you will struggle to make any money.
Private medical practice is a business must be run as a business.
A surprisingly large number are NOT run as a business which is fine provided you don’t expect to make any money or making money is not the aim of the practice.
If the aim, however, IS to make money, then put in very simple terms:
a private practice must be run as a business.
That means, making sure all the administrative functions that are mandatory to running a successful business are in place, working AND regularly monitored.
All too often when I meet potential new clients there are signs that none of the above are considered when starting.
Indeed there are some clients who have never considered the above to be part of the equation.
Take the marketing of the practice as an example: where are the patients going to come from? How will they find the consultant? What will attract the patient to that particular practice?
On many, many occasions this has not been thought through.
manage your own expectations first
Instead sometimes – not always but sometimes – there is an expectation that patients will just “find” the practice.
In reality, seldom will a patient do so.
Instead, the practice must market itself.
The basis of such a glaring omission is most likely rooted in the career of the consultant prior to setting up his or her private practice.
All MHM clients have established themselves very securely in the NHS and obviously in the NHS, the patients are – sometimes literally – delivered to the consultant.
This most definitely is NOT the same in the private sector when the patients must be attracted.
The other common and glaring omission is a consideration as to actually charging the patient or their insurance company for a consultant’s work.
A business
If you are going to build a successful private medical practice you must run it as a business.
Doesn’t mean at the expense of the patients. Far from it in fact.
But you must remember your practice is first and foremost a business.
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk