As your rehabilitation business grows it is critical that each facility be led by a clinician. You should expect a Clinical Director to take responsibility and accountability for not only the clinical aspects of the business but the operational and financial results of the clinic.
In order to ensure that a Clinical Director is successful, we recommend three critical steps:
1. Provide the Clinical Director with tools to measure performance – A Clinical Director must have key information on the operations of the business to be successful. We advocate establishing operating budgets that set realistic targets in key performance metric indicators, and compare those budgets to actual performance on a weekly basis. As the director matures, financial information should also be shared and budgets set. The expectation is that the Clinical Director will have accountability for the financial results.
2. Design incentive plans to reward strong performance – Clinicians are not motivated purely by financial rewards. That being said, clinicians who are migrating towards management tend to have a business mind; and, at some level, will be motivated by having the opportunity to earn more money. The incentive plan should be simple and easily calculated. We advocate rewarding top line performance, as it gives you greater control over the bottom line. We have created bottom line driven incentive plans, but have found them to be too complicated. They also can be the cause of disagreements over the financial controls of the company, tax strategies, etc.
3. Train, Train, Train – Very few clinicians have any training, background or experience in management. Therefore, establish a training program that will provide your directors with training in leadership skills, management, operations and financial metrics, customer service, compliance, and human resources. You can send your employees out to courses, but we suggest bringing someone in to provide training to multiple clinicians at one time, including current and future Clinical Directors.
Once you have a few clinicians who have been trained to manage and direct a clinic, you have leveraged your knowledge and your growth potential is unlimited! For more information about developing clinical directors and building incentive plans, contact me at 856-914-1440 or visit Martin Healthcare Advisors.
