Thompson Region Division of Family Practice

Business Tools

We are now offering several self-assessment tools that were designed to help you better explore your options and make informed business decisions about your practice. They were developed from real data of physician practices to help you work to your specific practice or needs. 

The tools were developed by the GP Support Team at the Vancouver Division of Family Practice and were presented at our March 3 event at Sun Peaks. 

Christopher Phillips, Business and Finance Officer, is available to walk through the tools with  you and to help with any questions you might have. 

  1. Patient Panel Calculator- Originally developed to help physicians assess their supply and demand based on their practice preferences.  It allows GPs to enter practice preferences as well as recent patient behavior, and the model helps GPs assess their panels with a different lens. Through this tool we also (passively) encourage GPs to utilize their mini practice profile to assess other clinical metrics.  Over the past two years this model has been adapted to allow for meaningful ongoing self-assessments by GPs.  To date this tool has been presented to and utilized by ~150 Vancouver GPs and ~80 out of region GPs.
  2. Informing Associate Structure- This tool helps clinic owners and incoming physicians understand the financial benefits and drawbacks of common financial agreements.  It is designed to allow both sides to understand the other’s point of view.  Earnings of incoming physicians or existing physicians have a huge effect on the financial wellbeing of clinics and passively affects every aspect of workflow.  Utilization of this tool has helped clinic owners understand why finances differ from expectations, or how current contracts can be adjusted to mitigate future performance risks.  This tool is one of our standard offerings to our new to practice GPs and our new clinic owners.  Presented individually or in groups, over 80 GPs have walked through this tool since it was created.
  3. Clinic Financial Forecast/Performance- Developed to help members with forecasting revenues for new clinics or analyze finances of existing clinics, this tool requires clinic specific modifications.  The tool helps physicians organize their thoughts around clinic finances and helps them identify metrics for the financial health of their clinic.  Due to the one on one time required, the tool has not been widely shared.  10 clinics (consisting of ~50 GPs) have walkthrough an adaptation of this tool.
  4. MOA Tasks Items and Payment Guide- Allows physicians to structure their decision making around MOA/staff payments.  It categorizes the common tasks performed by MOAs and allows GPs to analyze how many of those tasks are performed by their MOA. Based on the individual MOA workload, and the general MOA salaries (from other clinics VDoFP has worked with) a pay range is suggested.  The tools were created in late 2016 to allow us to get a sense of the MOA salary benchmarks and help us give defensible advice to the common questions around MOA payments.  Since Staff costs are usually a main expense driver in clinics, this is valuable tool for clinic owners. We encourage your feedback to your Division on MOA payments so as to build a stronger broader data base for this tool.
  5. Go no Go tool- Originally developed to help clinics decide whether or not they should have a clinic manager, it forces GPs to think about how much time they spend on non-patient facing activities that can be delegated and helps clinics/GPs financially evaluate whether a clinic manager is right for their clinic.  The tool has also been modified to allow clinics to evaluate the financial justification of adding new staff or consultants.
  6. Project feasibility assessment example- Homebound Care Feasibility- A common request has been a tool for evaluating specific projects within a clinic. Our homebound care feasibility model walks through how our clinical forecast tool can be utilized to assess the feasibility of specific projects.  In this particular project a group of GPs wanted to see if they could create a virtual clinic that focuses on providing care to homebound patients.  The tool has also been adapted for use for a variety of other projects.
  7. Equipment and Inventory tracker-  A relatively simple tool that allows clinics to follow the inventory utilization, and keep historical records of how much they have paid for various items over the year.  After multi-year use, it has the added advantage of allowing clinics to look at trends in their orders.
  8. Loan repayment calculator- In Vancouver, many new grads choose to locum for several years before committing to a clinic.  Based on our conversations with our new to practice GPs, this is partly due to their perception of income.  To help shed light on some of the misconceptions, the loan repayment tool was created to help new to practice GPs evaluate their potential earnings from a panel of patients and highlights the financial advantage of having a panel of patients (some of whom qualify for incentive payments).