12 Medical Practice Manager Interview Questions You Have to Ask in 2025
It's More Than Just Paperwork: Managing a medical practice involves high-pressure leadership, ensuring smooth operation beyond just handling schedules and paperwork, due to the critical environment where lives depend on efficient management.
Finding the Right Fit: Discovering the perfect candidate for a medical practice manager role is a challenging process, crucial to maintaining effective operations in a fast-paced healthcare environment.
Ask the Right Questions: The article discusses critical interview questions that are effective for selecting qualified candidates, crucial for roles in demanding clinical settings.
Candidate Qualities that Shine: The piece emphasizes identifying standout qualities in candidates that contribute significantly to efficient management in a hectic healthcare environment.
Managing a medical practice isn’t just about balancing schedules and paperwork, it’s about leading a high-pressure team in an environment where lives are quite literally at stake. I know firsthand how difficult it can be to find the right person to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes.
Over the years, I’ve interviewed and hired for these critical roles in fast-paced clinical settings, and I’ve learned what truly sets great candidates apart. That’s why I’ve put together this list of the 10 most effective interview questions I personally rely on.
These questions and answers are what I personally use when interviewing for a medical practice manager position in a busy healthcare setting.
1. How do you prioritize tasks when managing competing responsibilities?
Why it’s important: This shows how well a candidate can handle the daily chaos of a medical office and support both healthcare professionals and staff members.
Answers to look for:
- Uses tools or systems like task lists, EHR alerts, or calendar blocks
- Prioritizes based on urgency and patient outcomes
- Delegates to team members effectively and ensures follow up
Strong answers often point to their organizational skills, especially in coordinating front-desk, billing, and clinical workflows simultaneously.
2. Tell me about a time your clinic was under a lot of stress. How did you help keep morale up for the team and doctors?
Why it’s important: When the clinic gets busy and stressful, you are looking for someone who can quickly diffuse tensions and keep morale up through humour, encouraging comments and an overall positive attitude.
Answers to look for:
- Stayed calm and used humor to ease tension
- Encouraged team with empathy and support
- Advocated for staff while managing clinic demands
One of the biggest questions that has become more important to me is around personality. The office manager is someone you are leaning on heavily to create a work culture for both staff and doctors that makes for an enjoyable and harmonious workplace.
3. What do you do to unwind after a busy or hard day at the clinic, and how do you make sure you're ready for the next one?
Why it’s important: Healthcare management is demanding, so candidates need effective stress relief habits to stay energized, avoid burnout, and support long-term retention.
Answers to look for:
- Has a clear after-work wind-down routine
- Sets healthy boundaries with work time
- Prioritizes sleep, exercise, or personal hobbies
The ideal candidate is someone who won't carry the workload beyond what is necessary and knows how to recharge their batteries ready to go the next day. My experience is that manager candidates who struggle with this tend to crash and burn pretty quick.
4. How have you improved revenue cycle performance in your previous role?
Why it’s important: Budgeting and cash flow management are foundational in healthcare management.
Answers to look for:
- Identified bottlenecks in billing or collections
- Trained staff members on front-end issues like eligibility and coding
- Worked with billing software or clearinghouses to reduce denials
A good answer will also mention how improvements impacted patient records, billing accuracy, and alignment with industry standards.
5. Tell me about a time you handled a difficult patient complaint.
Why it’s important: Addressing concerns while maintaining patient privacy and a calm work environment is crucial.
Answers to look for:
- Listened actively and empathized without being defensive
Resolved the issue promptly while following policy - Followed up with the patient or adjusted systems to prevent repeat issues
Ideal responses show effective communication, empathy, and a deep understanding of patient information confidentiality.
6. How do you keep a medical team accountable without creating tension?
Why it’s important: Successful leadership skills in a healthcare setting require a balance between authority and open communication.
Answers to look for:
- Sets clear expectations and leads by example
- Tracks KPIs like wait times, check-in errors, and billing accuracy
- Holds regular 1:1s or team meetings to align and coach
Bonus if they’ve initiated staff training or initiatives to build morale and improve team members’ performance.
7. How do you stay current with compliance and regulatory changes (e.g., HIPAA, OSHA)?
Why it’s important: Staying compliant protects patient records, patient privacy, and shields the practice from liability.
Answers to look for:
- Subscribes to newsletters, joins healthcare industry groups, or attends webinars
- Conducts regular staff training or policy reviews
- Implements updates to align with CMS or healthcare providers’ expectations
Strong candidates will bring up relevant certifications or continuing education as proof of commitment.
8. Describe your experience with electronic health record (EHR) systems.
Why it’s important: EHR systems are central to daily operations, affecting everything from quality care to billing.
Answers to look for:
- Hands-on experience with major EHR platforms (e.g., Epic, Athena, eClinicalWorks)
- Customized workflows to improve efficiency for medical professionals
- Trained new staff members and monitored compliance with patient information protocols
Look for how their EHR knowledge supports decision-making and improves patient outcomes.
9. How do you manage staff scheduling and prevent burnout?
Why it’s important: A well-balanced schedule promotes work-life balance, which leads to better performance and retention.
Answers to look for:
- Builds fair, rotating schedules and allows input from team members
- Monitors workload and cross-trains staff members to add flexibility
- Fosters a culture that values rest, mental health, and sustainable pace
Good managers create an environment where healthcare professionals feel supported and appreciated.
10. What’s your approach to hiring and onboarding new staff?
Why it’s important: Smooth onboarding ensures new hires align quickly with the work environment, reducing error rates and improving morale.
Answers to look for:
- Uses a structured onboarding plan with mentorship or shadowing
- Introduces new hires to policies, systems, and healthcare providers
- Seeks feedback and iterates onboarding based on evaluations
Look for someone who understands that staffing is not just about filling a seat—it’s about building strong relationships within the team.
11. How do you measure the success of the practice?
Why it’s important: Solid management skills require more than gut instinct—metrics matter.
Answers to look for:
- Tracks data like patient satisfaction, no-show rates, revenue per visit
- Reviews reports on claim denials, A/R days, and operational KPIs
- Aligns staff members’ goals with broader healthcare objectives
A high-performing medical office manager knows how to tie KPIs back to both quality care and financial health.
12. How would you handle a conflict between a physician and administrative staff?
Why it’s important: You need someone who can handle conflicts between clinical and non-clinical team members with grace.
Answers to look for:
- Listens to both parties and facilitates open communication
- Maintains neutrality while ensuring respectful engagement
- Documents the process and ensures follow up to confirm resolution
Look for signs of maturity, leadership style, and how well they maintain a cohesive work environment in high-stakes moments.
You can download this medical practice manager interview questions template as a PDF here, with tips for starting an interview experience on the right foot + room for notes.
My 5 Pro Tips for Hiring the Best Medical Practice Manager
Hiring a great practice manager is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your clinic. I've learned this firsthand, both from making the right hires and from getting it wrong. Here are some of the core lessons and best practices I’ve developed over the years.
1. Hire from Within Whenever You Can
I'm a big believer in promoting from within. Over the years, I’ve found it’s a much more seamless and successful process to identify and invest in existing staff who show leadership potential. These are the people already familiar with your clinic's culture, workflow, and patient values. You’re not starting from scratch, they already know your systems, your team, and the way your clinic runs day to day.
By keeping an eye out for MOAs or reception staff who show initiative, emotional maturity, and organizational skills, you're planting seeds for future leadership. And when you promote someone from within, it sends a strong message to the rest of your team: this is a place where hard work and growth are rewarded.
It’s also a safer transition than hiring a brand-new manager from the outside, which can be riskier and more disruptive. If you can groom someone internally, you only need to backfill a more entry-level position, not an entire leadership role.
2. Hire for Attitude First, Skills Second
You can train someone to use your EHR or understand your clinic’s billing flow, that’s the easy part. What you can’t train is attitude. That’s why I prioritize soft skills over technical knowledge in the hiring process.
When I’m interviewing someone for a manager role, I’m watching for a few key things: are they calm under pressure? Can they explain their thought process in an organized way? Do they have the energy and emotional intelligence to handle the relational side of the job, dealing with doctors, patients, and staff with patience and professionalism?
The right person for a clinic leadership role needs to be a strong communicator, steady in a crisis, and someone others naturally trust. You’ll get a good feel for this in how they show up in the interview itself. If they’re frazzled or scattered in a controlled environment, they won’t thrive when things get busy.
3. Always Do Your Reference Checks
References are gold. I can’t stress this enough. It’s easy to be impressed in an interview — some candidates are very good at saying the right things. But the real truth often comes out when you talk to their former employers.
Over the years, I’ve learned to listen to the tone and enthusiasm of the reference. If someone’s past manager uses strong, consistent praise, things like "she was our backbone" or "we’d hire her back in a second", that’s usually a very good sign. On the flip side, if you’re only getting vague responses or limited information, that’s a red flag.
We learned this the hard way in our clinic’s early days when we skipped proper references for someone who interviewed well but ultimately couldn’t deliver. Lesson learned.
4. Listen for Subtle Clues in Their Answers
When you’re interviewing a candidate, especially for a leadership role, it’s not just what they say—it’s how they say it.
I pay close attention to how someone talks about their former colleagues, supervisors, or physicians. Do they speak respectfully, even when describing a tough situation? Or do they cast blame, use negative language, or subtly throw others under the bus?
Great managers take responsibility. They reflect on past challenges with maturity, and they understand that managing a clinic means navigating complex human dynamics, not pointing fingers. If someone consistently speaks with respect and accountability, that’s a good sign they’ll be a strong leader on your team.
5. Leverage Your Local Network
Don’t underestimate the power of networking. In places like North Vancouver, where I’m based, there are regular Medical Office Assistant (MOA) and healthcare admin events run by our local medical division. These events are a great way to meet smart, capable people who already work in clinic settings and may be looking to grow into a leadership role.
Even if you’re not hiring right away, building relationships with MOAs and coordinators in your area helps you stay tapped into the local talent pool. Often, the best hires come through word of mouth or through connections made in person, not through cold job ads.
What Next?
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