23 February 2017 | Clinic Owners and Practice Managers | 2 minutes read

Small Changes – Big Improvements

What does it take to improve the performance of a clinic?

The simple answer is sometimes not too much.

The Kaizen principle highlights that small changes can sometimes result in surprising improvements. In our consulting work we have seen many examples of this.

Big results come from small changes accumulated over time. Read the Kaizen theory.

Our consulting team has had the opportunity to work with Medicare locals, Community Health clinics and private clinics to look at how small changes can make noticeable improvements to GP clinics. Here are two examples:

1. Private Clinic in Sydney

A highly exclusive private clinic in Sydney was operating with a large deficit and could not sustain the ongoing losses. Within a few months, performance had improved by $300K and profitability was significantly higher than previously. Once again small things made the difference:

• Re-design of allied health contracts
• Improved definition of their unique market position and target market
• New scripts for reception staff to help them feel more comfortable with explaining high-cost consultations

2. After hours clinics in South East Melbourne

We worked with a Medicare Local to help expand after hours clinics (both MDS and non MDS) in SE Melbourne.  We demonstrated that small interventions helped to rapidly build successful after hours services:

• Business advice provided on site to practice managers and owners
• Support for nursing and reception staff to ensure that GPs are well supported – especially when working on their own at night
• Small advertising campaigns to create awareness of the new services

Within six months, the five clinics involved in our pilot study had increased episodes of care to their local communities by 6230, growing their collective offering by 104 GP hours per week. Three years later, they were still all going strong and collectively grown average weekly general practitioner after hours nearly 250%, up from 104 to 360 general practitioner hours.

The Alecto consulting team are happy to chat to you about the Kaizen Theory and how we can make it work for your clinic.

Here’s to a positive year ahead!