Practice Management Blog

4 New Year's Resolutions for Healthcare Practices (+1 Just for You!)

New Year, New #Goals!

Around 41% of people make new year’s resolutions, but only 9% successfully keep them. Many people make the mistake of trying to make them up on the 31st of December, right before the clock strikes twelve. And if you do that, there’s a good chance you’re not going to set the right goals, and you’re very unlikely to be in a position to make them a reality either.

Remember, though, you don’t have to wait for the holidays to be over to start thinking about how you want 2023 to go. In fact, if you want to give yourself the best chance of sticking to your resolutions, you can start working on them right now so that when the first of January rolls around, you know exactly where you’re going (and how you’re going to get there.)

New Year’s Resolutions can be used to build on your successes from the year and make changes to avoid repeating any issues or setbacks you encountered over the last 12 months. In a health practice, offering excellent client service is always at the top of the list of priorities, but there may be a number of ways you could improve your internal processes that would enhance the client experience (and make your life easier at the same time).

So, before the silly season arrives, set aside time to reflect, evaluate, and get ready for next year.

Here are 5 New Year’s resolutions worth considering as you grow your practice and business in 2023.

1. Create Order

A crucial step for a successful practice, whether you’re on your own or have a team of health practitioners, is a robust operational system. Spending time setting things up in this area can avoid costly mistakes, save you or other team members time, and give you better insights into your practice.

With that in mind, your practice calendar should be easy to access and up-to-date, with clear notifications and reminders to avoid instances of no-shows or double-bookings and to manage your waiting list. Your practice management system should also allow you to generate client documentation and records quickly and seamlessly.

To further improve efficiencies in your practice:

And, whatever you do, don’t leave work undone for the new year; use the last few months to finish up your notes, scan in any hard copies or additional documents, and get everything uploaded to your practice management system.

2. Get Paid

Staying on top of your billings can be a challenge as a solo practitioner, and if you run a practice of 3 or more therapists, ensuring good processes for invoicing is a must.

If you want to get paid on time every time, you need a system that can:

  • Quickly generate accurate invoices and receipts
  • Easily process credit card and online payments
  • Efficiently manage 3rd-party payers
  • Customise your clients’ payment notifications and alerts

All of the above must take place while ensuring you remain financially compliant and up-to-date with your practice’s financial reporting responsibilities. A system like Power Diary has integrations with accounting systems and payment providers – to make all of this much easier.

You might also consider whether you have the right payment policies in place or whether you should require payment on the day, or even up front, or perhaps you need to add a No-Show or Late Cancellation Fee.

It’s also a good time to review your rates and plan a way forward for communicating any changes to your clients or patients.

3. Connect, Communicate & Collaborate

The success of your practice relies on your relationships with colleagues, clients, patients, and 3rd-parties. These professional connections are only as strong as your communication and the system you have in place to maintain it.

To achieve this, one essential element you’ll need is a way to communicate quickly and professionally using emails, SMS messages or letters. Ideally, these should be template-driven so that the process of creating and sending them is so simple, you’ll actually do it (and keep doing it all year!).

Another essential element you’ll need is the ability to create clear session notes to guarantee that the correct information gets to the right person. And to make the process run smoothly, you need EMR software that is intuitive, easy to access by all parties, and secure.

EMR software solutions, like Power Diary, also foster communication between your practice and your clients, such as:

The success of your practice relies on your relationships with colleagues, clients, patients, and 3rd-parties.

4. Get the Right People in Place

Just as you would encourage your clients to reach out, you must be able to ask for help when you’re overwhelmed. If 2022 has been all work and no play, it may be time to expand your team so that you can free up time to take a more strategic role in guiding the growth of your practice (and maybe you’ll even be able to take a day off every once in a while!)

That help can be in the form of:

  • A virtual reception service for time-saving benefits, cost efficiencies, and improved workflows and organisation.
  • Additional team members who can help spread the client load and add different skills.
  • Outsourcing other tasks such as bookkeeping, to help you stay on top of things and spend more time on things you enjoy.

To attract top talent, you’ll need to learn to become a more attractive employer, and it’s vital that you set clear recruitment goals and look at unique ways to attract top talent if you want 2023 to be a success.

5. Practice Self-Care & Set Boundaries

Remember that the systems you set up within your practice affect your work and life outside work.

So, with more time available because you’ve made goals 1 – 4 a reality, what personal goals are you working towards, and are you prioritising your mental health?

Being your own boss is often more than a full-time job, and you end up wearing many hats, including practice manager, therapist, marketer, HR director, bookkeeper and more. The pressure can be overwhelming, and you, like many health professionals in private practice, may be at risk of burnout.

It’s essential you set time in your busy schedule to pause, take a breath, and check in with yourself. Use rosters at work to ensure all aspects of the practice are covered when you or your team take time out to recharge. Then, start working towards sustainable work-life balance, figure out how to avoid compassion fatigue, and use science-backed self-care strategies to build in the rest you need.


This is your chance to get ahead of the curve by setting your New Year’s resolutions early so that when January 1st rolls around, you’re ready to hit the ground running.

Unfortunately, personal experience has probably taught you that sticking to resolutions isn’t easy, and that’s backed up by industry statistics which show that only 5% of small businesses reached all their goals for the previous year.

So, if you want lasting change, you must define clear goals and take practical steps to achieve them ahead of time, which is where powerful electronic medical record software like Power Diary can swoop in and save the day.

Power Diary’s extensive feature set can help you achieve your professional New Year’s resolutions, whether you’re a chiropractor, nutritionist, or mental health professional. And, with your practice running smoothly, you’ll free up time (and mental energy) to crack those personal goals, whether you want to run a half marathon, take a holiday, or pick up a new hobby.

Book a call with our customer success team now to find out how you can create order, get paid, communicate effectively, and manage your sensitive data securely, so you’re all set to thrive in 2023!


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