The questionHow much staff time does a practice improvement project take?
Short answerA practice improvement project usually takes the most staff time when it adds work before it removes any. In a well-built 90-day plan, the first 30 days ask your team mainly for data access and a few short conversations. From day 31, the first fixes are chosen to remove work, such as denials and rework, so staff get time back before bigger changes begin.
The email says "kickoff meeting." Your practice manager reads it at 7:40 in the morning, between covering a call-out at the front desk and a payer on hold. Her first thought isn't "great." It's "when?"
You might be thinking your team doesn't have room for a big project. You're probably right. Most teams don't. That's why the plan has to be built around your team's week, not stacked on top of it.
Why this matters to you
A project that piles extra tasks onto a full week tends to stall, however good it looks on paper. When it does, you've paid for a plan nobody used, your best people are more worn out than when you started, and the problems you hired help for are still there.
Waiting has a cost too. The denials, the rework and the repeat calls eat the same hours every week whether you start or not.
What each phase asks, and what it gives back
| Phase | What it asks of your team | What your team gets |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30: Assessment | Access to a few reports, or someone to export them. A few short conversations with the people closest to billing, scheduling and clinical work. | We do most of the work. You get a plan with no more than a few priorities at a time. |
| Days 31 to 60: Action | Time from the people who own the first fixes, working alongside us. | The first fixes take work away: fewer denials, less rework, fewer repeat calls. |
| Day 61 on: Results | One owner for each change, and a short weekly look at the numbers. | Results measured against your starting numbers, and systems that keep running without a standing project. |
The right first changes give your team time back before they ask for any.
Ask yourselfWhich task does your team complain about most, and does it start with a problem earlier in the day?
Who's involved
Usually three people: an owner or administrator who can make decisions, your practice or billing manager, and one clinician who can speak for the providers. We coordinate everything else, so patient care doesn't stop for meetings.
Ask yourselfWho on your team already knows where the problems are, but hasn't had the time or authority to fix them?
See what this looks like in your numbers.
Start with a free first look at your numbers on a discovery call. We'll show you where your team's time is going, and which fix would give the most of it back.