Practice managers work in primary care, and they manage the overall running of GP surgeries.
Practice administrators are responsible for various medical administrative duties such as registering patients, booking appointments and ensuring that all the information is stored correctly and filed accordingly.
How ‘in charge’ are you?
In a medical practice, the doctors who own the practice select and appoint a practice manager to run the day-to-day operations. If you are a confident and efficient manager, GPs will most likely adopt a ‘hands off’ approach to your management of the practice, this kind of approach from the board determines to what extent a practice manager is effectively in charge of the practice.
Clearly you could regard the ‘owning partners’ as the ‘board’ and the GP practice manager is the managing director. The ‘board’ set the policies and the ‘manager’ administers them.
Take a look at these ten situations, which might judge how ‘in charge’ you are. You can score one point for a positive answer, out of a possible ten.
MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
| Number | Question |
Yes (1) |
| 1. | Do you interview and select all administrative staff (not clinical staff) without the involvement of a GP? | |
| 2. | Are you ‘privy’ to all the bank statements for the practice and do you see the annual accounts? | |
| 3. | Do you keep the practice accounts, deal with the Accountants and prepare the annual accounts? | |
| 4. | Do you sign ‘lease’ agreements for equipment? | |
| 5. | Do you handle ‘complaints’ made against the Practice and see the responses before they are sent? | |
| 6. | Do you request ‘repairs and maintenance’ to the premises without reference to the GPs? | |
| 7. | Do you ‘chair’ practice meetings? | |
| 8. | Do you ‘report’ to a nominated ‘partner or partners’? | |
| 9. | Do you ‘approve’ the leave arrangements of GPs? | |
| 10. | Do you authorise ‘payments’ by signing cheques or authorising payments banking online? | |
|
TOTAL |
If you scored 9-10 then it appears you are very much in control of the practice you work in. I personally was lucky as my salary was reasonable – although we would always like to earn more.
However, I suspect that in some practices the salary of the practice manager is reduced by the extent to which the ‘partners’ are involved in the day-to-day management of the practice, as they might not be prepared to delegate.
Now, wondering if you’re a Practice Administrator? This time you can answer YES, NO or SOMETIMES.
ADMINISTRATION QUESTIONS
| Number | Question |
Yes (1) |
|
1. |
Does at least one doctor interview ALL staff with you? | |
|
2. |
Do any doctors other than the ‘finance’ lead ask to see bank statements? | |
|
3. |
Does an ‘agency’ prepare the payroll? | |
|
4. |
Does a ‘partner’ sign ALL equipment lease agreements? | |
|
5. |
Are all responses to ‘complaints approved by a GP? | |
|
6. |
Do you need to obtain the approval of a ‘doctor’ before arranging any repairs, maintenance or servicing of the building or equipment? | |
|
7. |
Do you attend ALL practice meetings and act as ‘secretary’ only – no speaking role? | |
|
8. |
Do you report to the whole ‘partnership’ or a specific GP when a decision is required? | |
|
9. |
Are any GPs involved in the approval of annual leave arrangements? | |
|
10. |
Do you prepare cheques and payments on line for authorization? | |
|
TOTAL |
If you scored 9-10 in the this batch of questions, it is clear that you are shifting more towards being a Practice Administrator rather than a Practice Manager.
The level of involvement in managing a practice varies both ways: sometimes you might delegate upwards instead of downwards. When an issue or task involves a clinical matter it is more than likely that you will ask a nurse or doctor for help.
Similarly you might delegate managing appointments to a reception manager, or managing the quality framework to a member of staff with IT and coding skills. In any event you are more likely to work as a team than on your own.
So, are you a Practice Administrator or a Practice Manager?
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