Estimating the feasibility of purchasing a clinic system without different savings rates

Many offers offer ready-made savings rates: “Save 40% of management time.” These numbers have no source for your facility, cannot be verified, and you will not be able to defend them in front of anyone who asks you about the feasibility of the decision.

The alternative is simpler and more powerful: measure your current situation yourself, and then measure it again in six months. The difference between them is your real feasibility.

The operational situation addressed by the topic

A position owner wants to justify the investment to himself, his partners, or his board of directors. A percentage quoted from a marketing presentation does not convince anyone – but your team’s hours calculated by your numbers do.

The requirements you write for the resource

What you are asking from the provider here is not a promise but rather the ability to measure: for the system to provide indicators that allow you to compare your situation before and after.

• No-show and cancellation indicator with fixed definition.
• Indicator of vacancies filled from the waiting list.
• Average authentication time after session.
• Pending cases without an upcoming date and the percentage of those who returned.
• Average days of collection, arrears and unconsumed balances.

A practical example of testing the procedure

Before running, spend a week measuring these numbers with your current method:

• Administrative time: How many minutes a day to coordinate appointments, reminders, and follow-ups?
• Duplicate entry: How often is the same information written in two places?
• Missed appointments: How many appointments were canceled but not filled?
• Documentation time: How long does it take between the session and its documentation?
• Collection: How much is overdue? Since when?
• Discontinued cases: How many clients were cut off and no one contacted them?

Multiply the time by the cost per hour, and estimate the value of missed appointments at your rates. This is your number — not a percentage of the offer.

Controls and exceptions

• Do not expect the result immediately: The first months are naturally slow until the team gets used to it. Measure after six months, not after one month.
• Do not attribute every improvement to the system: Some of it may be from the streamlining of your procedures that accompanied the implementation — this is also a real gain, but attributing it to the system alone is inaccurate.
• Some benefits are immeasurable: Documentation quality, privacy protection, and provability — their value appears the day you need it, not on a schedule.
• Beware of improving the number: Don’t push your team to improve an indicator at the expense of the service itself.

Next step for system review

Record your baseline this week — before you even choose a provider. See Indicators page.