Moving up in your medical career enough to open up your own private practice can be a thrilling experience, as well as a daunting one. There are many factors to take into consideration, and you have to be careful if you don’t want to end up investing a lot of money into a venture that was doomed from the start just because of a small detail you’ve overlooked along the way. Preparation is key, and if you keep an open-minded approach to the whole thing and know who to work with, you should have your own place up and running before you know it.
Taking Over an Existing Practice
One of the best ways to get your foot in the door without having to put too much effort into it is to take over from someone else. If you have a connection to a physician who’s close to retiring, this can be a great opportunity to get your own practice started with a boost and ensure that you won’t be starved for patients at first.
Make sure that you discuss things thoroughly with the other party though, as sometimes new physicians find themselves biting off more than they can chew when deciding to take over the practice of someone with an established history and a long list of patients.
Investing in Equipment
You may also need to set up your office(s) with the right equipment, and you should spend some time looking around for a reliable partner. Look for someone who can sell the basics that you need but that also gives you the opportunity to expand to higher tech equipment as your practice grows. For example, at the beginning you may just need to invest in the items on this list, but as your practice grows you may want to purchase high tech equipment like wireless stethoscopes and wireless baby monitors, such as those designed by DeviceLab.
Try not to overspend here though – unless you’re a tightly specialized physician who relies heavily on unique equipment, you shouldn’t go overboard with the devices you’re purchasing for your office. You should keep a light approach at first – a common mistake in this field among newcomers is to invest in too many gadgets that they never end up using. And considering how expensive those gadgets can often be, this can easily ruin you.
Optimization Considerations
Something that’s commonly discussed about medical practices these days is the issues they frequently have with patient scheduling and processing times. If you want to prevent this from happening to your own practice, you should look into some optimization methodologies – there are plenty to pick from nowadays, and some people have actually built entire careers on this concept. Six Sigma and lean are good keywords to start your research with, although you should definitely hire an expert if you’re serious about implementing techniques of this kind into your practice.
With enough time and patience, you should be able to stabilize yourself and have a regular flow of patients. As long you have a responsible attitude and good work ethics, and you make the right choices with regards to who you’re hiring and what kind of equipment you’re using, you should find your practice thriving in no time.
