Image: Add to Flipboard Magazine. Whether it’s a hospital, a rehab center, or a residential care home doesn’t matter. Running a successful business in the healthcare arena is one of the most rewarding things any entrepreneur can ever do. After all, what could be more satisfying than knowing you’ve improved the quality and quantity of a patient’s life.
Caring for the patients will always be your priority. However, it’s important to remember that you can’t achieve anything if the business isn’t in great health too. Because if there’s no company, there’s no patient care either.
Thankfully, maintaining the health of your venture can be a lot easier than you might first fear. Use these simple ABCs to your advantage, and you won’t go far wrong.
A is for Assistance
As a business owner, you need to appreciate the fact that you can’t do everything with one pair of hands. In truth, the vast majority of work will be handled by your staff. When added to the fact that human interactions are almost as important as the treatments, having confidence in your team is key.
Assembling a great team is one of the most important challenges you’ll ever face. Once you’ve achieved this goal, it’s important to show that you care. This will boost the motivation and atmosphere, which should lead to a better service for the patients.
Great communication should be at the heart of those activities, as this will improve efficiency and accuracy. As an employer, it also pays to have good connections with backup agency staff. After all, an employee illness shouldn’t stop a patient from receiving treatment.
B is for Budget
When working in the healthcare arena, you appreciate the fact that money isn’t everything. Nonetheless, your company will need to focus on the financial aspects of the operation at all times. Otherwise, it could crash and burn due to running out of funds.
Therefore, taking greater responsibility with all aspects of your budget is key. Getting the best deals on services like electricity and water will soon make a noticeable impact. There are various other ways to save money depending on your type of healthcare company. Perhaps most importantly, though, your systems must offer great organization.
Meanwhile, you should maximize the potential for revenue by using other sources. This could mean installing a paid parking lot or offering additional services.
C is for Coverage
Accidents happen in business. For most companies, those problems can be disruptive. For a healthcare venture, though, they can be the difference between life and death. Being prepared for the worst is key.
Having contingencies in place for power outages and other issues will keep the business running smoothly on a daily basis. Couple this with the help of insurance credentialing companies to gain the right coverage. That way, if an accident does occur, your team will be protected.
It’s one thing to keep your business ticking over when things are going well. In truth, though, it’s the ability to roll with the punches that will truly stand you out from the crowd. And when the company is in great health, the patient care will be far greater too.
Add to Flipboard Magazine. Regardless of the sort of business you run, you need to be on the ball with your workplace health and safety policies.Health and safety isn’t just for people in dangerous jobs. Working in construction and jobs that come with a lot of risks often have more stringent health and safety policies, but every job has to have a level of safety involved.
Whatever type of workplace you are in, there is always a possibility of an accident. You can come acrosshazards at a desk job, and if you are training your staff correctly, they can be covered should there be an issue at work. Safety preventions at work have been developed over a number of decades and unfortunately, for the most part, it takes an accident at work for a workplace to learn from their mistakes. Risk assessments for all staff on a regular basis can make a difference between whether you have to cope with an accident or not.
Failing to correctly train your staff in the health and safety procedures leaves you open to liability at work and a claim on your insurance. Paying attention to health and safety doesn’t just make you a caring employer, it makes good business sense! It can be difficult to work out what health and safety procedures will work for your particular business, but you have to ensure that where you can, you keep your employees safe. There are certain steps you need to do to follow the right procedures, and we’ve listed these for you here:
Health and safety management is important in the office. This should includefire safety testing on a regular basis, first aid training for the management team and clearly shown procedures on the wall in the event of fire or flood at work. If the management team is properly trained, they can lead the remaining employees through when there is a hazard.
Before you even get started with health and safety in the office, you need to identify the hazards that are there. This is everything from ergonomic furniture to trips and falls on the stairs.
Assessing all the risks in the office and recording those results is very important.Risk assessment will allow you as an employer to decide what exactly needs to be done in the office and if you have procedures and policy in the company handbook, available at all times, your employees can feel secure in their safety.
Schedule regular training sessions for your employees. When they are in their probationary period, they should complete an initial training session. Repeat the training every three months so that employees are aware of any health and safety changes that happen during their time in your company.
Health and safety is vital for the smooth running of an office. People need to know what to do and regular fire drills are important to keeping the staff safe. Accidents and first aid training are important so ensure you have this in your budget!
Add to Flipboard Magazine. Every business has its role to fulfill and for every startup, small business or established company, there will always be core principles that have to be in place so the business can operate at its best. This is never truer than when you're running a medical practice. While on the surface, there are major differences between looking after people’s health and selling a product, and many businesses will tell you that as a fact. But, depending on your healthcare provider, services are provided for a charge. But what do you need to ensure that your healthcare practice stays as a noble healthcare provider, and not merely “another money-making enterprise?”
The right staff members are hard to find, and finding the right medical staff is even harder. Depending on your experience of a medical establishment you may have encountered staff members that are either fantastic or just completely disinterested, and this will sour your reputation. Much like any customer service representatives in a store, they are your front line, and they need to be resourceful as well as be able to do their job. It may sound simple, but you need to keep on top of your staff in this manner. Because even something as basic as business being slow can make staff a bit more “relaxed” in their demeanor. And as your staff will make the biggest impression on your customers or patients, they need to be working at their best.
Organization…
A great business is made up of a great structure, and a great structure comes down to the organization. Every single aspect needs to be finely plotted, and the best way to do this is to implement an EHR (electronic health record) system. Productivity is your buzzword, and if business is slow, then you need to make sure that your staff is utilizing their time properly, but if business is booming, you need your staff to operate as best as they can. So a filing system and a structure should be set in stone to make your staff work in a productive manner.
Resources…
To run any business properly, you need to make sure your storeroom is always full. This may be something that can potentially be overlooked, but if you don’t have the basics in place, how can you have the more complicated processes in line? From the basics like stationery tonurses clocks, stethoscopes, all the way up to the best computer systems need to be in place. You are working with patients, and so your equipment needs to be in working order. Just one broken item could cause a massive backlog, so be sure to maintain your equipment, and when every minute counts in an extremely busy healthcare business, everything needs to be looked after.
For staff members, doctors, nurses, and everyone in between, feedback is the only way to maintain an efficient business. Any healthcare practice is very busy, so finding the time is difficult, but even meeting once a week as a unit, or having a quick breakdown at the end of the day, or just before the day begins, it is vital to have your team work together properly.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/party-glass-architecture-windows-34092/ Add to Flipboard Magazine. In business, there’s a lot to keep track of, and a lot to manage. But when you’ve been doing it for years, you start to get into the swing of what to look out for - especially when you get a sense that things might be going wrong. Because you soon realize that you don’t have to wait for things to hit rock bottom before you start to make a change. In fact, you can even catch things early with the help of a few fool-proof systems and measures. If you’re ready to see if your business is running as it should be, or if things are on track, here are a few precautions to starting taking now.
Conduct An Audit
The word audit can invoke fear in a lot of people. But there’s no reason why it should be so scary to you – especially if you’re hot on business ethics and you pride yourself on doing everything above board. But, if you want to make sure that you really are on track, both as a business and financially, an audit could be useful to you. Your business will be inspected by qualified professionals to make sure that you are running right.
Hold Staff Appraisals
Sometimes, your biggest fears in your business can be with your employees. Although we’d all like to think that we’re a good judge of character and that we’ve hired well, you can’t always be too sure. But, to make sure that your staff really are beneficial to your business, staff appraisals should regularly be held. Then, you will have a record of how well they are doing, and if there are any issues. They can also be beneficial for your staff too so that they can voice concerns or become aware of their performance levels.
A lot of people wait to get a lawyer when they really need them. But there can be a lot of benefits of hiring a lawyer, just because. Not only can you get legal advice on your business transactions, but you can also get contracts checked and ensure that everything is running smoothly. This might be a step too far for you financially at the moment, but it’s also something to consider when the time is right.
Service Your Equipment
Just like you check over your human resources, you should be sure to do the same for your physical ones too. If you have any equipment in your business, whether you’re a manufacturer with a product plant that needs checking or a haulage company in need of regular truck repairs, it should be working well at all times. Regular services can iron out any issues that could be problematic in the future.
Hire A Consultant
When you struggle to see things objectively or identify problems before they arise, you can often benefit from another perspective. That’s why hiring a business consultant can be good for a lot of people. They can also take some of the pressure off you so that you are free to make decisions and progress with your business strategy and growth.
Your employees are your greatest asset. Without them, you would not be able to provide the service or sell the product that makes your business so successful. The way in which a boss treats his or her employees says a lot about the culture and ethos of a business and that affects profits!
Looking after your staff is a lot more than recruitment, selection and setting up a payroll. If you want your employees to be productive and to go that extra mile for your clients, you need to show them that you value them. Here are 5 easy steps to do just that.
Your employees have other things going on in their lives. If they are dealing with personal issues this will impact their ability to get on with the job. It is worth investing some time in getting to know your employees. If there is anything that you can do to help, such as offering flexible working arrangements for a while, then that is what you should do. They will remember what you have done for them and will be willing to help you out in a crisis with some unpaid overtime.
Don’t try too hard to be ‘the boss’
All your employees already know that you are the boss and that you call the shots. You will get more out of them if you make them feel that you are all part of a team rather than they are working ‘for’ you. You could set up a profit sharing or bonus scheme so that your employees directly benefit financially when the business does well. That way, you are all striving for the same aim.
Make the workplace a pleasant place to be
Offices and all other workplaces have to safe and comfortable to comply with health and safety legislation but you can go much further than that. Make your workplace as pleasant as possible. Give it a lick of paint, buy in some ergonomic furniture and let natural light flood in. Provide some attractive restrooms that encourage collaboration and teamwork. You could even create some attractive outdoor areas where they can go for a stroll and get some fresh air.
Provide some on-site services
Employees need to eat and drink when they are at work so make it easy for them to do so. If you are a large employer you could look into providing a subsidized staff restaurant. For smaller operations, you could have a vending machine with healthy options of a subsidized delivery service.
Have fun together
Sometimes it is not all about work. Show your employees that you understand that they need to have fun sometimes. Pay for a fun outing or a night out. Organize a family fun day and invite their families to share the entertainment and food. Lay on some complimentary yoga, Pilates or meditation classes at lunch time. This shows that you think of them as a person and not simply as a worker. Yoga means union and it can bring your workers together.
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