Streamlining Specialty Practice Operations: Discovering Patient-Centered Approaches to Efficiency through Consulting

Operational transformations in specialty practices reveal a consistent truth: well-designed workflows enhance patient care while driving practice revenue. Identifying and implementing the right changes can be challenging. Consulting with an experienced healthcare operations professional can make all the difference. By exploring strategies designed to achieve peak performance while keeping patient satisfaction at the forefront, healthcare organizations are able to make substantial strides in patient care, growth, and revenue.

The Hidden Costs of Operational Inefficiency

Many specialty practices struggle with lengthy patient wait times, scheduling bottlenecks, physician workflows, surgery scheduling, and overwhelmed staff. These issues affect patient satisfaction, bottom-line results, and staff retention. A recent MGMAStat Poll reports that only 34% of respondents reported an improvement on appointment wait times in 2024. Four of the top five factors contributing to the lack of improvement point to inefficient processes, systems, and staffing issues. Experience shows that minor operational inefficiencies often cascade across departments, creating unnecessary strain on your entire team.

The Value of Fresh Perspective

Being too close to daily operations can make it difficult to spot inefficiencies. Bringing in an experienced, objective point of view helps pinpoint issues that in-house staff aren’t able to recognize. Beth Walker, LYP Health Management’s VP of Client Solutions & Deployment, helps clients identify areas of opportunity to improve efficiency. As a registered nurse with over two decades of clinical operations experience, Walker has firsthand knowledge of how operational inefficiencies can impact patient care and practice revenue. Through a combination of data analysis, staff interviews, and process observation, she uncovers bottlenecks that are hard to identify from within the organization.

“Many practices I encounter struggle with efficiency, duplicative processes, broken workflows and more. Without taking a step back, and looking through an unbiased lens, it’s hard to see the impact they have on patient care, revenue, and staff burnout,” says Walker. “By reviewing details in a workflow, who is performing each task, and the patient experience at each phase of the process, then, analyzing data on productivity, task completion times, revenue, etc., I determine opportunities for improvement and present a tailored plan. Activities like standardizing workflows, removing unnecessary tasks, and ensuring the correct resources are in place will improve efficiency, patient care, staff satisfaction, and revenue.”

Walker cited recent work with an orthopedic organization to highlight how impactful the right consulting partner can be. The practice faced challenges common to growing specialty groups: inconsistent scheduling processes across physicians, extended patient wait times, and complex training requirements for new staff.

Through a systematic approach, Walker recommended and collaborated with the in-house team to implement these solutions:

• Standardize scheduling templates
• Streamline scheduling processes to reduce call times
• Create a unified training program for new schedulers
• Optimize appointment availability

The results were remarkable. Patient wait times decreased significantly; scheduler onboarding became faster and easier; scheduling efficiency improved and had fewer errors; and physicians saw more patients while maintaining quality care. Most importantly, patients gained faster access to care, which directly improved satisfaction scores.

Moving Forward Together

Whether you’re struggling with scheduling inefficiencies, staff burnout, or patient satisfaction, there’s always room for improvement that benefits your practice and patients. With the right guidance and support during implementation, success follows naturally.

Would you like to learn more about how LYP can help your practice identify and address operational inefficiencies? Let’s start a conversation about your specific challenges and goals.

Sources:

MGMAStat poll, 12/3/24

Beth Walker, LYP Health Management, VP of Client Solutions & Deployment