Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are like the dashboard in your car. They alert you to potential pitfalls related to efficiency and performance, then point you in the right direction to address and improve the areas of greatest need. Working with you, Fuel will monitor 18 metrics; analyze their monthly, annual and year-to-day trends; and compare them to academic benchmarks in order to diagnose problems and identify solutions to positively impact your bottom line and patient acquisition.
Routine Financial Analysis is Good Business Practice
Financial analysis is to an academic audiology clinic as hearing diagnostic testing is to audiologists. You cannot proceed to improve a patient’s hearing health without first diagnosing them. Likewise, you cannot expect to improve the financial and business health of your clinic without first diagnosing it and identifying what is working operationally and financially and what is not. Financial and operational analysis are necessary “Best Practices” for any business. Academic audiology clinics are no exception. Consequently, academic audiology clinics need to acquire the ability to track, analyze, and interpret the key drivers of their business. Your Fuel regional manager is skilled in financial analysis and business development and understand academic audiology clinics and how they differ from other clinics. They will work with you to improve your clinic’s operations and finances.
Financial Analysis Conveys Business Sophistication to Upstream Decision Makers
Because academic audiology clinics frequently lack the expertise and tools to track, analyze and interpret key drivers of the clinic business, they often are not respected by the decision makers higher in the university hierarchy who are better versed in these matters and who emphasize and give priority to financial issues.
Collecting KPIs each month that capture your operational and financial performance and presenting an executive summary to the administration will win you the administration’s confidence. These summaries should contain easy to interpret visuals capturing data on monthly trends such as net revenue and profit, appointments, unit sales, average sales price and other data requested by administration. Importantly, financial analysis will also allow you to explain how financial requests you make to the administration should be viewed as investments in the clinic that will result in financial returns rather than costs that will not be covered by increased income.
AuD Students Need Financial Training and Experience to Succeed
With more numerous and stronger competitors, the practice of audiology is becoming increasingly competitive. To survive in this new more competitive world of audiology, students need to be trained in financial basics and analysis. Academic programs that routinely review and analyze monthly KPI data with their regional manager can educate their AuD students by sharing that data with students and discussing trends, analysis, successes and areas for improvement. Fuel representatives can also provide additional financial and business development training for students and faculty on an as needed basis to fit your training program.
Establishing Academic Audiology Benchmark KPIs
Because of the importance of student training in academic audiology clinics, these clinics most often operate differently than other medical-based clinics or private practices. One-third of all academic audiology program clinics benefit from Fuel membership and Fuel encourages and assists in financial analysis and acquisition of KPIs for its members. If more academic audiology clinics collected and analyzed KPI data, not only would their clinics operate more successfully but benchmark KPI data could be established for this important sector of audiology. Imagine being able to easily compare your appointment conversion rates, patient to sales conversion rates, binaural rates, sales and average sale price, gross and net revenue, cost of goods, returns and refunds numbers, number of providers, average provider income and cost, new patient acquisition, and much more with other academic clinics. Fuel makes establishing academic program clinic benchmarks a top priority. Your participation will help.
Academic audiology clinics need to acquire the ability to track, analyze, and interpret the key drivers of their business. To accomplish this “Best Practice” and establish KPI benchmarks for your clinic and others in academic audiology, contact your Fuel regional manager.
