthcare. I believe I asked the questions that are never to be asked. Since operating a practice, I quickly discovered profit is necessary. In fact, profit is the most essential pieces of exemplary patient care, yet it often isn’t examined as carefully as it should be. Profit has a genuine purpose and one that goes beyond earning more money than you spend providing a service. As Peter Drucker claimed, profit is actually the cost of doing business.

What is Profit?

Profit is more than revenue in excess of expenses. It’s necessary for any organization to grow and expand. Keeping the doors open is also dependent upon profit. Whether your organization is a for-profit entity or non-profit endeavor, profitability is fundamental and required if you are to deliver exemplary patient care. Profitability provides more than mere money at the...

The Performance part of exemplary patient care will help you establish your reputation as an excellent care center. Productivity is meeting their needs; performance is doing it well. In a previous article, I discussed some points to improve the service you offer. This goes hand in hand with the quality you create. As you begin to focus on the quality of care you provide, invest time and energy into focusing on the aspects of quality care.

Important Aspects of Patient Care as perceive by the print

1. Access and Availability. Do you patients have access to you and your office when they need it? Is it easy for your patients to find your office? What are the potential obstacles your patients might have in locating your office? Are you available when most of your patients need you to be available? How long must a patient wait to get on your schedule?
2. Aesthetics, Comfort, and Cleanliness. What does your office look like? Is it up to date? Is your clinic clean? Are there any particular odors...

The Productivity aspect of exemplary patient care focuses on the services you offer to the marketplace, your patients. In healthcare, we provide our patients services. First, let’s examine what a service is. A service is the combining together various materials, equipment, people, a fund of knowledge, and technology to create benefits for your customers or patients. These services include not only the benefits of what you do for them but the feelings your customer experience as they receive your services.

The Two Parts of Any Service

Any service can be thought to possess two separate parts - the outcome and the experience. The Productivity element concerns itself with the experience of the patient. The Performance element focuses on the outcomes of the service rendered to the customer.

With the Productivity part, there are a few things to consider as you develop your service. The first step is to know and understand the mission and purpose of your organization. What you do and...

No organization can do better than the people it has. - Peter Drucker

A few years ago while developing our training courses for physicians, my team developed a model of the required aspects needed to deliver exemplary patient care. We identified four facets must be in place to achieve this goal. We call them the Four P’s of Exemplary Patient Care. They are People, Productivity, Performance, and Profitability. 

All four aspects should be examined and maximized if your organization is to deliver exemplary patient care. This article is the first of a four-part series in which we will discuss how you can provide exemplary patient care. In this article, we will explore a few key points about the People facet.

People Matter a Lot

Of the four aspects of exemplary patient care, people are perhaps the most critical facet of the four for a straightforward reason. Healthcare is a service industry, and it is people that do the work and deliver the care. People possess the knowledge...

So you are looking to buy a business or expand your current company through an acquisition. It is a decision that demands a thoughtful approach. Here are some questions that will help you begin to plan your acquisition process.

• What’s their EBITDA? What is the operating income of the company you’re looking to buy? For review, operating income is profit from eh business core operations of the business. It’s net revenue after you deduct the operating expenses like wages, costs of goods sold, and expenses associated with running the business. It’s probably the best metric to look at it if determining the long-term profitability of a business because it shows you how much money they make from their core business operations. Net income can be manipulated with tax and accounting methods. Operating income removes those tactics and helps you see how well they run their business.
• What is the likelihood revenue will remain stable in the current economy? You will want...