August 7, 2023 • 20 mins
Ever find yourself stuck in inefficiency gridlocks in your business? Well, imagine if your business ran with the precision and efficiency of a well-oiled machine, like the Atlanta airport. Inspired by observing this bustling hub, I made some major shifts to streamline my operations, turning them into a sleek assembly line that transformed patient service and guarantees shorter wait times. Armed with the simple yet transformative tool of efficiency, we managed to tackle our inefficiencies and boost our profits significantly.
But that's not all! Improving efficiency doesn't just mean healthier profits for the company; it's a win-win situation that also leads to happier customers and a more content team. I'll share how using a simple workflow model inspired by Atlanta's busiest airport helped us handle more volume while reducing workloads. If you're eager to revolutionize your business with efficiency and profitability, you can't afford to miss this episode. Get ready to transform your business operations and profits with our insightful discussion.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi docs, welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's
all about helping amazingphysicians just like you embrace
entrepreneurship so you canhave the freedom to live life
and practice medicine on yourterms.
I'm your host, dr Ibnah.
Well, hello.
(00:23):
Hello, my friend.
Welcome back to another episodeof the EntreMD podcast.
Today we are going to betalking about how to multiply
profits, leveraging the power ofefficiency.
Now, I recently went on a tripto Dallas with my mom and my
four kids.
I remember us being at we wentthrough the B terminal, which,
(00:48):
in my experience, is like thebusiest terminal, the process of
getting to the airport, doingthe check-in, getting on the
train, getting to the B terminal.
My mom is like there are somany people here.
I'm like, yeah, and the thingis that they're so efficient
because, even though there areso many people, the people are
going through.
(01:09):
You know what I mean.
And so I remember looking atthe statistics and like the
Atlanta airport being thebusiest airport and things like
that.
So I kind of wanted to sharethose with her, but I couldn't
remember the numbers.
So I Googled it and there are2,700 arrivals and departures
from the Atlanta airport everysingle day and they are moving
(01:33):
about 300,000 people through theairport every single day.
So I remember pulling up on myphone and showing her.
She's like, oh my goodness,right.
Then, of course, you know how Iam right, I'm a student of
business, like period.
And so I started thinking aboutit.
I was like so the major productthis airport has is really
(01:55):
their efficiency, right?
Like think about 2,700 flights,300,000 people.
I mean like that's unbelievable, that's more than a quarter of
a million people right Everysingle day.
And so I'm like efficiency, theonly way for them to be
profitable is for them to beefficient.
(02:15):
The only way for them to be adesired hub is for them to be
efficient.
Like efficiency is their bigthing.
And so I started thinking aboutour businesses and I was like I
wonder what if we obsessed overefficiency like they do now?
I've watched documentaries onthe Atlanta airport.
It's a thing of beauty to lookat how they obsess and get
(02:37):
things down to the second andthe minute, and I mean like it's
fabulous.
I mean it's so inspiring thatif I go there and there are
delays on all of those things,I'm the one who never complains,
because I'm like if you knowwhat goes into creating this
experience that we have like.
Of course, here and therethings are going to fall apart
and all of that, but for them topull off what they pull off,
(02:59):
they have no beef with.
I have no beef with them, right.
And so I started thinking.
I said, well, what if we alsohad this habit of constantly
thinking of how can we make thismore efficient, not less of an
experience, not rushed, not doneproperly, but more efficient,
right, so we're getting the sameresult, maybe even better
(03:20):
results, right, in less time orwith less resources or in things
like that.
So so I'm thinking about it andI went back to the early, early
, early days of my practice,right, and pulled up an example.
I was like, wow, this is crazy,and I'll tell you what it is.
When I started my practice,right, there were I don't know
(03:40):
five, six practices around methat were much bigger, much
bigger, had a lot more doctors,had longer hours, had beautiful
offices, a quare and they likeall the bells and whistles,
right, and I'm just starting noteven believing I can employ an
MA, right, I told you guys thestory of how I was my own MA.
I answered my own phones, had alot of scarcity in mindset
(04:00):
around all these things.
So, anyway, I remember lookingat their reviews and I was
looking at their reviews to seewhat do people love, what are
people frustrated by, right.
And so I'm looking through allthe reviews and I see a lot
around wait times.
There's so much like it was athing and I, my core, I'm speedy
, right.
So wait times they can drive menuts.
(04:23):
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnatake that as a unique selling
proposition, so USB, that we canbrag on, right, Like we'll get
you out, and so how are we gonnado this?
Okay, and I remember in nowthis is in high school, studying
about economics and all ofthose things and studying the
(04:44):
likes of Toyota and theirassembly line, right.
So I think we were doing aclass on the division of labor,
how if you have different peoplehandling different aspects,
then they're able to get thingsdone so much quicker than if one
person was going through allthe entire process.
But what it reminded me was wasthat assembly line.
You would see companies likeWalmart.
(05:04):
They measure the distancebetween boxes on the trucks and
things like that.
That's all.
Those are all measures of onthe belt, like the conveyor belt
.
Those are all measures ofinefficiency.
So companies that do highvolume, low ticket, especially,
they obsess over efficiency,because without efficiency
there's no profit, like period.
Okay, so I remember that and Isaid okay, so we started calling
(05:30):
our process of door to door forthe patient, like arrival and
departure.
We started calling that ourassembly line and not assembly
line so people feel like thereare numbers on a conveyor belt
but assembly line, meaning thatwe are obsessing over the areas
where there is a lack ofefficiency.
Right, and so we can fix thatand make it a faster experience
(05:52):
for the patient.
Right, because, again, our USPwas short wait times.
Our thing was we will get youout door to door an hour or less
.
Okay, until this day.
This is Google.
Now it will say peopletypically spend 30 minutes to an
hour here, right, like.
So it's that whole assemblyline thing.
Okay, so what does that looklike?
Well, what it looks like is wetook all the steps, and the
(06:16):
reason why I'm breaking thisdown is not for you to use this.
For instance, your business maynot be a private practice, but
it may be, but your processesmay be different.
But I wanna show you how wethought of it so that you can
create your own right.
Okay, so the first one was thecheck-in right, that's the first
thing.
So they come in, they agree tothat whole check-in process,
(06:38):
co-pays, all of those kind ofthings.
The second thing is thatthey're taken to a room, right?
So the MA comes, calls them,puts them in a room and all that
stuff.
Third thing is that theirvitals are done.
The fourth thing is the doccomes to see them.
The fifth thing is what we callpostdoc.
Whether that is vaccines, orthey needed some labs done or
(06:59):
they needed a referral, whatever, there's some the doc left.
And there's this postdoc thing.
We're clear that it's not forevery patient but a lot of.
I'm pediatric, so a lot ofpatients will have that.
And then the last thing was thecheckout right.
And for us we document checkoutas a separate part of the
assembly line, because we wanteverybody to leave with an
(07:20):
appointment, right, we want thatto happen.
So we do the recall or less, sowe have stability with our
schedule and all of those kindof things.
So it's check-in, roaming,vitals, doc, postdoc, checkout,
right.
Now of course there is a quote,unquote assembly line for
getting them into the office.
There's an assembly line foryour revenue cycle, like all of
(07:41):
those things.
They're all processes right Atthe end of the day.
But this is door to door, okay.
So, door to door, we call thatthe assembly line.
Now, what that did is it put usin a position where we can go
to each place.
So for, like, our wait timesare long.
We can strategically go and say, okay, there's so many things
(08:03):
we can fix here, and we aregoing to be working on this
assembly line for as long asthis practice exists.
It's continuous improvement.
So the question is, which oneis the one that will give us the
biggest bang for our buck?
What is the place that, if wego here and make a tweak here,
we can shave off five minutes,or we can shave off 10 minutes,
(08:24):
or we can shave off 15 minutes,okay, so I'm going to give you a
number of examples here.
So there was a time when andthis is really showing you how
to troubleshoot your assemblyline so the first step is to
create your assembly line.
The second step is, okay, toaudit your assembly line.
Where are things falling apart?
Okay, where are things fallingapart?
(08:45):
So, for instance, we said well,when the doc is in the room,
we're finding that there's a lotof time being spent generating
what, getting answers to what wewould consider routine
questions, right?
So mommy comes in and they areasking questions like how much
milk does Johnny drink?
(09:06):
Then mom is like oh, I get offwork at two o'clock, so by the
time I get home at three, johnnywill usually wake up then and
have two ounces and then afterthat.
And so they literally do theentire math in the room and we
have like a thousand things totalk about.
We don't have all this time tojust get the amount of milk.
And so then what we did,recognizing that, was keeping
(09:30):
the doctors long and it's notnecessarily value to the patient
.
Understand what I'm saying.
So it's not about getting thedoctor out of the room, it's
about giving the doctor theopportunity of doing what is of
most value.
So it could be as simple asJohnny gets 20 ounces of milk a
day and that's it.
And she can go on to ask theparent questions, examine the
(09:52):
kid, answer the questions thatare important to the patient,
and so what we did is then wesaid, okay, to shorten this up.
We created our ownquestionnaire of all these
questions that they end upasking for specific age groups,
and so when they come in, that'spart of the paperwork that they
fill out and it shortens thattime.
Because all that timecalculating the milk, checking
(10:14):
the number of poop diapers andall of these things, those are
all reduced to numbers and ifthe numbers are fine, you're
like okay, this is number, thisis with their normal, moving on.
So that's an example ofremoving inefficiency.
So the doctors are able to do areally good job and they're
able to do it in less time andthe patients felt like they were
heard because they talked aboutwhat they wanted to talk about.
(10:35):
So that's an example.
Second example may be okay, thepostdoc, so the doctor's made
the orders, but there's this lagbetween whenever the person
comes in to give the vaccines orcomes in to do the lab.
It comes in to do all of thosethings.
So then you analyze it.
What can we do here?
For example, some of the thingswe did for patients who are
(10:56):
getting boosters, so not theirvery first vaccines.
When the patient is beingworked up, the nurses ordering
whatever vaccines that they'regoing to give.
So that way the doctor has anopportunity to look at it and
they're telling the parents youknow, johnny's going to get XYZ
parents are okay, they don'thave any objections.
So when the doc comes out, thenurse is not needing to try and
(11:18):
figure out anything.
It's already been figured out.
If it's not something thatneeds to be reconstituted, it's
already pulled up and they'reready to go.
So it shortened that timebetween when the doctor leaves
the room and when the nursecomes in to give the vaccines.
Right, and you can look for athing after thing.
We looked in the check-in forpatients who have old balances
coming in and say, okay, we havean old balance, and they're
(11:39):
like I don't know understand whyI have a balance and all of
those things.
We removed that.
So in the process of lettingthem know your appointment is
coming up, at that point we'relike and you have this balance,
how would you like to take careof that today?
So before they even come intothe office, that's done.
So there's so many things thatyou can just say how can I shave
off five minutes here?
Why is this taking this long?
(12:00):
He doesn't have to.
Referrals used to be.
We try to look all over theplace for all these referrals.
We made a one sheet with allthe referrals.
So doc wants a referral.
You highlight what that is,boom done.
And so, just thinking in thosekind of terms, you start
thinking how can I make thismore efficient?
This is an ongoing thing.
How do I make this moreefficient?
(12:21):
How can I make this moreefficient?
How can I make this moreefficient?
And it's not something yougraduate out of right Because as
your volumes increase or as youbring on another doc or COVID
happens, so some things had tochange.
Your assembly line is alwaysgoing to need work, right, so
you create the assembly line.
(12:41):
If you're a coach, it's thesame thing.
So maybe what you're doingyou're emailing back and forth
to schedule appointments.
Well, maybe it's time to say,okay, well, let's put a calendar
in place.
So it is one email, here's thecalendar, and then they schedule
their appointment.
It's just a way of thinking.
The assembly line is notspecific, it's a way of thinking
(13:02):
.
So you map out your line fromwhen somebody signs up to work
with you, they schedule theircoaching call.
They do this, they do that,like all of it.
You map it out and you're likehow can I make this more
efficient?
Okay, you're a podcaster samething.
What is your workflow?
How can I make it moreefficient?
So it used to be for me back inthe day.
I would send out an email lovefor you to be on my show.
(13:25):
They would give some availabletimes.
We'll do the whole back andforth with the times and then I
would have to remember to sendreminders before.
Sometimes they would miss itand they have tremendous to
thank them afterwards and all ofthese things.
And I just went into Calendlyand built a workflow.
So there's one link and thenall the things we need the bio
not sending a separate email forthe bio and the headshots and
(13:47):
all of that.
As you schedule it, everythingis there.
You have a reminder, I thinkthe week before the day before
the day of a text, an hourbefore.
You get a thank you emailafterwards, 30 minutes
afterwards and it's all oneworkflow.
So all that work I had to do, Idon't do it anymore.
It's just schedule yourappointment.
(14:08):
Once you schedule it, youtrigger everything else.
So what does this have to dowith profits?
Well, a number of things.
One is, when you take care ofpeople in an efficient manner,
their satisfaction goes throughthe roof.
It's like they're happy becausethey're getting what they want.
They get in a timely manner.
They're happy, and people whoare happy tend to continue to
(14:30):
work with you.
People who are happy tend totell other people about you.
People who are happy, ifthere's an opportunity to work
within a different capacity,they'll usually take it.
So we want people happy is goodfor our profits.
The second thing is that youare able to take care of more
people.
Again, this matters for allmodels, whether you're high
(14:50):
ticket or low ticket.
But it matters even more ifyou're in a low ticket model,
because the low ticket modelworks because of volume.
Okay, so if you put yourself ina position where you cannot
handle the volume, then youcannot make the profits, right?
And so you wanna put yourselfin a position where the more if
(15:11):
you're efficient because themore efficient you are, the more
you can see the volume that isrequired to make your business
profitable.
So sometimes people tell mewell, I'm seeing 10 patients a
day and I'm burnt out.
When people tell me that, whatI hear is I need help making my
practice more efficient, right?
Because, especially if you'reprimary care and stuff like that
(15:32):
, you shouldn't be.
You should be excited Like Ifeel, like I don't work, like I
only see 10 patients a day.
You see what I'm saying, Likeyou should not feel like you're
burning out.
If you're burning out, thenwhat that means is there's a lot
of efficiency, okay.
So what I want you to do todaythis is one of these is you're
gonna workshop this, okay, andif you have a number of doctors,
for instance, working yourpractice, you have team members,
(15:54):
all this stuff, this is a greatepisode to share with everybody
, and then your team can work onthis.
When I worked on this the veryfirst time, I probably did it by
myself because I was coming upwith a concept, but I've never
done it by myself ever sincethen.
And we do this for everything,like our training systems, for
our staff.
We build in how do we make thismore efficient?
How can we get somebody onboarded and ready to work with
(16:15):
us in a week and two weeks, andstuff like that.
It's a way of thinking, right.
So share this episode with yourteam members and then map out
what your assembly line is andthen look like if I could only
pick two projects, don't try todo 72, right, and if you looked
hard, you would find 72 things.
Okay, there's always somethingwrong with the assembly line,
(16:38):
okay.
So, but if I could only dothree tweaks of my assembly line
.
If I could only do three, whatwould that be and what would be
the order of priority?
Okay, and then you can starttaking wax at it, but what
you'll find is your staff willbe so much happier because now
you're taking things likethere's this frenzied energy,
(16:58):
this hustle mode that the moreefficient you become, the more
it goes away, like people arejust confidently doing what
needs to be done.
But it's not a hustle, let'smake it work.
We're done and we have to seethem some kind of way.
It's just there's an ease thatgoes with it.
It's still hard work, butthere's an ease that goes with
it, right?
So I mean, your staffsatisfaction will go through the
roof as well, right?
Okay, so share it with yourteam.
(17:20):
Build out your assembly line,like based on what you have now,
like what is our currentassembly line, but just itemize
it, right, and then do thataudit.
What are the top three things Ican start working on?
And then start working on themand you'll be setting yourself
up.
Maybe we're not gonna be likethe Atlanta airport.
We're not gonna be putting300,000 people through our
businesses every day.
(17:40):
However, our businesses willfeel so much lighter and our
patients will be so.
Our patients, our clients, willbe so much happier and our team
would be so, so, so muchhappier and our profits will be
better.
Okay, so it's a win-winsituation.
So I want you to do this and Iwant you to send me a PM.
(18:01):
Send me a DM on Instagram or PMon Facebook or LinkedIn, as I,
dr Una, we did this and this isthe difference that we made.
I would love to hear your story.
I would love to see how you'reapplying this and changing your
business and your life usingthis.
Okay, all right, so go do thework.
I'll see you on the nextepisode of the Ultra MD Podcast.
All right, so let's get started.
(18:22):
Hey, if you love listening tothe Ultra MD Podcast, I wanna
invite you to join Ultra MD OnDemand.
It is my signature subscriptionprogram that gives you access
to a library of business coursesdesigned to help you do one
thing as a physicianentrepreneur, and that is to
thrive.
Just head out to untramdcomforward slash on demand, and I'd
(18:43):
love to have you join us.
See you on the inside.
Hi docs, welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's
all about helping amazingphysicians just like you embrace
entrepreneurship so you canhave the freedom to live life
and practice medicine on yourterms.
I'm your host, dr Ibnah.
Well, hello.
(00:23):
Hello, my friend.
Welcome back to another episodeof the EntreMD podcast.
Today we are going to betalking about how to multiply
profits, leveraging the power ofefficiency.
Now, I recently went on a tripto Dallas with my mom and my
four kids.
I remember us being at we wentthrough the B terminal, which,
(00:48):
in my experience, is like thebusiest terminal, the process of
getting to the airport, doingthe check-in, getting on the
train, getting to the B terminal.
My mom is like there are somany people here.
I'm like, yeah, and the thingis that they're so efficient
because, even though there areso many people, the people are
going through.
(01:09):
You know what I mean.
And so I remember looking atthe statistics and like the
Atlanta airport being thebusiest airport and things like
that.
So I kind of wanted to sharethose with her, but I couldn't
remember the numbers.
So I Googled it and there are2,700 arrivals and departures
from the Atlanta airport everysingle day and they are moving
(01:33):
about 300,000 people through theairport every single day.
So I remember pulling up on myphone and showing her.
She's like, oh my goodness,right.
Then, of course, you know how Iam right, I'm a student of
business, like period.
And so I started thinking aboutit.
I was like so the major productthis airport has is really
(01:55):
their efficiency, right?
Like think about 2,700 flights,300,000 people.
I mean like that's unbelievable, that's more than a quarter of
a million people right Everysingle day.
And so I'm like efficiency, theonly way for them to be
profitable is for them to beefficient.
(02:15):
The only way for them to be adesired hub is for them to be
efficient.
Like efficiency is their bigthing.
And so I started thinking aboutour businesses and I was like I
wonder what if we obsessed overefficiency like they do now?
I've watched documentaries onthe Atlanta airport.
It's a thing of beauty to lookat how they obsess and get
(02:37):
things down to the second andthe minute, and I mean like it's
fabulous.
I mean it's so inspiring thatif I go there and there are
delays on all of those things,I'm the one who never complains,
because I'm like if you knowwhat goes into creating this
experience that we have like.
Of course, here and therethings are going to fall apart
and all of that, but for them topull off what they pull off,
(02:59):
they have no beef with.
I have no beef with them, right.
And so I started thinking.
I said, well, what if we alsohad this habit of constantly
thinking of how can we make thismore efficient, not less of an
experience, not rushed, not doneproperly, but more efficient,
right, so we're getting the sameresult, maybe even better
(03:20):
results, right, in less time orwith less resources or in things
like that.
So so I'm thinking about it andI went back to the early, early
, early days of my practice,right, and pulled up an example.
I was like, wow, this is crazy,and I'll tell you what it is.
When I started my practice,right, there were I don't know
(03:40):
five, six practices around methat were much bigger, much
bigger, had a lot more doctors,had longer hours, had beautiful
offices, a quare and they likeall the bells and whistles,
right, and I'm just starting noteven believing I can employ an
MA, right, I told you guys thestory of how I was my own MA.
I answered my own phones, had alot of scarcity in mindset
(04:00):
around all these things.
So, anyway, I remember lookingat their reviews and I was
looking at their reviews to seewhat do people love, what are
people frustrated by, right.
And so I'm looking through allthe reviews and I see a lot
around wait times.
There's so much like it was athing and I, my core, I'm speedy
, right.
So wait times they can drive menuts.
(04:23):
So I was like, okay, I'm gonnatake that as a unique selling
proposition, so USB, that we canbrag on, right, Like we'll get
you out, and so how are we gonnado this?
Okay, and I remember in nowthis is in high school, studying
about economics and all ofthose things and studying the
(04:44):
likes of Toyota and theirassembly line, right.
So I think we were doing aclass on the division of labor,
how if you have different peoplehandling different aspects,
then they're able to get thingsdone so much quicker than if one
person was going through allthe entire process.
But what it reminded me was wasthat assembly line.
You would see companies likeWalmart.
(05:04):
They measure the distancebetween boxes on the trucks and
things like that.
That's all.
Those are all measures of onthe belt, like the conveyor belt
.
Those are all measures ofinefficiency.
So companies that do highvolume, low ticket, especially,
they obsess over efficiency,because without efficiency
there's no profit, like period.
Okay, so I remember that and Isaid okay, so we started calling
(05:30):
our process of door to door forthe patient, like arrival and
departure.
We started calling that ourassembly line and not assembly
line so people feel like thereare numbers on a conveyor belt
but assembly line, meaning thatwe are obsessing over the areas
where there is a lack ofefficiency.
Right, and so we can fix thatand make it a faster experience
(05:52):
for the patient.
Right, because, again, our USPwas short wait times.
Our thing was we will get youout door to door an hour or less
.
Okay, until this day.
This is Google.
Now it will say peopletypically spend 30 minutes to an
hour here, right, like.
So it's that whole assemblyline thing.
Okay, so what does that looklike?
Well, what it looks like is wetook all the steps, and the
(06:16):
reason why I'm breaking thisdown is not for you to use this.
For instance, your business maynot be a private practice, but
it may be, but your processesmay be different.
But I wanna show you how wethought of it so that you can
create your own right.
Okay, so the first one was thecheck-in right, that's the first
thing.
So they come in, they agree tothat whole check-in process,
(06:38):
co-pays, all of those kind ofthings.
The second thing is thatthey're taken to a room, right?
So the MA comes, calls them,puts them in a room and all that
stuff.
Third thing is that theirvitals are done.
The fourth thing is the doccomes to see them.
The fifth thing is what we callpostdoc.
Whether that is vaccines, orthey needed some labs done or
(06:59):
they needed a referral, whatever, there's some the doc left.
And there's this postdoc thing.
We're clear that it's not forevery patient but a lot of.
I'm pediatric, so a lot ofpatients will have that.
And then the last thing was thecheckout right.
And for us we document checkoutas a separate part of the
assembly line, because we wanteverybody to leave with an
(07:20):
appointment, right, we want thatto happen.
So we do the recall or less, sowe have stability with our
schedule and all of those kindof things.
So it's check-in, roaming,vitals, doc, postdoc, checkout,
right.
Now of course there is a quote,unquote assembly line for
getting them into the office.
There's an assembly line foryour revenue cycle, like all of
(07:41):
those things.
They're all processes right Atthe end of the day.
But this is door to door, okay.
So, door to door, we call thatthe assembly line.
Now, what that did is it put usin a position where we can go
to each place.
So for, like, our wait timesare long.
We can strategically go and say, okay, there's so many things
(08:03):
we can fix here, and we aregoing to be working on this
assembly line for as long asthis practice exists.
It's continuous improvement.
So the question is, which oneis the one that will give us the
biggest bang for our buck?
What is the place that, if wego here and make a tweak here,
we can shave off five minutes,or we can shave off 10 minutes,
(08:24):
or we can shave off 15 minutes,okay, so I'm going to give you a
number of examples here.
So there was a time when andthis is really showing you how
to troubleshoot your assemblyline so the first step is to
create your assembly line.
The second step is, okay, toaudit your assembly line.
Where are things falling apart?
Okay, where are things fallingapart?
(08:45):
So, for instance, we said well,when the doc is in the room,
we're finding that there's a lotof time being spent generating
what, getting answers to what wewould consider routine
questions, right?
So mommy comes in and they areasking questions like how much
milk does Johnny drink?
(09:06):
Then mom is like oh, I get offwork at two o'clock, so by the
time I get home at three, johnnywill usually wake up then and
have two ounces and then afterthat.
And so they literally do theentire math in the room and we
have like a thousand things totalk about.
We don't have all this time tojust get the amount of milk.
And so then what we did,recognizing that, was keeping
(09:30):
the doctors long and it's notnecessarily value to the patient
.
Understand what I'm saying.
So it's not about getting thedoctor out of the room, it's
about giving the doctor theopportunity of doing what is of
most value.
So it could be as simple asJohnny gets 20 ounces of milk a
day and that's it.
And she can go on to ask theparent questions, examine the
(09:52):
kid, answer the questions thatare important to the patient,
and so what we did is then wesaid, okay, to shorten this up.
We created our ownquestionnaire of all these
questions that they end upasking for specific age groups,
and so when they come in, that'spart of the paperwork that they
fill out and it shortens thattime.
Because all that timecalculating the milk, checking
(10:14):
the number of poop diapers andall of these things, those are
all reduced to numbers and ifthe numbers are fine, you're
like okay, this is number, thisis with their normal, moving on.
So that's an example ofremoving inefficiency.
So the doctors are able to do areally good job and they're
able to do it in less time andthe patients felt like they were
heard because they talked aboutwhat they wanted to talk about.
(10:35):
So that's an example.
Second example may be okay, thepostdoc, so the doctor's made
the orders, but there's this lagbetween whenever the person
comes in to give the vaccines orcomes in to do the lab.
It comes in to do all of thosethings.
So then you analyze it.
What can we do here?
For example, some of the thingswe did for patients who are
(10:56):
getting boosters, so not theirvery first vaccines.
When the patient is beingworked up, the nurses ordering
whatever vaccines that they'regoing to give.
So that way the doctor has anopportunity to look at it and
they're telling the parents youknow, johnny's going to get XYZ
parents are okay, they don'thave any objections.
So when the doc comes out, thenurse is not needing to try and
(11:18):
figure out anything.
It's already been figured out.
If it's not something thatneeds to be reconstituted, it's
already pulled up and they'reready to go.
So it shortened that timebetween when the doctor leaves
the room and when the nursecomes in to give the vaccines.
Right, and you can look for athing after thing.
We looked in the check-in forpatients who have old balances
coming in and say, okay, we havean old balance, and they're
(11:39):
like I don't know understand whyI have a balance and all of
those things.
We removed that.
So in the process of lettingthem know your appointment is
coming up, at that point we'relike and you have this balance,
how would you like to take careof that today?
So before they even come intothe office, that's done.
So there's so many things thatyou can just say how can I shave
off five minutes here?
Why is this taking this long?
(12:00):
He doesn't have to.
Referrals used to be.
We try to look all over theplace for all these referrals.
We made a one sheet with allthe referrals.
So doc wants a referral.
You highlight what that is,boom done.
And so, just thinking in thosekind of terms, you start
thinking how can I make thismore efficient?
This is an ongoing thing.
How do I make this moreefficient?
(12:21):
How can I make this moreefficient?
How can I make this moreefficient?
And it's not something yougraduate out of right Because as
your volumes increase or as youbring on another doc or COVID
happens, so some things had tochange.
Your assembly line is alwaysgoing to need work, right, so
you create the assembly line.
(12:41):
If you're a coach, it's thesame thing.
So maybe what you're doingyou're emailing back and forth
to schedule appointments.
Well, maybe it's time to say,okay, well, let's put a calendar
in place.
So it is one email, here's thecalendar, and then they schedule
their appointment.
It's just a way of thinking.
The assembly line is notspecific, it's a way of thinking
(13:02):
.
So you map out your line fromwhen somebody signs up to work
with you, they schedule theircoaching call.
They do this, they do that,like all of it.
You map it out and you're likehow can I make this more
efficient?
Okay, you're a podcaster samething.
What is your workflow?
How can I make it moreefficient?
So it used to be for me back inthe day.
I would send out an email lovefor you to be on my show.
(13:25):
They would give some availabletimes.
We'll do the whole back andforth with the times and then I
would have to remember to sendreminders before.
Sometimes they would miss itand they have tremendous to
thank them afterwards and all ofthese things.
And I just went into Calendlyand built a workflow.
So there's one link and thenall the things we need the bio
not sending a separate email forthe bio and the headshots and
(13:47):
all of that.
As you schedule it, everythingis there.
You have a reminder, I thinkthe week before the day before
the day of a text, an hourbefore.
You get a thank you emailafterwards, 30 minutes
afterwards and it's all oneworkflow.
So all that work I had to do, Idon't do it anymore.
It's just schedule yourappointment.
(14:08):
Once you schedule it, youtrigger everything else.
So what does this have to dowith profits?
Well, a number of things.
One is, when you take care ofpeople in an efficient manner,
their satisfaction goes throughthe roof.
It's like they're happy becausethey're getting what they want.
They get in a timely manner.
They're happy, and people whoare happy tend to continue to
(14:30):
work with you.
People who are happy tend totell other people about you.
People who are happy, ifthere's an opportunity to work
within a different capacity,they'll usually take it.
So we want people happy is goodfor our profits.
The second thing is that youare able to take care of more
people.
Again, this matters for allmodels, whether you're high
(14:50):
ticket or low ticket.
But it matters even more ifyou're in a low ticket model,
because the low ticket modelworks because of volume.
Okay, so if you put yourself ina position where you cannot
handle the volume, then youcannot make the profits, right?
And so you wanna put yourselfin a position where the more if
(15:11):
you're efficient because themore efficient you are, the more
you can see the volume that isrequired to make your business
profitable.
So sometimes people tell mewell, I'm seeing 10 patients a
day and I'm burnt out.
When people tell me that, whatI hear is I need help making my
practice more efficient, right?
Because, especially if you'reprimary care and stuff like that
(15:32):
, you shouldn't be.
You should be excited Like Ifeel, like I don't work, like I
only see 10 patients a day.
You see what I'm saying, Likeyou should not feel like you're
burning out.
If you're burning out, thenwhat that means is there's a lot
of efficiency, okay.
So what I want you to do todaythis is one of these is you're
gonna workshop this, okay, andif you have a number of doctors,
for instance, working yourpractice, you have team members,
(15:54):
all this stuff, this is a greatepisode to share with everybody
, and then your team can work onthis.
When I worked on this the veryfirst time, I probably did it by
myself because I was coming upwith a concept, but I've never
done it by myself ever sincethen.
And we do this for everything,like our training systems, for
our staff.
We build in how do we make thismore efficient?
How can we get somebody onboarded and ready to work with
(16:15):
us in a week and two weeks, andstuff like that.
It's a way of thinking, right.
So share this episode with yourteam members and then map out
what your assembly line is andthen look like if I could only
pick two projects, don't try todo 72, right, and if you looked
hard, you would find 72 things.
Okay, there's always somethingwrong with the assembly line,
(16:38):
okay.
So, but if I could only dothree tweaks of my assembly line
.
If I could only do three, whatwould that be and what would be
the order of priority?
Okay, and then you can starttaking wax at it, but what
you'll find is your staff willbe so much happier because now
you're taking things likethere's this frenzied energy,
(16:58):
this hustle mode that the moreefficient you become, the more
it goes away, like people arejust confidently doing what
needs to be done.
But it's not a hustle, let'smake it work.
We're done and we have to seethem some kind of way.
It's just there's an ease thatgoes with it.
It's still hard work, butthere's an ease that goes with
it, right?
So I mean, your staffsatisfaction will go through the
roof as well, right?
Okay, so share it with yourteam.
(17:20):
Build out your assembly line,like based on what you have now,
like what is our currentassembly line, but just itemize
it, right, and then do thataudit.
What are the top three things Ican start working on?
And then start working on themand you'll be setting yourself
up.
Maybe we're not gonna be likethe Atlanta airport.
We're not gonna be putting300,000 people through our
businesses every day.
(17:40):
However, our businesses willfeel so much lighter and our
patients will be so.
Our patients, our clients, willbe so much happier and our team
would be so, so, so muchhappier and our profits will be
better.
Okay, so it's a win-winsituation.
So I want you to do this and Iwant you to send me a PM.
(18:01):
Send me a DM on Instagram or PMon Facebook or LinkedIn, as I,
dr Una, we did this and this isthe difference that we made.
I would love to hear your story.
I would love to see how you'reapplying this and changing your
business and your life usingthis.
Okay, all right, so go do thework.
I'll see you on the nextepisode of the Ultra MD Podcast.
All right, so let's get started.
(18:22):
Hey, if you love listening tothe Ultra MD Podcast, I wanna
invite you to join Ultra MD OnDemand.
It is my signature subscriptionprogram that gives you access
to a library of business coursesdesigned to help you do one
thing as a physicianentrepreneur, and that is to
thrive.
Just head out to untramdcomforward slash on demand, and I'd
(18:43):
love to have you join us.
See you on the inside.
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