Opening a private medical practice is extremely rewarding, while it can also be significantly challenging.
At Integrated Connections, we love helping physicians to open their own practices, and have been working with medical practices and physicians for more than 13 years. We believe that the private practice is a healthcare model that promotes a personalized experience that results in better outcomes, while also fostering an autonomous work environment for physicians and enabling them to provide the best care, with less burnout and frustration.
Additionally, we feel that functional medicine could be a key factor in saving the private practice model of care.
I was recently invited by Business Insider to discuss the common challenges physicians face when opening a private practice, and how to avoid mistakes that could prevent their practice from long term success and viability.
The most common mistakes I’ve observed over the years of assisting physicians with opening private practices are as follows:
- Unrealistic Expectations – this applies to costs, overhead, staff, revenue goals, practice growth, and more.
- Fear of Investing / Spending Money in the Beginning – this goes back to number one, above!
- Not Hiring or Budgeting Properly for Staff – too many physicians think they can treat patients AND run a practice without hiring appropriate professional staff to help. This ultimately leads to burnout and other detrimental challenges that could prevent the practice from succeeding.
As you can see, all of these new practice pitfalls are closely related issues. Your expectations and planning up front will impact what you are able or willing to invest in your staff and infrastructure, which will directly impact the success of your practice long term.
In Business Insider, I outline the above challenges and their impact in greater detail, and then provide 3 key tips for avoiding these pitfalls.
To learn more about these tips for opening your own private practice, you can read the entire article on Business Insider. A subscription to BI is required; however, if you’re not a subscriber to BI, please be sure to follow Integrated Connections online via social media, as we’ll be sharing more about the tips over the next few weeks.
Related Reading & Resources:
Why Private Practice is Better for Many Physicians — and Patients
Could Functional Medicine Save the Private Practice Model of Patient Care?
Functional Medicine Provides Greater Access To Personalized Root-cause Medicine