The Reasons

This challenge is for the practice that is not always booked out but would like to be. If there are consistently holes in your patient schedule, this can provide valuable time for practice growth activities. However, from a productivity standpoint, depending on sporadic downtime to focus on these tasks may not be the best approach.

Many people, myself included, often use unscheduled downtime for getting caught up on administrative tasks, completing urgent but unimportant activities, or simply taking a break. If this describes you, you might find that condensing your patient schedule and blocking out dedicated time for high-value activities is a more productive approach.

The Implementation

Here are a few areas you could focus on:

• Marketing. Get the word out in your community about your great products and services!
• Community outreach. Network with other local businesses, practitioners, and referral sources.
• Professional development. Sharpen those clinical and business skills.
• Practice improvements. Furniture, technology, office upgrades… decide what needs some attention.
• Staff training. The hallmark of any great service-oriented business is customer (patient) service. Use the additional time to develop your team’s technical and soft skills. OM