The Psychiatric Times published an article on the guidelines for evaluating a practice manager.
Here are seven key notes from the report:
1. If the practice doesn't have criteria for evaluating the manager's performance, the manager may gauge his or her performance based on self-assigned criteria and miss certain aspects of their job entirely.
2. All owners may not understand the practice manager's role and leave the manager out of decisions they should be part of, such as selecting an EHR system. The EHR system may impact billing functions which falls under the manager's purview.
3. When there are multiple partners, each physician may have a different view of the practice manager's role. If the practice is unsuccessful, the owners often feel the manager's performance played a part in that failure.
4. Owners can evaluate practice managers by how well they meet reasonable and realistic goals for the practice. However, the evaluation should only be part of the practice manager's overall performance review.
5. Practice owners can set up a time with the manager to review their guidelines and agree upon the manager's responsibilities and goals.
6. The guidelines for the practice manager can be modified if necessary after an initial evaluation three to four months after agreeing upon the guidelines.
7. Evaluations should recognize goals met and exceeded and address goals that aren't met. The evaluation shouldn't be a report card; instead, it can focus on how to best solve any issues the manager has meeting the goals.