DOCTORS AND GENERAL CLINICS
How a General Practitioner Can Run the Clinic Like a Business
The doctor is seeing forty patients by lunch, the receptionist is also the billing clerk, and the pharmacy shelf has run out of the one syrup half the children need. Evenings go into writing the day's collection in a notebook.
We help the owner-doctor with the running of the practice: patient flow, slots, billing, stock, staff roles and a simple weekly report. Diagnosis, prescription and clinical judgment are not ours to advise on and stay with you and the medical council.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Patients walk in at the same hours, so the waiting room is crowded from ten to twelve and empty after two, though the doctor is present throughout.
- 02The billing clerk also handles registration and the phone, and errors in charges, concessions and follow-up entries appear when the queue is long.
- 03In-house pharmacy stock is ordered from memory, so fast-moving items run out and slow ones expire on the shelf.
- 04Regular patients, including elderly ones on long-term medicines, are not reminded to come, and the clinic only sees them when they feel unwell.
- 05The owner-doctor cannot take leave because nobody else can run the front desk, the billing or the stock without asking.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01Patients seen per hour across the week, from the register, to see where the crowd gathers
- 02A booking slot system for return and follow-up patients so walk-ins are spread more evenly
- 03Daily collection sheet reconciled against the register by someone other than the biller
- 04Medicine stock list with minimum quantity, supplier and expiry, checked on a fixed day
- 05A repeat-patient list for chronic care visits, with a named person to call
- 06Fee and concession rules written down so the front desk does not ask the doctor each time
- 07What the doctor does that a trained assistant or nurse could do instead
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Count patients by hour for a full week from your register. Mark the peak and the quiet hours. Then decide which return visits you could move to the quiet hours by booking.
- Hypothetical example: if the clinic sees 48 patients between ten and twelve and 6 after two, shifting ten return visits to the afternoon cuts the morning wait without reducing the day's total.
- Pick your ten fastest-moving medicines. Set a minimum quantity for each and ask your assistant to count them every Monday. Order only what falls below the minimum.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A front-desk role chart separating registration, billing, pharmacy and phone, with cover rules for leave
- A weekly one-page sheet: patients, collection, medicines sold, follow-ups made, stock gaps
- A medicine reorder sheet with minimum levels and a supplier list
- A repeat-patient recall list and call script written for non-clinical staff
Not the right fit when: A negligence claim, a registration issue with the council or a partnership dispute needs a qualified professional first. A practice still looking for premises can wait.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
