Your years of intense schooling and hands-on training have well prepared you to be a physician or other type of healthcare provider. But while you may have intimate knowledge of human anatomy, how well do you know the anatomy of a successful business?
You’re trained to be a healer – not a business owner. But if you want to grow a medical practice, you’ve got to think like an entrepreneur. That means offering a unique selling proposition, adding value to your services, and operating in a customer-centric fashion.
Does that sound more like something out of the Harvard Business Review than the Harvard School of Medicine? Let’s dissect it.
Hire the Right People
Your office staff is crucial to your success. Hire wisely. Remember that all patient-facing personnel must be friendly, compassionate, and caring. And they must like people!
Patients want to establish a relationship with your office and your staff is the people they may interact with the most. Make sure they are as competent in their people skills as they are in their professional skills.
How do you avoid difficult or toxic staff? Interview carefully.
You are looking for a person that has the heart to serve others. You’ll notice this because they refer to teamwork and team accomplishments instead of just using the word “I”. Use the interview time to delve into what they feel are difficult situations and most importantly why they find them difficult or uncomfortable.
Ask about their best moments at work. If the answer refers to office parties or perks, this is the type of superficial person you want to avoid. Positive people always start from a position of “yes” and must be moved to “no”. You want to hire positive people.
Become a Resource for Information
Establish your practice as a repository of information to help people lead healthier lives. Your practice should be more than a center for healthcare, it should be a center for better health in the community.
You can do this by keeping health-focused pamphlets and literature throughout the waiting area and treatment rooms. Make sure the information you provide is current. This literature can cover topics that range from how to sleep better at night to avoiding dry skin in the winter. Your patients will use this information and share it with others.
Participate in local fairs and events and offer to provide free screenings. If your community doesn’t hold health fairs, become the practitioner that organizes one. Distribute literature that addresses a common concern about health in the community.
Use your specialized knowledge to support journalists. Journalists are always seeking insights and quotes on medicine in the news. Offer your knowledge through Help A Reporter Out. HARO connects reporters from newspapers, televisions, and internet media with those that have expertise in certain fields. In addition, cultivate relationships with your local and community newspapers. When they write on a health-related topic, you should be their first choice for a comment. And local papers in particular usually struggle to fill their pages with content. Submit editorials and articles about healthy lifestyles or particular medical issues you see in the community and you along with everyone else in the area will see your name in print.
Make Use of Technology
You make full use of technology in diagnosing and treating patients, so make full use of technology in your practice.
Explore apps to help patients manage chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes. Patients with problems relaxing, sleeping, or catching their breath appreciate apps like Breath Ball, while diabetics can improve treatment outcomes with apps that remind them when to test and when to take medication.
Stay current with apps and recommend the ones you feel have the most value. Your patients will share the app with their friends and tell them they heard about the app from you.
Make sure your website (and you must have a website) allows patients to schedule their appointments online. A study by Stax found that 80% of people preferred to book medical appointments online yet 85% of them had to make appointments by phone. That’s a big disappointment to the patient. The gap between the demand for online scheduling and supply represents an underserved market. And if you are looking to build a medical practice, it’s important to know that if given a choice between physicians with similar experience, location, availability, and review ratings, consumers opt for the provider that offers online scheduling.
Younger, wealthier, and more educated patients not only prefer online appointment scheduling but also look for providers with patient portals. These allow patients to access lab results, medications, immunization records, allergies, and discharge summaries.
Create a Patient-Centric Environment
Look at your practice through the eyes of your patient. Stand outside your front door, close your eyes, take a deep breath, open the door and your eyes.
What do you see? This is what your patients see when they open the door. Make sure your waiting area is comfortable and free of stressors, including loud sounds or bright lights.
What is the check-in process? Are new patient forms available online or must new patients juggle a clipboard on their lap to collect data? Can patients check in on their cell phones?
What is the experience like in the patient treatment rooms? Is the environment comfortable?
Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Send patient surveys by email and text. The Net Promoter Score asks about the likelihood of referring your practice to someone else and responses are rated on a scale from 1 to 10.
Patient feedback tells you how you are doing and recommends areas for improvement. Paying close attention to market demands is how you grow your medical practice. Patients that are happy with the service you provide will tell friends, family, and co-workers.
Expand Your Offerings
Look around for ways to expand your offerings or services.
Offer medical-grade supplements. A recent study shows 60% of Americans want to feel healthier and supplements will help them achieve their health goals.
In addition to adding a revenue stream, you’ll find high-quality supplements such as those from Nutri-West can improve care outcomes and increase the quality of life.
Look to the community needs and then offer a service to fill the need. For example, if you serve a senior population, reach out to home healthcare providers. A partnership may be profitable for both of you. Aging populations require audiological services so combining ENT and hearing aid services is another way to branch out. Physical therapists may partner with other professionals to offer massage services or fitness training.
When it comes to building your medical practice, you’ve got to see things through the eyes of the patient and think with the mind of an entrepreneur.