Interview with Bob Glaser, Coauthor of Strategic Practice Management
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Linda Schreiber: I am on the phone today with Dr. Robert Glaser. Who is co-author of a newly released book by Plural Publishing called Strategic Practice Management. Bob is also the husband of our very own editor-in-chief, Ann Glaser. Welcome Bob!Bob Glaser: Hi Linda. Linda: Bob, typically I find an
Linda Schreiber: I am on the phone today with Dr. Robert Glaser. Who is co-author of a newly released book by Plural Publishing called Strategic Practice Management. Bob is also the husband of our very own editor-in-chief, Ann Glaser. Welcome Bob!
Bob Glaser: Hi Linda.
Linda: Bob, typically I find an interesting speech-language pathologist (SLP) to interview but today I am interviewing an audiologist. And that's because you wrote a book that SLPs will surely benefit from reading. Before we talk about the book, tell us a bit about your background and how you came to write this book.
Bob: Well, I'm an independent private practitioner in practice for over 25 years. Our practice is Audiology and Speech Associates of Dayton, Inc. We have been providing speech-language services since I incorporated the practice in 1980. We currently have six SLPs in our practice. Several years ago when I started thinking about a book on practice management, I must admit that I did not consider both sides of our practice. As I began to focus on the outline, it became readily apparent that each chapter being considered at that time included aspects of both audiology and speech-language pathology. When my co-author, Dr. Robert Traynor (Dr. Traynor had just completed his MBA) and I began to develop the outline and text segments more fully, it became clear to both of us that this book is a business book and it addresses important aspects of practice management regardless of your clinical discipline. That said, it is a book that contains important information for speech-language pathologists no matter their particular venue of practiceas much as it contains information for audiologists, no matter the venue of their practice. So the book is not just by audiologists, for audiologists, and of interest only to audiologiststhis book is a business book. It talks about practice managementand specifically "strategic" practice management.
Linda: The term strategic is key to what you have written.
Bob: Yes, we've really taken a business book and made the strategies applicable to literally any practice venue. When you look at the table of contents, you'll see chapters such as Patient Management, which addresses how to deal with patientsnot from a clinical standpoint, but from a patient standpoint, from the first contact on the phone, to when he or she opens the door, to important matters of after-care provided after services have been provided, and every point in between. And of course, whether you're a speech-language pathologist or an audiologist, the key to success with patients, is patient satisfaction fostered by a "patient-centric" approach.
Linda: The book's subtitle is: A Patient-Centric Approach, which speaks to your overall philosophy.
Bob: Yes, what this book does is describe how to put the patient at the center of your practice, rather than having the patient "fit into a practice" and the way it's run. The practice has to wrap around or center around the patient; his or her particular needs; his or her family's, spouse's, or significant other's needs; and so forth. We treat the families we see as much as we treat the patient. And that strategy works no matter the venue or the location of the practice.
Linda: So you see application beyond private practice settings?
Bob: There is application, a number of applications in this book for clinicians working in a hospital setting, a nonprofit community speech and hearing center, a university clinic setting, or working in a private entity. This book is written for patients; it's written for practitioners; it's written for the referral source folksthe people who send you patientsas well.
From a business standpoint, we talk about personnel management---not clinical management but personnel management. How do you assess personnel working in the practice, how do you train, how do you advance, and how do you discharge employees? We also describe how to run your business from a policy standpoint. There is a chapter in the book that I think is valuable to anyone in health care today and that is the chapter on a Policies and Procedures Manual. Having a repository of policies and well-defined procedures is as critically important to a speech-language pathologist in any practice setting, as it is to a dentist, an audiologist, or any other health care practitioner providing services. You have to have policies; the procedures may change, but the policies will remain pretty much the same.
The procedures section establishes the minimum operations necessary to reach an acceptable standard of care for your particular practice venue. That standard of care is critically important and establishes minimal expectations in the procedures to be provided to optimize clinical outcomeswhether procedures dealing with a child who has a cleft palate, delayed speech and language. or autism, etc.
Additionally, there are critically important business aspects such as determining compensation of personnel, legal issues to be considered, monitoring the financial resources of the practice, marketing, and information about managing speech and hearing clinics in the university setting.
Other topics include how to deal with cash flow and how to logically evaluate and create a reasonable pricing strategy for the services you provide. Historically, people think they will just find out what "So and So" is charging and then charge more or less or the same. Well, that's not an intellectually honest way to go about developing a pricing strategy for your practice. You have to take into account overhead and your time spent. Overhead is a broad term that includes not only the heat, light, and rent, it also includes the interface of all the people that a patient may come into contact with, like the office manager, the front office staff, or any number of people. They have to be paid and those costs all have to be factored into your pricing strategy. Certainly you don't want to underprice your services or goods, because you're going to go out of business very quickly if you do. If you're working as a speech-language pathologist in a department or in a hospital and you're not asked to provide input to the development of pricing strategy for your department, something's wrong. If you are not concerned about the financial aspects of your particular practice venue, you are, simply put, missing the boat.
Linda: So to summarize, Strategic Practice Management is based on a patient-centered approach and the content in all chapters is based on that concept, including what you describe in terms of policies, procedures, cash flow, personnel management, pricing structure, etc.
Bob: That is absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, every time I edited a chapter in the book, one of the critical questions I consistently asked was: How does this relate to the patient and the patient-centric attitude we want to see in this book? So everything from the first chapter, which is Strategic Business Planning, to the last, you have to really think about the patient and how your practice will wrap around that patient. In a strategic business plan, you're going to think about things like furniture, paint, the atmosphere in your office; and in so doing, you are wrapping the practice around the patient in the truest sense of the word. After all, it's all about the patient in a patient-centric practice.
Linda: So providing services includes addressing the entire environment, including for example, how the receptionist greets the patient.
Bob: Absolutely. For example, in the Personnel Management chapter, we consider every link to the practice the patient has in their chain of contacts in the practicefrom the first contact on the phone to the last person they see when they are settling their bill at the payment window and every encounter in between. In our practices, we remind the front office staff that when a patient calls, their boss is on the phone!
Linda: The boss is on the phone!
Bob: That's right. In our chapter on Patient Management, we list nine important rules of patient engagement that each member of the professional and office staff must live by:
- Patients are the priority
- We work for them
- Always with a smile
- Courtesy at all times
- Professional appearance is important
- Your boss is always on the phone
- Apologies are always appropriate
- Solutions, not excuses
- Excellence at the speed of light
Linda: In scanning the table of contents, I see that in addition to your co-author, Robert Traynor who contributes his business expertise, you have contributing writers with other knowledge, such as in business and law.
Bob: I'm really very fortunate to have good friends who have written some wonderful things in the book. The first is Glen Bower, J.D., who wrote the legal considerations in business planning and business development. Glen, a Harvard graduate and attorney who specializes in health care and health care management, is a phenomenal writer. He writes with both feet on the ground in easily understood terms.
Debra Abel, is the Director of Reimbursement for the American Academy of Audiology and has been in private practice for many years. She understands billing, coding, and reimbursement capture more than anyone I know.
Dr. Gail Whitelaw, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU), has written and presented extensively in clinical areas and manages the Hearing Clinic at OSU. Additionally, she has a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration. Gail really understands the business end of management and wrote a wonderful chapter called Practice Management Considerations in a University Audiology Center. She also wrote the last chapter in the book titled Optimizing Exit Strategiesit addresses how to develop exit strategies so that you can exit your practice in a fashion that benefits both you and the patients you have served for many years.
Linda: With so many baby boomers "coming of age," or aging, and in need of services, your book is timely. This information isn't exactly covered in our graduate studies, is it?
Bob: There is this segment in the book that addresses the very special spirit that is the Baby Boomer Generation...and they are a demanding group that will require great skill and attention in any practice. It was the most fun for me to write since I am a Baby Boomer! These folks come to an appointment having done extensive web searches and they have gathered extensive information and looked at all kinds of information. So Boomers will come prepared, come focused about want they think they need and what they want done. And, as I write in the book, they also come with the attitude that if you cannot serve their needs, they will cut you loose in a heartbeat and find someone else to give them what they wantso much for patient loyalty to their practitioners!
Linda: It's an outstanding book Bob, one that everyone will find interesting and useful. For more information, readers can visit the Plural Website: www.pluralpublishing.com/publications_spm.htm Best wishes for success with this book.
Bob: Thank you Linda, and thank you for this opportunity.