If you were to stop and take a hard look at your practice, would you see annoyed patients sitting for too long in the waiting room? Phone lines that go unanswered? Unhappy physicians suffering from long hours and burnout?

If so, then you may be looking at a practice suffering from inefficiencies, which can be in be in the front office or among the nurses and physicians. What follows are suggestions for how you can make for a more smoothly running practice.

The most expensive labor in a medical practice is the physician. If a urologist, for instance, makes $350,000 annually and staffing expenses are $150,000, physician costs are more than double everyone else. “Because of this, 2 to 3 times as much focus should be put on their own behavior,” said Keith Borglum, a member of the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants, and owner of Professional Management & Marketing based in Santa Rosa, California. “That needs to be where a majority of the inspection of efficiency occurs.”

So where do you start in your process of self-evaluation? Ask your staff to offer feedback, and make sure they feel comfortable doing so. If they think they will “get in trouble” for speaking their mind, they may not be honest about where you may be holding things up.

Read more: Renal and Urology News