I like Jeff Bezos' view on using metrics, particularly how he leverages them in his weekly business review to analyze wait times. You can watch him discuss this here: Jeff Bezos on Metrics.
Over my 20+ year career with clinics, I’ve fallen into several traps using metrics:
- Collecting too many metrics
- Not consistently entering the data
- Looking at a metric but not understanding the meaning behind it
- Not understanding outcome metrics vs. behaviour metrics
- Not teaching my team how to use metrics to make decisions (without me)
- Not having a clear ‘to do’ after looking at a metric
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At the core, I’m really just always measuring patient experience. Metrics such as total phone calls, phone answer rate, booking rate, number of assessments, patient visit average (PVA), Google Reviews, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and clinician utilization are essential. When looking at one of these metrics at any moment or over a given period, I’m gauging patient experience. It’s like energy; you can measure it in various forms. Once I understood that, I quickly moved to improving patient experience in specific areas and measuring again to see if it worked. This approach is at the heart of running a clinic and helping people.
In short, I don’t like the word "metrics"; I prefer "measurement."
As a physio first, I’m used to taking measurements, so I applied the same way of thinking about the business as I would a patient. In any area of the business, I do a SOAP note: subjective, objective, assessment, plan. “O,” of course, being the measurement.
I use metrics in these ways:
- Weekly Scoreboard
- Clinician Scoreboard (baseball card)
- Marketing Scoreboard
- By Role
The weekly scoreboard lists all my core metrics in Google Sheets.
These are things I check weekly that will make or break me. For example, are the metrics representing how well we are collecting money? What metrics do we look at for our Google Business Listing (the most used platform to find and contact us)? Are we tracking treatment plans to prevent patient fall-off? How are we recruiting clinicians? Are we answering the phone and booking new patients from our marketing efforts? Do we have enough assessments? Are the clinicians busy? Are patients graduating? Are patients falling off? Are patients canceling or no-showing?
Now, would you agree each of these questions are fundamental to patient experience, and, in turn, running and growing your clinic?
If yes, then you should check them every week, just like Bezos’ weekly business review (WBR). I wouldn’t be able to sleep without these measurements every week. I’d feel blind.
If patient experience had an apex, it would be the relationship between the clinician and the patient. I have to measure this relationship in some way to provide a clinician with coaching, training, and support. Just like the weekly scoreboard, I enter metrics for each clinician in a Google Sheet. I track these metrics weekly, whether it’s a new grad or a seasoned clinician. The patient experience metrics here represent:
- Does the clinician have enough assessments?
- What is the clinician’s patient visit average (PVA)?
- What are their cancel and no-show rates?
- How many Google Reviews mentioned their name?
- Are they providing a treatment plan?
- What is their booked-to-prescribed ratio?
- What is their utilization rate?
- How many fall-offs do they have?
- How many people did they graduate?
- Did they get any family/friend referrals?
Each of these questions and the associated metrics represent patient experience and areas where I can help them improve.
For marketing, I typically only care about conversion metrics. That is, how many phone calls, emails, and online bookings did we get from each source? Imagine a single Google Sheet with multiple tabs, one for each marketing tactic, showing the conversion data.
In this way, I can see which source is producing results and which ones are not. Being clear on conversion data allows me to decide how to best use my marketing resources of money, time, people, and effort.
Most people don’t keep metrics about their life. Maybe the occasional person has a personal finance scoreboard. But, generally, people don’t look at metrics every day or week. They have to be taught and shown the value of doing it. It has to be easy and digestible for them. They have to be able to take action from interpreting the metric.
This is where outcome vs. behavior metrics become very important. Revenue is an outcome metric. It can change based on doing something well or not. But, revenue is not what I want to measure for a role. I want to measure the behaviors leading to that outcome.
- How many times did we answer the phone (answer rate)?
- How many people did you ask for a Google Review?
- How many phone calls did you make?
- How many emails did you send out?
It’s more of a Buddhist outlook. As a Buddhist Master Atisha said:
This is because you can control the input, but you often can’t control the output. You don’t have control over the results. The focus should be on what we can control as the most valuable. To be clear, it’s not all behavior metrics. Most of the metrics by role consist of about 80% behavior metrics and 20% outcome metrics.
Overall, for a role, look at the tasks for that role. Next, determine one or two metrics for each task. Third, decide which ones must be tracked each week.
In conclusion, tracking the right metrics is essential in clinic management. By focusing on key measurements that directly impact patient experience, you can make informed decisions that enhance the quality of care and operational efficiency. Avoid common pitfalls by being consistent, understanding the meaning behind each metric, and teaching your team to use metrics independently. Remember, it’s not just about collecting data but about making meaningful improvements. Start implementing these strategies today to see tangible results in your clinic's performance.
