Strategic Planning for the New Year

The end of the calendar year, which oftentimes also marks the end of the fiscal year for most clinics, is an opportune time to plan ahead for the following year.  As we near the end of 2021, plans for 2022 should come to mind, and a framework for a successful year should be the focus.  

Conduct SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a simple but helpful tool to establish a business strategy.  It works well for new and established businesses alike.  

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  Identifying internal and external elements in each of these categories helps you perform a deep dive into the different parts of the business and establish a plan to utilize your awareness of your business in order to achieve certain goals.

There are a lot of ways to conduct a SWOT analysis. Do a quick Google search, and choose a method that works best for your clinic.

Report and Forecast

To support some of the finding realized in the SWOT analysis. utilize your EMR system for additional insights. Run reports to review the past performance from the year. Check key metrics, and run reports to see annual numbers, trends, monthly averages.

Analyze the data to see what went well and what areas need some extra emphasis. Use these numbers to make 2022 forecasting goals.

Set Goals

Using the data gathered from reports from the EMR system or APT’s business analytics platform, set goals that you want to reach in the coming year.  A variety of goals should be set in each department.  Examples of solid KPIs worth analyzing  include: new patient numbers, revenue, units billed per appointment, website traffic, therapist efficiency, etc.  

Set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based.  Using this goal setting tactic will help you and your staff stay focused on tasks at hand and goals that help raise the bar, whatever that may look like:  higher revenues, increasing efficiencies, boosting morale.

Hold New Years Staff Meeting

While all of these above mentioned actions are helpful, the information gleaned from these efforts should not be kept only for the clinic owner.  Nothing works in a silo.  As a clinic owner, keeping all of the information to yourself leaves a lot of assumptions to be made by the employees.  The team needs some guidance.

Hold a kickoff meeting at the beginning of the year (separate from any holiday gatherings).  Discuss your findings with the team, and share some of your hopes for the year.  Having everyone involved in the clinic’s goals helps boost morale, building camaraderie, and create transparency.  Expectations are outlined and can be referenced throughout the year when needing to refocus if off-track or reward for exceeding goals.  One team, one dream!

The above mentioned are just a few actions you can take to ensure you start next year off on the right foot. Overall, it is important to have a conducive approach to review the past year.  In turn, one can then take these insights to develop a plan to optimize an approach for the coming year.   Best of luck ending this year strong, and all the best for a productive 2022!