Being an office manager myself I know this is an interesting topic for discussion. Usually in an office the manager oversees the staff and will manage their training and evaluations, but the office manager cannot review themselves, they need their superiors to do this for them, which would be their physicians. I have talked to many physicians over the past 10 years to know that this is not always an easy task to do for multiple reasons, the first being, time, the second being the overwhelming task of defining everything the manager actually does in order to have a meaningful review. But probably one of the biggest reasons for avoiding reviews of the office manager is that there are some issues that would need to be discussed that may not go too well, and the thought comes up of “what if they get upset and quit, what would I do?” As the physician/owner the thought of losing a not so good manager is worse than living with the not so good manager, there is always the hope that things will get better. Today this shouldn’t be a factor for physicians with the temporary services that are available that have staff that are trained specifically in medical office management that could step in on a moments notice to help out until a replacement is found. Here is a short list of questions the physician should continually be asking themselves regarding their office manager;
1. Are you better off now than you were a year ago?
2. Does your manager help or hinder your practice?
3. Are your confident in your office manager that they will make the right decisions for your practice?
4. Are you comfortable having your manager represent you in public?
5. Are your other staff members happy, healthy and growing in their positions?
6. Are you having to replace other staff members too often?
7. Do you feel in control of your office?
8. Has your manager earned the respect of the other staff members and your patients?
9. Do you have full knowledge and access of what your office manager does; i.e., all passwords, accounts,etc.?
10. Do you understand what your office manager tells you? Does the office manager understand you?
If you answer no or have negative reactions to any of the questions above, then you need to sit down with your office manager right away and talk about it. It is better to try to work through any problems if you feel that by correcting them your office manager would be the perfect person for the job. If not, then you need to let them go for the betterment of your practice, you will survive and be better off without them. For more information regarding this topic I have posted a good link below by Managed Care Magazine, that goes into more detail. Also please feel free to submit questions below or in the “Hot Topic” section on our website www.gotoppm.com
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