5 Ways Your Clinic Can Save Money

Many doctors have made efforts to trim expenses and improve their practice’s profitability, while continuing to care for their patients to the best of their ability. However, money may still be going out faster than it is coming in. While you might think that there are no other ways to save those pennies, we’re going to show you ways your clinic can save money.

Here are our top tips on how to save your clinic money:

#1 Grab Pay & PayNow

Encourage patients to use Grab Pay as there is a low admin fee of 0.85% in comparison to 2-2.8% of other bank charges, and Grab will transfer the money to your account in the next day while the bank may take 2 days to help the cash flow.

Alternatively, PayNow Corporate makes use of your clinic’s Unique Equity Number (UEN) to allow seamless payments. Registration for PayNow Corporate is free when done online, and a charge of S$0.20 to S$1.00 is implemented on incoming payments.

Small sums like this can add up in the long run, you will be surprised how much you can end up saving by making small tweaks to how your clinic functions.

#2 Hire Well

When hiring, you should definitely consider how the person you are about to hire will benefit your clinic. Instead of hiring multiple people to do one specific task, look for someone who is trained to do more than one thing. Your receptionist can also be your accountant.

You can hire people to do more work, as long as you pay them accordingly. Pay one person a fair amount to get more than one task done, this will reduce your overall costs.

Additionally, the Jobs Growth Initiative (JGI) wants to encourage and support employees in bringing on new hires. From September 2020 to February 2021, JGI will be providing employees with the help they need to bring new hires onto their workforce. This is being done to help create new and stable positions in the local workforce. More information can be found in the image above or at MOM’s website.

#3 Go Green with Electricity

Going green can mean many things. In this case, it involves cutting down extraneous costs for resources. It is a win-win situation, where it is one of the ways your clinic can save money while helping the environment.

Electricity takes up a large part of your expenses, and there are always ways you can cut down. Use programmable thermostats that are low-cost and easy to use.

Install motion-sensor lights along walkways, so you save electricity when not in use. Choose blackout curtains as they can keep out the heat and noise. Regularly check for any leaks or other problems with maintenance.

These malfunctions, such as cracks between pipes, can add up to a large amount of energy or water being wasted in the long run. Save some money by keeping up with maintenance and ensuring that nothing in the clinic is faulty. Find spaces with usable natural light and choose energy-conscious vendors.

#4 Go Green Without Paper

Cut the need for paper and make use of the Internet. Use soft copies for brochures and reach your target audience through the use of email blasts. Help your patients go green with you and send them invoices through email or through WhatsApp messages.

Paperless systems like Plato also help reduce the need for hard copies of invoices and patient records. This will not only help you save paper but storage too!

#5 Negotiate

You should never be worried about negotiating with your suppliers for medicine, electricity, and even down to the price of each piece of paper. Maintain a polite yet professional stand.

Aim to build and keep a good relationship with your suppliers, many of them will be happy to throw discounts your way where possible. Negotiating is one of the best ways to help your clinic save money.

#6 Bonus Tip – Teleconsultation

Living in the times of a global pandemic means that we may not always be able to be physically present for a consultation. Mostly, the elderly or small children, patients may be less willing to head down to a clinic for a consultation.

How can clinics ensure that they maximise their reach to patients? More so, how can clinics ensure that they can treat their patients despite current limitations? Teleconsultation breaks physical barriers and allows you to care for your patients.

With the help of applications such as WhatsApp, Skype, and Plato – patients no longer need to go down to clinics. Additionally, applications like Plato have the added benefit of being able to record credit card details before consultations. This comes in handy when treating new patients.