As MGMA19 | The Annual Conference closes, there are countless areas of medical practice management to consider reinvigorating or new ideas to put in motion once returning home.
The most recent MGMA Stat poll of healthcare leaders attending the conference asked: “Reflecting on your conference experience, in what management areas will you ignite change in your organization?”
Top responses included:
- Leadership
- Culture
- Workflow processes
- Patient experience/engagement
- Revenue cycle management
- Value-based care
- Communication
- Technology
- Finance
- Personal
The poll was conducted on October 16, 2019, during MGMA19 | The Annual Conference, with 74 applicable responses.
As noted by conference speaker Brian Donnelly, MBA, CMPE, professional EOS implementer, Momentum Solutions LLC, healthcare leaders can be overwhelmed by what he calls “the tsunami of potentially useful ideas.”
Echoing that sentiment, veteran healthcare consultant and conference speaker Owen Dahl, MBA, LFACHE, CHBC, LSSMBB, has this advice for anyone who attends an MGMA conference: “Stop for a minute and think about the top three things” you want to take back to your organization.
“By the end of a conference, all of the attendees have seen some incredible presentations … so they've got hundreds of things floating through their mind,” Dahl says. “You can't go away with 100 ideas. If you go away with 100, or 50 or 30 ideas, you're not going to follow up on anything.” Instead, Dahl recommends thinking about what will benefit your practice the most and focus on that.
Time to make decisions
As healthcare leaders, every moment of the day is filled with competing interests. A priority matrix — such as the one designed by MGMA — can help you determine the quick wins, the worthy long-term projects, the low-effort marginal improvements and the low-impact items that get put on the proverbial back-burner.
For those who leave an educational conference with big ideas for new service lines or major operational changes, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can be used as part of business planning; market analysis; project management; organizational change; individual development, such as a career change or evaluation; or any situation requiring strategic planning to reach an objective.
A simple SWOT analysis can be helpful for any size of practice to consider both internal and external factors and take an honest look at which strategies or operations need to change. Alternatively, practice leaders could work with the variant TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths) analysis to help make connections between each quadrant of the 2x2 matrix, combining information from two quadrants to create actionable strategies.
No matter what your next step is after MGMA19 | The Annual Conference, we wish you happy prioritizing and decision-making as you ignite excellence in your organization and career!
Additional resources
- “Priority Matrix — a tool for complex decision-making and strategic planning” (Insight article)
- “Why use SWOT analysis?” (MGMA member tool)
- “’Change is a scary word’ — Owen Dahl on successful practice transitions, process improvement” (MGMA Insights podcast)
- “Insights: A Mayo Clinic professor’s blueprint for professional success” (MGMA Insights podcast)
Would you like to join our polling panel to voice your opinion on important practice management topics? MGMA Stat is a national poll that addresses practice management issues, the impact of new legislation and related topics. Participation is open to all healthcare leaders. Results of other polls and information on how to participate in MGMA Stat are available at: mgma.com/stat
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