THE DIGITAL PRACTICE

Protecting your institutional knowledge

Practice CPR closes the “competency gap”

By Peter J. Polack, MD, FACS

In my last column, I gave an overview of the importance of having a process-centric practice. This describes the practice’s ability to quietly absorb any disruption, be it human or otherwise, because enough staff have working knowledge of the practice’s processes and systems to continue running the practice like the well-oiled machine that it is.

So, now let’s establish a strategic initiative called the Practice CPR (Compliance-Productivity-Risk).

PASSING ON PRACTICE KNOWLEDGE

We have moved from an Information Age to a Knowledge Age. In the Information Age, our focus was on transferring information: collecting, consuming and sharing it. In that age, the priority was technology-enabled sharing.

But as we all know, data by itself is not information, information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom.

In the Knowledge Age, our focus is on transferring knowledge between process participants; the priority is process-knowledge transfer, which describes knowledge of what it takes to execute the processes required by your practice. Practice CPR is your “on-ramp” to the Knowledge Age.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE SISYPHUS?

Practice CPR closes the “competency gap,” which is the impact of staff know-how that is not transferred when they exit the practice. Here is how that is expressed:

• Average staff time to competence = 10,000 at-work hours (~5 years)

• Average staff tenure = 2.5 years

Just about the time they become profitable for the practice, they’re gone. So you eat their productivity curve for those first 2.5 years, then, just when things are running smoothly, you start over again.

Are the following examples of Practice CPR staff found in your practice?

• Your IT “whiz” who has helped you set up your computer network and has kept your system running. He manages the passwords for your system on his laptop and only he has “admin” privileges for your EMR software. You can’t survive without him.

• The unflappable front desk person who handles patient phone calls without a hiccup while expertly juggling faxes and staff requests.

• The billing supervisor with the encyclopedic memory who single-handedly doubled the reimbursement claims for your top three procedures.

• The high-bandwidth clinical coordinator who can always be counted on to pinch-hit during staff absenteeism or patient volume surges.

PRESERVE THEIR PROCESS KNOWLEDGE

Eventually, one, or all, may be lured to another employer. You can let them go, but don’t let their institutional knowledge go.

The process-centric practice is the model for success in the Knowledge Age. The transformation is at hand and the single biggest success factor will be how well you can institute process-knowledge transfer. OM

Peter J. Polack, MD, FACS, is co-managing partner for Ocala Eye, a multisubspecialty ophthalmology practice located in Ocala, Fla. He is also founder of Emedikon, an online practice resource for physicians and administrators. His e-mail is ppolack@ocalaeye.com.