Fritz Wood explains the right time to hire your first practice manager.
You can't pinpoint the perfect time to hire a practice manager, but the sooner the better, says Fritz Wood, CPA, CFP, owner of H.W. Wood Consulting in Lake Quivira, Kan.
"If a practice manager frees up the doctor to see just one or two additional clients each day, it makes good financial sense," Wood says. "Practice manager compensation is often in the 3 percent to 4 percent of gross income range, so a practice does need some critical mass in order to justify the expense."
Think of all a practice manager can do for you. According to the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association 2012 Practice Analysis Results, the most important jobs for practice managers are:
> Handling recruiting, interviewing and hiring
> Managing training and development
> Scheduling and daily work assignments
> Conducting staff meetings
> Organizing employee performance reviews
> Mediating internal disputes
> Disciplining or discharging employees
> Managing employee benefit programs
> Maintaining confidential employee records and personnel files
> Creating and updating job descriptions and manuals
> Managing staff continuing education and licensure.
Once you have hired a practice manager, the doctor can delegate those tasks to the capable manager over time and see more patients, therefore creating more revenue for the practice.
