Practice Reboot After Administrator Retirement

When one of the partners and the long-term administrator for 20/20 Eye Physicians of Indiana both decided to retire in 2013, things got rough. The remaining partners realized they needed help when the new administrator turned out to be a poor fit.  To take charge of the situation they hired Accountable Physician Advisors to provide interim leadership and help them develop a plan for the future.     

APA got things under control quickly from a management perspective, and performed a comprehensive operational assessment of the practice. APA found that in the years leading up to the administrator’s retirement, the practice wasn’t properly positioning itself to remain viable for the ten to fifteen year window the doctors still intended to practice.  Determined to make the needed changes, the partners modernized the following pieces of their infrastructure with help from APA:

• The decade-old computers and IT network was replaced, improving performance and saving the practice money on costly repairs   
• The substandard and costly internet service agreements were renegotiated, dramatically increasing speed and productivity
• Staff members were issued email accounts for the first time, improving communication ease and accountability
• The failing analog phone system was replaced, enabling call management to be integrated for the separate office locations
• The practice’s dated looking website was overhauled to include a modern look and new patient-friendly functionality like online bill pay, with a significant decrease in recurring costs for hosting

Despite all of these improvements, the group still faced an even greater hurdle. During its initial assessment, APA learned the group had taken no steps toward the adoption of electronic medical record software, and was facing steep future reimbursement cuts as a result. Although the physicians understood the penalties they faced, they were highly skeptical that their practice could withstand the productivity loss associated with EMR adoption.

Through a careful search and selection process, APA found a solution, and in less than one year helped the practice implement a user-friendly EMR product and successfully attest for meaningful use. In less than two years, the providers in the group regained their pre-EMR productivity levels and added a non-physician provider (optometrist) to expand capacity.  In less than three years, the average profit-per-partner was higher than it was prior to the retirements and EMR adoption.