Physician Business Ideas - Getting You and Your Staff on the Same Page

“We must all hang together,
Or assuredly, we shall hang separately.”

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790

For the solo doctor, who make up 30% of America’s practitioners, success often depends on teamwork with your staff. Simply stated, it is less “me” and more “we”.

In these days of declining reimbursements and rising practice expenses, it will help if you and you staff work from a common set of principles.

To identify these principles, I suggest the following.

1) Appoint a chief innovation officer – a nurse, practice manager, physician assistant, your spouse – someone you trust.

2) Meet once a month with your staff to elicit and discuss innovative ideas.

3) As an agenda for these meetings, go to amazon.com or similar website and order these books.

• Practice Enhancement: The Physician’s Guide to Success in Private Practice

• Managing Patient Expectations

• The Successful Physician: Productivity Handbook

• Marketing Your Clinical Practice: Ethically, Effectively, Economically

4) Make copies of a chapter from one of the books that is relevant to your practice and use it as a the agenda and basis for discussion for your money meeting.

5) Relax. This is commonsensical, human, non-technological way to unite you and your staff. It works well for solo and other small practices.