The Healthcare Professional's Year-End Checklist

Building foundations for growth

The end of the year is an especially busy time for healthcare professionals. With so many tasks to do, it can be difficult knowing where to start. That’s why we’ve created this helpful checklist. Continue reading for a breakdown of some of the things you may need to consider before the new year begins.

1. Set goals for the coming year 

What are you looking to achieve for your healthcare organization? Do you want to grow and serve more communities? Do you want to expand your services to offer more specialized care? Or are you merely looking to stay the course? Setting goals for your practice now will help you make more impactful decisions as you think about how to manage your budget, inventory and staff in the coming year. 

Read Want Your Business to Succeed? Embrace Uncertainty to learn how to be more adaptable in a constantly shifting healthcare landscape. 

2. Update patient & financial records

Patient records can stack up if you’re not careful. A disorganized approach to record-keeping can also make your team less accurate and less efficient. Take the proper steps now to organize your paper records into their appropriate file cabinets. Even better, digitize those records before you file them away to improve the accessibility of information for patients and providers while speeding up workflows. 

The same goes for your billing and financial records. If you have any outstanding claims, submit them! Start the new year with a fresh slate and your accounting up to date.

3. Review compliance & payment policies 

Compliance policies may not change often, but you don’t want to be caught flat-footed if they do. Check the appropriate agency websites for any updates and decide whether your practice needs to adjust its processes to meet them. If there’s a deadline, develop internal workflows and timelines to stay accountable as you work toward achieving compliance. That way, you won’t put your team under added stress as you scramble to adapt at the last minute.

Similarly, you should update your payment processes to account for any changes. Perhaps your practice has added a new insurance provider or a current provider has updated its rates. Preparing for these changes now will save you from hunting down missing payments or having to deal with incorrect claims in the future. 

4. Take inventory of your medical equipment & supplies

While you may have a sense of how many syringes, gloves and other supplies your office has on hand, you won’t truly know until you complete an inventory. 

Taking an official count of all of your tools and equipment will help you track which ones you use the most, allowing you to adjust your purchasing schedules in the coming year. You’ll also be able to tell if there are any discrepancies between the reported numbers and the actual count on hand.

If you haven’t completed your inventory yet, schedule one before the end of the year. You can even plan to do inventory on a quarterly basis next year to make it even easier to stay on top of your supply needs.

Read 5 Ways To Leverage Walmart Business for Convenience and Grow Your Business to discover how to make meeting your inventory needs easier than ever.

5. Planned next year’s budget

The end of the year is the perfect time to examine your overall budget. Look at line items like staffing, supplies and utilities for the past year and set your budget for the following year to account for potential cost increases. You should also review your revenue sources to see what’s bringing in the most money and adjust pricing to reflect the demand for your most requested services. 

Every healthcare facility’s needs will be different, so make adjustments to your budget to ensure healthy growth and long-term sustainability. This will help you and your employees better serve the patients in your community.

Discover more ways to stretch your budget by reading How Walmart Business Helps You Save Time & Money.

6. Review your staffing needs

Check your reporting software and look at critical metrics like the number of patients seen, total wait times and patient satisfaction surveys to see if there are any gaps in staffing. If you find that patients are waiting too long or your current provider lineup seems overworked, consider hiring a few additional hands to help you improve the quality of care your team can provide.

7. Complete year-end staff evaluations

The holidays are a hectic time both personally and professionally, so if staff evaluations are due, get them out of the way before it gets too busy. Otherwise you run the risk of not giving them the attention they deserve or, worse, not getting to them at all. Set a schedule and stick to it so evaluations can happen without any unnecessary delay.

Preparing for success

Completing this checklist along with the rest of your workload may seem hard, especially with the increased demands in the sprint toward the holidays. In the long run, though, it’s worth it—and with some planning now, you’ll put you and your healthcare organization in a better position to meet whatever challenges the new year brings.

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