Your practice staff plays a pivotal role in your practice’s success. In fact, their performance can mean the difference between a profitable, thriving practice or not. And while you probably don’t have the time nor the desire to micromanage your staff, putting measurable performance metrics in place is a smart way to monitor staff performance. Not only will you have a view on how your practice is doing, but you will also have an easy way of knowing when to step in & what areas of your business need urgent focus. 

Here are a few key metrics you can use to help you review your staff’s performance:  

1.  Claim rejection rate 

Your claim rejection rate (CRR) is the percentage of practice claims that get rejected at first submission. This metric is simple – the higher the number, the more errors there are in your practice staff’s administrative processes. Rejected claims are a result of incorrect patient details, capturing the wrong ICD10 codes, or taking too long to submit claims. These all point to gaps in staff administration & can have a big impact on your cash flow. 

How is it calculated? 
Your CRR is the total number of claims not paid divided by the total number of claims submitted over a given period of time. 

What is a good benchmark for your practice?
Your CRR should be 5% or less.

2. Upfront collection percentage 

This metric will tell you how efficient your staff is at collecting payment from patients before they leave the practice. The higher the number, the more efficient they are at collecting payment at the time of service. Not only is immediate collection better for your cash flow, but it also reduces the likelihood & Rand value of bad debt. 

How is it calculated?
Upfront collection rates are calculated by dividing the Rand value collected at the time of service / Total Rand value invoiced. 

What is a good benchmark?
In tough financial times, your practice should aim to collect 90% of all payments upfront, with the remaining 10% collected post-appointment from patients with exceptional circumstances. 

3. Average debtor days

Average debtor days is the average number of days it takes for a practice to get paid. The lower the number, the faster your practice staff are getting payments in & again, this metric will also reflect positively on your cash flow. 

How is it calculated? 
Average debtors’ days are calculated as: trade debtors / gross claims amount X 365 days.

What is a good benchmark?
Ideally, debtor days should be between 30 & 40 days, but below 45 days is acceptable. More than 45 days on average is a red flag that needs to be addressed with practice staff. 

4. Patient satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is subjective & not always easy to measure. One way to gauge patient satisfaction is to send out patient satisfaction surveys after each visit. Survey questions need to be deliberately chosen to measure satisfaction around staff friendliness & efficacy, wait times, etc. You also need to include a mechanism to receive complaints. High satisfaction rates mean your staff are doing a good job & as a result, you are more likely to retain patients & be referred by patients. 

How is it calculated?
Calculate patient satisfaction by dividing the number of patient complaints by the number of patients seen.  

What is a good benchmark?
There is no industry benchmark for this metric due to the subjective nature of this measure, but repeated complaints about the same issue/staff member is cause for concern. 

By applying these metrics to your staff performance review, you will get the best out of your staff with the least amount of interference into their daily routines. For more information about how you can implement technology to help staff efficiency, click here.