The first half of 2008 is in the bag, and halftime is a time for course correction or confirmation – are you on target? The natural break point at mid-year provides a perspective that both captures the momentum of the previous period and also allows for a fresh start where appropriate.

Summertime, in most locations and for most people, is an excuse to slow down – yet the opportunities are great, for promotions, outdoor events, screenings, health fairs and other public service-oriented programs.

Capture the attention of people in your community by sponsoring a Wellness Week, which taps into a hot issue in many people’s minds. You could hold a softball game for charity, screenings for an assortment of different aspects of health, healthy cooking classes, a meditation seminar or safe exercise training, and publicize through word of mouth with patients, vendors, and other professionals.

Above all, remember that your focus must be maintained as you begin the second half – if you hit your goals and are on a roll, then stay the course and look for places to tweak and improve. If you’re performing under your expectations, then get into a resourceful state, evaluate your strengths and weaker areas, and take action, so you can invest in the right places to accelerate your growth.

Enjoy the summer, and balance your workload effectively, for maximum fun and maximum return.

As you finish the second quarter, make distinctions not only about your statistics going up or down, but what they actually mean – are you attractive, do you have capacity to fill, what’s really going on here?

Look at the bottom line of your analysis, where you can compare this year to last year to date. Use this simple rule of thumb – if your new patients and PVA are going in opposite directions, you probably have some capacity limitations.

Logically thinking, if you have room in your practice, you could add more new patients or more visits per patient, but if you don’t have room, then if you try to add more NPs, either they don’t make it in because there’s no room (NPs go down while PVA stays the same or goes up) or they do make it in, but old patients get squeezed out (NPs go up but PVA goes down.)

Following this train of thought, if your NPs and income are rising, then you are attractive (people and money being attracted to you) and if either or both of these stats are down, it implies that you don’t have enough attractive pull.

This dance between attraction and capacity, where you make room and fill it, make room and fill it, is the surest way to consistent growth. Invest your time, energy, capital and resources in addressing this issue, and you’ll increase your efficiency while you build your practice.