Owners of professional practices are some of the busiest individuals in the business world. Balancing patient care with managing a business doesn’t leave much time to think strategically or look for efficiencies in your practice, much less maintain harmony in your personal life.

While you can’t create more hours in a day, you can make more of the time you do have. The latest digital tools can alleviate many resourcing constraints while helping you increase revenue, reduce costs, and create efficiencies in your practice. Most importantly, they can free you to focus on the priorities that matter most to you.

Of course, these new technologies also come at a cost — the up-front investment required to adopt new digital tools and replace old ones remains one of the biggest barriers to innovation for small businesses. That’s why the Canadian government is offering the Canadian Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) to stimulate more digital investment across the country.

CDAP allows qualifying small businesses to assess their needs and plan their digital transformation journey at a minimal cost. This makes it a lucrative opportunity for professional practices that may otherwise not have the appetite or the means to invest in technology.

For example, the $15,000 Boost Your Business Technology Grant (one of the funding opportunities under CDAP) covers up to 90 percent of the cost to retain a digital advisor to help kick-start your digital transformation. This process will help you understand which digital investments would create the greatest return on investment for your practice and which tools would best meet your needs. It will also equip you with a step-by-step plan to get you up and running. 

If you decide to embrace the digital transformation plan you created, you can also apply for an interest-free loan of up to $100,000 to purchase software and hardware, train employees, and make your plan a reality.

CDAP presents a unique opportunity to remove inefficiencies, improve practice management, and upgrade your patient experience. By connecting you with a digital advisor like MNP, the program also lowers the financial burdens and risks associated with digital transformation without compromising the potential rewards.

Digital transformation is impacting every industry in Canada and the need to collaborate and reach stakeholders remotely during the pandemic has only increased the pressure on businesses to innovate. Your patients and employees now expect a certain level of digital maturity in your practice for everything from booking appointments and submitting insurance claims to running your back office.

Like all businesses, professional practices have also been hit hard by various economic challenges like the rising cost of supplies and salaries. Digital tools can support your business all along the value chain. Whether you’re collecting patient data, scheduling, managing human resources or billing, the right technology can alleviate many of your pain points, increase revenue, and improve efficiency.

Consider the following examples:

• Bookkeeping and payroll: Automate routine tasks such as billing and account reconciliations and enable your staff to focus on more specialized tasks.
• Scheduling: Reduce the time required to resource your practice and improve visibility for your patients and team members to know when necessary team members are available.
• Patient intake, reminders, and check-in: Automate much of the patient experience and reduce the need for staff to manually input information or make reminder phone calls.
• Billing management: Invoice more efficiently and make it easier to follow up on outstanding submissions that have not yet been paid.
• Human resource management: Enhance people processes and make both human resource management and the practice more efficient as a whole.
• Data analytics: Your practice is collecting a myriad of data that can improve the decision-making process. The right software can help you focus these insights to market more effectively, make informed financial decisions, create added value for clients, and much more.