Practice start-up essentials checklist

Setting up your practice with the right team and sound operational processes is essential for success. Our two-part checklist outlines the key requirements from recruiting and onboarding employees, and setting up your business service and administration systems, to maximise your practice’s efficiency.

Part 1 - Establishing your team

A great practice team is at the heart of any successful practice. This means investing in hiring and retaining good employees should be a priority. Our Practice Management team can support you on every step of the journey, including recruitment, documentation and HR support.

1. Map out the team structure

It can be tempting to start hiring your team straight away, but creating an organisational chart for your practice team can be helpful in guiding recruitment decisions, both for internal and outsourced operations.

2. Recruiting the right staff

Hiring employees can be one of the most challenging aspects of starting a practice and high staff turnover is especially costly.

Consider using a medical-specific employment service to assist in preparing position descriptions, advising on salary expectations, setting up human resources infrastructure, as well as creating advertisements and interviewing candidates. Look to select candidates who have exceptional customer service delivery and commitment and are a good fit with your practice culture. These qualities should be prioritised when interviewing potential employees with similar experience and skills.

3. Employment contracts

Once you finalise the structure and the roles and responsibilities of your employees with your practice management adviser, get specialised legal advice on the employment contracts.

The contracts should reflect the relevant minimum legal terms of employment under the National Employment Standards and any applicable award. We recommend you discuss any employment requirements with an industry expert lawyer.

4. Onboarding and staff management

Once you have hired your team, you will need policies and procedures in place to assist with inductions and onboarding, and compliance with workplace laws. Simple and effective platforms take the guess work out of training and administration workflows. Our PracticeHub platform provides a highly effective way of overseeing governance and training, and can form the backbone of your staff manual.

Even the best employees require management and training, so decide how your practice structure will support employees around ongoing professional development and mentorship.

5. Fostering a positive workplace culture

Set the tone by deciding the values and kind of workplace culture you wish to cultivate. A positive workplace culture can often mean the difference between a ‘good’ or a ‘great’ practice. Discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying must never be tolerated and should be prohibited by practice policies.

Part 2 - Practice start-up checklist

To ensure nothing gets missed, use the checklist below to help set-up your essential business and administration systems, or Avant Practice Solutions to manage the process with you.

Telecommunications

A phone system is essential to take patient calls and make bookings. Look for a system that can grow with your business and use a medical IT provider to set it up.

1. IT systems and practice management software

These technologies form the backbone of your business. Your practice management consultant can advise about the strengths and weaknesses of different systems you may be considering. When choosing hardware and software, look for reliability and user-friendliness.

2. Data storage and cyber security

Patient records must be kept secure. Set up a cyber security framework that includes safeguards such as encryption, access controls, firewalls, and employee training. Your IT consultant will be able to advise on the most suitable methods and technologies.

3. Bookkeeping and payroll

These critical business functions are essential for accurate reports. Accurate employee records must be maintained under workplace laws. Ensure your practice is payroll-compliant and your bookkeeping is up to taxation standards. Consider outsourcing to our expert Bookkeeping and Payroll team.

4. Financial handling

Decide how you will receive revenue from patients and insurers, and submit invoices to insurers. A well-designed financial handling system makes accounting and revenue allocation simple and transparent. Importantly, it allows you to identify what professional fees haven’t been paid so you can allocate resources to optimise your revenue. Clearly document the procedures to receive, remit, reconcile and report on financial transactions so they are consistent, and not sensitive to single-person knowledge.

5. Business analytics and reporting

Keep track of your practice’s performance through regular financial reporting to understand the state of your business and identify growth opportunities. Set aside time to regularly review your practice reports. For more information, read our article: How to optimise the revenue of your medical practice.

6. Policies and procedures

A policies and procedures manual is crucial for any practice. It’s a guidebook for how your practice operates and the rules governing activities. Examples include an appropriate workplace behaviour policy, a social media policy, procedures to manage data breach or privacy issues and staff training manuals.

7. Website and marketing

Successful practices market their points of difference. Being specific about what you offer helps attract the patients you want to serve. For example, some practices promote each doctor’s clinical areas of interest. Other differentiators might be your location, opening hours, or on-site allied health services.

A website to market your practice is also crucial to attract new patients and keep existing patients informed.

There are many aspects to running a quality practice and automating or outsourcing key tasks can reduce the administration burden and improve operational efficiency. Our team can assess your practice’s in-house capabilities and identify opportunities to automate or outsource tasks include billing services, medical transcription services and virtual administration support where it makes financial sense.

For more information on our suite of expert advisory services to support your practice ownership journey, speak with one of our experts on 1800 010 236 or book a meeting.