Medical practice consultants are professionally trained to assist physicians and dentists as well as those in specialty medical fields to maximize both their productivity and their profit. By offering a wide range of services including medical credentialing, benchmarking, management consulting and evaluations of business services, strategies and general operation, they encourage efficiency while eliminating wasted time and opportunity. Physicians with outpatient practices can especially benefit from timely advice on issues relevant to their business. As members of the National Association of Healthcare Consultants, these professionals uniformly and consistently offer a high standardized approach to medical care expenses and productivity.

One important area that medical consultants can address is the issue of physician credentialing. Collecting, examining and processing the necessary paperwork to verify the credentials and experience of both the doctor and his staff is a time-consuming process. While completing and updating these files is necessary, it can seriously interfere with profitability, which is most closely tied to actual physician-patient contact. Therefore, time spent by the doctor on paperwork is financially non-productive. The same principle holds true for office staff who may be waylaid in documentation unrelated to patient services and billing.

A second area of importance involves benchmarking. Medical practice consultants can assist a practice by setting performance standards for both the doctor and staff. These standards become a measure of successful productivity and profitability. They also highlight places in which improvements in the functioning of the team would be financially beneficial. The clarity that statistical performance rating brings can identify where adjustments may need to be effected in the areas of charges, revenues and expenses.

Having a professional health practice consultant evaluate and assess a doctor’s financial and operations system can be helpful in other ways as well. New strategies can be implemented to curb unnecessary spending and eliminate wasted time. Trimming budgets while maximizing productivity is more easily conducted by an impartial third party, especially in offices where there may be stronger relational connections.

Management consulting services for medical practices can also assist the doctor by assisting in the process of setting up a new practice. Professional experience and knowledge can make a start-up much less stressful and more financially feasible. Developing a working business plan is essential in staying on track for financial stability and profit. Creating and implementing a functional procedures policy also is critical to maintaining and enjoying a smoothly running practice. Even the effectiveness of equipment, including the office computers, is an area in which assistance can be offered.

Operating successfully as a physician in the field of outpatient services is a challenging job. Medical practice consultants can step in to organize, to advise and to implement policies and procedures that will free the physician to concentrate on what he or she studied and trained to do, take care of patients.