Leaders have the ability to visualize not just how things are done now, but how things could be done better along with the ability to formulate a plan to move from one to the other. They are well trained and often have strong personalities. Many physicians however are not business oriented. A manager in a medical practice needs to have superior leadership qualities and communication skills to deal with one or more physicians to implement business procedures and policies that make sound operational sense. A leaderless medical practice will surely drift and will never have the slightest opportunity to become a high performance practice.
Medical practices are no different.
In the paragraphs above we discussed selected elements needed to create a high performance medical practice. Leadership, strategic and market planning, the ability to manage finances and the implementation of important new technologies, along with the needs to hire, train, motivate and communicate with individual employees so they can be molded into a team that functions smoothly together. Perhaps the last key element in building a high performance medical practice is the ability for the organization to become proactive rather than reactive. A proactive medical practice will always have an agenda of projects to undertake. Each project will be prioritized and will be implemented only after careful analysis and planning.