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As a health administrator, your key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for ensuring your medical facility or healthcare organization is maximizing operational efficiency and meeting financial goals without going over budget. It is crucial to monitor the KPIs that are important for your organization.
Here are eight KPIs we suggest every health administrator should be tracking:
1. Days in A/R
Days in A/R tracks how long it takes for your accounts to be paid in full. So it is obvious that you would be wanting to track this and benchmark for lower days in A/R. Days in A/R should stay below 50 days with a more preferable goal of 30-40 days.
To see how to calculate your days in A/R and methods to lowering days in A/R, please read our blog post Calculating and Calibrating: 6 Ways to Lower a Clinic’s A/R.
2. Net Collection Rate
If you’re noticing that your medical facility is missing a substantial amount of payments, then it's time to consider your collection procedures. But before making any changes to how you collect payments, you need to understand the amount of income you are receiving from insurances. The net collection rate helps you better determine if you're receiving the correct amount of agreed-upon payments per your contract with insurers.
See our blog post, Insurance Payer Contracts: 9 Things You Need to Know, to stay on top of your payer contracts.
3. No-Shows
When patients don't show up to their appointments, it can deeply cut into your organization's profits. In fact, a study found that missed appointments cost medical practices almost $200 per patient. One way to curtail no-show appointments is to track the pattern using a No-Show report.
With this information you can then formulate a plan to reduce the number of no-shows, whether it is through implementation of a fee schedule with each missed appointment or executing an appointment reminder system to help confirm appointments days prior to the actual visit. Having patients cancel appointments prior to a visit is a lot better than them just not showing up at all.
To help keep your schedule full, check out our blog post Booked: 6 Ways to Keep Your Medical Office Schedule Full.
4. Wait Times
With high wait times, your medical facility is testing the patience of your patients. One study found that longer wait times were linked to higher instances of patient dissatisfaction. Thus, if you want to transform the patient experience, it's crucial to monitor wait times and create a solution for lowering them.
For tips on reducing patient wait times, see No Wait: 9 Ways Clinics Can Reduce Patient Wait Times.
5. Denial Rate
Not every claim you process will get approved. But if your claims are consistently getting denied, it's important to know why and with which provider. Your denial rate is an important KPI to monitor to stay ahead of this information. Maintaining a low denial rate will ensure effective cash flow management.
For help on reducing your denials, read our blog post Denied: Why Claims Get Denied and How to Fix Them.
6. Number of New Patients
To keep your medical practice healthy and thriving, it's important to have new patients coming in. So you always want to be tracking the number of new patients coming into your office.
You can also use this number to analyze your marketing efforts. If you see a spike in new patients during a new marketing campaign, the message was effective and should be emulated in future marketing campaigns.
Start marketing your clinic on social media with the help of our blog post, Going Social: How to Market Your Clinic on Social Media.
7. Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is impacted by several factors, including wait times. But it's important to understand how satisfied patients are by monitoring this KPI. When you track patient satisfaction, you can gain insight into the areas of opportunities that your medical practice can improve upon.
For ways to obtain and use patient feedback, read our blog post, Gaining an Edge: How to Obtain and Use Patient Feedback.
8. Employee Satisfaction
Your medical practice is as good as the employees who help you keep it running. However, if your employees aren't happy with your company and the job, then they are more prone to leave and find a new place more satisfying. This leads to high turnover rates, which in turn takes more of your valuable time to find replacements for these individuals. For ways to increase employee retention, view our blog post, Stop the Burnout: 8 Ways to Increase Employee Retention.
Final Thoughts
If you want to make sure your medical practice or medical facility is measuring up, then it's time to track KPIs. From patient satisfaction to the net collection rate, there are several KPIs worth tracking to ensure your medical facility or practice is running smoothly and maximizing productivity. By following these KPIs, you can enhance the patient experience and improve your bottom line.
