Sep 17, 2024
Apr 3, 2025
Written By Elizabeth Cifers
In part III of our three-part series on improving retina practice efficiency, we turn toward clinic layout as an area of focus.
Your retina clinic could be an expressway for staff and patients that rivals some of the best feats of civil engineering—or it could be a logistical nightmare where backtracking is a regular occurrence. Besides the apparent inefficiencies of going back and forth rather than moving in a single, continuous direction, the extra physical steps and time that come with an inefficient clinic layout add up in dollars. See how you could improve the layout of your retina clinic for greater practice efficiency and (potentially) revenue.
For more ways to improve efficiency at your retina practice, see parts I & II of this three-part series: How to Improve Efficiency at Your Retina Practice: Front Desk, and How to Improve Efficiency at Your Retina Practice: Work-Up & Testing.
If you want to improve the efficiency of your retina clinic layout, consider these pointers:
1. Forget “this is how it’s always been.” The first area you’ll want to address is not the clinic; it’s the mindset of your team. Ideally, everyone should seek to be as open-minded as possible throughout this process. Talk to your staff—the work-up technicians, photographer(s), and scribes—and ask if the routes they take through the clinic daily (both on their own and with patients) make sense. Other terms for those routes include “clinic movement” and “clinic flow.” Begin to develop a shared vocabulary for the new concepts you’re addressing together.
2. Do a walkthrough as a patient. Nothing beats seeing your clinic layout from the perspective of a patient. Walk through the clinic from check-in to check-out, making all the stops a patient would make—don’t miss a beat. Observe areas where you’re going back and forth rather than moving forward continuously, and make a note to address them later.
3. Work with what you have. After reviewing potential inefficiencies with your team, it’s time to make some changes around the clinic to improve flow. However, sometimes, space or cost constraints don’t allow for updates. Nonetheless, it’s essential to work with what you have. If you can only adjust a few areas, so be it. Even minor changes can add up to significant revenue efficiencies over time.
Clinical efficiency is part of revenue cycle management. A clinic's layout efficiency affects the time management of its physicians—the most expensive and limited resource—which in turn affects revenue. Improving practice efficiency in this area boosts revenue overall.
Are you looking for ways to boost revenue at your retina practice? Elizabeth Cifers, MBA, MSW, CHC, CPC, helps maximize the revenue of retina practices across the country through services like clinical operations and revenue cycle consulting. She has decades of industry expertise and knowledge that she applies to help her clients run their practices with excellence, including 13 years at a retina practice and a position at a leading U.S. eye care consultation firm. Learn more about her services or book a free consultation today.
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