Balancing patient care with practice efficiency is essential for maintaining financial health and maximizing growth for ophthalmology practices. As an ophthalmology practitioner or administrator, you are likely aware of the pressures to enhance productivity while reducing costs. Fortunately, the WhiteSpace Health Platform is specifically designed for ophthalmology practices and it can be your solution to achieving this balance. In this blog, we will delve into proven strategies for ophthalmology practice management to help you maximize provider capacity, reduce overhead costs, and leverage data-driven decision-making to drive revenue.
Efficient use of provider time is central to optimizing patient access and billings for successful ophthalmology practices. The WhiteSpace Health Platform offers tools for maximizing provider capacity, which increases billing and lowers the unit cost of patient care. There are also patient centric benefits to the implementation of AI. Improved scheduling density translates to greater patient access to care. And, when patients can get the care that they need quickly, they are more likely to keep their appointments and report higher satisfaction levels.
Reducing the cost per encounter is a powerful lever for increasing EBITDA. The WhiteSpace Health Platform dashboard improves scheduling density and better use of provider capacity, allowing operational overhead expenses to be spread across more patients, reducing the unit cost of providing care. Incorporating these cost-saving techniques into your ophthalmology practice management strategy can have a direct impact on your bottom line. Practices that reduce their per-encounter costs typically see a 10-15% increase in annual revenue, according to recent MGMA data.
The availability of fresh, actionable performance data enables quick adjustments that keeps your practice running smoothly. Here are two high success tips for introducing data-driven decision-making in your ophthalmology practice.
When patients move quickly through all phases of their appointment, their satisfaction with care increases and your operating expenses per patient also lower, creating a “win-win” situation. AI measures lead and cycle times in your practice and it also reports the percentage of patients who have follow up visits scheduled before leaving the practice. And if you do not like any of your performance numbers, AI provides clarity on the levers you can pull to drive improvement.
Patient no-shows, late cancellations and seasonal fluctuations in demand impact scheduling density. AI can help you spot these trends more quickly and provide valuable lead time to react and keep your business performing well. AI can be configured to engage patients to ensure their upcoming appointments remain top of mind. And, when things occasionally crop up, WhiteSpace Health will automatically promote patients with scheduling flexibility from the wait list so they can be seen sooner while also keeping the schedule full.
The WhiteSpace Health Platform offers actionable insights based on patterns of success that enhance provider capacity, improve patient satisfaction and drive profitability.
The platform identifies patients who are at the highest risk for not keeping their appointment based on 30 dimensions of behavior. It uses this data to recommend double booking of appointments for those patients at highest risk. Through the analysis of reason codes, your practice can craft strategies designed to help those break the habit of foregoing care.
The platform automates many of the administrative tasks associated with appointment scheduling and the creation of KPI dashboards. This allows valuable human time to be diverted to tasks and projects that drive value for your business.
When open slots are consistently minimized, more patients will be seen per day and time to the next third performance metric will reduce. Because patients can obtain appointments more quickly, their experience with your practice will be more positive and they will be more likely to keep their scheduled appointments too.
When appointment slots fully utilized, your practice will be able to see a full complement of patients each day, raising the average revenue generated by provider while simultaneously decreasing the unit cost to provide patient care.
The WhiteSpace Health Platform maximizes provider capacity, reduces unit cost of caring for a patient, and improves profit.
By ensuring there are no open slots in the schedule, providers can see the optimal number of patients every day, lowering patient wait times for an appointment and increasing practice profitability.
When each appointment slot is fully utilized, operating expenses are divided by a consistently higher number of patients which lowers the unit cost of providing care.
With real-time data at your fingertips, you can adjust provider schedules, promote patients from the waitlist and better meet care demands.
Through the implementation of AI, ophthalmology practices can unlock their strategic potential by translating their data into improved operational performance. The valuable insights surfaced by an AI platform such as WhiteSpace Health ensure high patient satisfaction, top performing revenue cycles and the highest levels of operational efficiency. For more information on optimizing your practice, visit us at www.whitespacehealth.com.
Ivan Bradshaw is the vice president of product management at WhiteSpace Health. As a revenue cycle management executive with over 20 years of experience, Ivan is adept at building high-performance teams and creating RCM solutions that stop revenue leakage, improve operational efficiency, and grow top line performance.
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