Starting a medical practice on your own is a huge decision to make. While the possibilities are endless, they come with a lot of risks as well. When you start working on the practice, you will come across a lot of barriers and problems. So you need to know what you are doing, and how you can navigate yourself through those problems and challenges.
There are a lot of things you need to consider when opening your own medical practice. Some of these things are harder to manage than others. However, at the end of the day, you need to figure most of these things out before you start your practice.
And to help you out with that, we will take a closer look at some of the most important things you should consider while opening your medical practice.
Deciding On the Type of Practice
When you plan on starting a medical practice, you have five different practice types to choose from.
First, there is the solo practice. All the responsibilities of the practice fall on your shoulders, and you have total control. However, startup costs are quite high, since you are on this alone. Besides, you have to deal with all the risks and important decision-making on your own.
Then we have the group practice, where you share control and the workload with other medical professionals. While you may not have total control over the practice, it is far easier to deal with the pressure in group practices. Plus, the startup costs are significantly low, since you will be sharing the costs.
Hospital-owned practices have it easy when it comes to capital and other important resources. However, you will not get to enjoy much flexibility or personal freedom.
Working with federally qualified health centers is somewhat the same as running your practice under the supervision of a hospital. You might have to encounter a few caps while you work with the capital based on the federal resource allocation.
And lastly, under an academic health center, you do not have to deal with too many risks while experiencing fewer caps on capital in comparison to federally qualified health centers.
Business Plan
The business plan for your medical practice needs to tackle pressing issues in the medical industry. You observe other practices and see what they lack. That will help you determine what you need to offer in your practice, and thus help build its business plan.
You need to set up your vision and mission statement first. Figure out why your patients will want to come to your practice over others. Work on building a referral network and take different marketing strategies into account. Treat patients like customers, and see how you can serve them without making them wait for hours.
Finally, decide on the technical side of things and how you can incorporate the best tools in the industry at your practice.
Starting a medical practice can cost anything from $30,000 to $500,000. For financing your practice, you can approach banks as well as private investors, You could even reach out to medical practice financing specialists.
For the Specialists
While being a part of an optometry insurance panel has its benefits, opening a private practice optometry clinic of your own can create a whole new world of professional partnerships and possibilities. Specializing in a particular field of the medical profession opens the doors to many new opportunities for your medical practice.
Take an optical business for instance. Compared to general practice, doctors or optometrists have a better chance at making their specialized vision or eye care practice bring in more profit. Specialists can charge more for their patients since they offer more complex treatments.
Hence, with the right skills and business opportunities, investing in a specialized practice is without a doubt the better option.
Marketing
As a new practice, you need to spread the word about your business. The best way to do so is through digital platforms. Facebook and Instagram are ideal for establishing your digital presence. At the same time, you have to build an SEO-friendly website so that it can top search engine rankings.
That is all for this article. Keep these points in mind if you are planning to start your own medical practice. The challenges will still be there, but with these tips, you can face them head-on.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
