As a physician who owns a medical practice, you not only work as a doctor but also as the CEO, business manager and marketing specialist. Perhaps you also have a small team with each employee wearing many hats. The workload may be manageable in the beginning but as you attract more patients you will need to decide on whether to scale your medical practice.
While you may be dealing with an increase in the number of patients, you should be prepared to cater to more. A 2019 Google report shows that the search engine fields more than one billion health-related questions per day! What does this mean for your medical practice? There is a slight chance that a small percentage of that number converts into leads, especially if you have a good reputation.
Scaling your medical practice means that you can handle many patients while keeping costs low and maintaining efficiency. In this article, we explore the steps you can take to scale your medical practice for growth.
Are You Ready to Scale Your Medical Practice?
The decision to scale requires careful thought, analysis and evaluation of your medical practice and the industry. Therefore you need to assess your medical practice in its current state.
To put yourself in the best position to scale your medical practice you should decide on the following:
- Whether your medical practice can handle expansion
- The metrics you will use to measure your progress
- The proper systems in place to run your practice more efficiently
What about your financial standing? Can you afford more staff members, advanced equipment and tools? What about improved software programs and tasks you may need to outsource? Can you afford a better location? If your answer is yes to all of these questions then you can consider the steps below to manage growth and scale successfully.
Use Automations to Scale Your Medical Practice
You can consider tools and software programs that increase proficiency. Tasks such as booking appointments, billings and claims submissions can all be handled by various management software systems.
Furthermore, many of these automated solutions reduce human error and allow your staff to complete tasks at a faster rate. In some instances, they allow you to see more patients without having to hire additional admin.
Give Your Practice a Competitive Advantage
In your situational analysis, you will identify ways to attract potential patients while retaining existing ones. Find out why other patient demographics don’t come to your office and put plans in place to help them reconsider.
You should also consider adding new or popular services that align with your specialty. For example, if you operate a medical spa, you could consider adding cool sculpting to your list of services as it is quite trendy these days.
In addition, it would be helpful to find out what your competitors in your area are doing so that you can get a leg up. If there is a demand for a service that they are offering then you could follow suit.
Consider Partnerships with Other Medical Practices
There is strength in numbers. Joining forces with other medical practices can reward you with access to more providers, facilities, staff and marketing budgets. Not only will you be pooling your resources but also they will refer their patients to you and vice versa.
Bear in mind that this strategy also has its cons. As a partner, you will have less control as decisions are made by group consensus. Additionally, you will be entitled to a smaller share of the profits.
Let Invigo Media Grow Your Medical Practice
Invigo Media is ready to assist you whether you are growing or scaling your medical practice. We’ve employed various medical practice growth strategies to help several practices over the past 17 years. We can do the same for you. Contact us today and schedule an appointment. You may reach us at [email protected].
