The CASH principle: K-A-S-H-S

Knowledge, attitude, skills, habit, strategy: five simple questions to ask yourself before the clinic can grow.

Every clinic wants more patients and steadier collections. Dr Kedar starts somewhere else: with the doctor. In his lectures he teaches a principle he calls CASH. It is spelt K-A-S-H-S, and it is a conversation you have with yourself, long before it is about money.

Here K stands for knowledge. A stands for attitude. S stands for skills. H stands for habit. And last S stands for strategy. These are very simple W and H questions… This is your internal dialogue. — Dr Kedar Bakshi

Knowledge answers What: what you know, and what you want your practice to become. Attitude answers Why. With the right attitude, he says, half the work is done, and you stay open to learning. Skills answer How. Habit answers When, and his answer is "Every time. Every day. Every moment." The last S, strategy, is about small plans you can keep. You do not need very big strategies. Choose a small one, and give it five or six months.

Habit is where most clinics slip

Take clinical photographs. Many doctors take them sometimes. Dr Kedar's test is stricter: every day, every patient. Only then can you call it a habit. The same is true of explaining the plan on a chart, sending the reminder, or thanking the person who referred a patient. Done once, it is an event. Done for every patient, it becomes your habit.

Software cannot give you knowledge or attitude. Those are yours to build. What it can do is hold your habits steady: a photo in every patient's record, a reminder every morning, a chart behind every plan, a receipt for every payment. Build the five, one at a time, and the clinic grows with you.