4 Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Your Medical Practice

Starting your own medical practice and managing it can be both a rewarding yet daunting task. With the right tools and staff navigating through medical practice management can be smooth.

To help make things easier for you, we’ve compiled the most common stumbling blocks that we see when it comes to medical practice management, and our best tips for avoiding friction.

Avoid These 4 Common Medical Practice Management Mistakes 

While every practice is different, there are some common areas that most practices run into:

1. Not having the business skills or staff support needed to run the practice.
2. Running low on supplies due to poor stocking.
3. Not paying enough attention to what the competition is doing.
4. Neglecting to ask for advice from experts.

If you feel as through your medical practice is running into these roadblocks, don’t worry! We’ve compiled some solutions to help.

Skills & Staff 

You spent 10 years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars studying medicine -- not learning medical practice management. 

Managing a private medical practice takes the same business management skills that any other successful business runs on. This is where doctors tend to be at a disadvantage.

This emphasizes the importance of building an experienced team you can trust. The staff you employ will set the tone of your healthcare practice management services, which means hiring the wrong people can often lead to:

• Unsatisfied patients 
• Poor office morale
• High patient turnover 

When managing a private medical practice it’s important to be known for providing extraordinary patient care. To achieve this, you must hire dedicated clinical and non-clinical employees who are committed to providing high-quality patient care both in and outside of the exam room. Having professionally qualified employees willing to exceed your patient’s needs can put your practice on the path to success. 

Supply Shortage 

Compared to other aspects of managing your medical practice, running low on supplies seems like such a small issue that can be remedied quickly. However, running low or out of supplies your employees need to do their jobs efficiently can cause your staff's morale and job performance to spiral out of control.

If your employees don’t have the necessary tools needed to perform their job, they will underperform. What’s more, if your employees can’t provide your patients with the necessary medications,  your patients will turn to your competitor for help.

Several private medical practices (and businesses in general) succeed or fail based on word of mouth referrals and what people read on the internet, mainly, social media. One negative online review is enough to shake the future of your private practice.

To ensure you’re providing the best medical practice solutions to your patients your office must be stocked with the necessary supplies for both your employees and patients. Be sure to research different medical supply companies to find the right one to offer you the best value for your medical practice.

Keeping Enemies (Competition) Close 

As a private healthcare provider, you are not just a doctor, you are also a small business owner. This means not only being a master of your craft in the healthcare field, but being an efficient business owner.

To succeed at both roles, you must have a thorough understanding of your competition. Performing competitor research will be an ongoing effort to help keep your practice ahead of the curve. 

You will want to stay in the know on how each competitor evolves, both for better and worse. Keeping up to date on how your competition operates can help the future of your medical practice and can help you avoid grave mistakes all while making changes to expand your patient base.

Seeking Advice 

When it comes to medicine you’re knowledgeable and understand the ins and outs of healthcare. The old tried and true saying “it takes a village” rings true when managing a medical practice - you can’t do it all on your own.

As you know running a private medical practice involves much more than just caring for patients. If you want your medical practice to become a profitable success you need to meet with experienced business professionals.

Their advice will not only save you valuable time and money, but it will also help you avoid some common mistakes that private medical practices can fall victim to.

Managing a Private Medical Practice: You’re Not Alone!

Managing your private medical practice comes with a lot of joys and benefits. But as you have seen it takes careful planning and ongoing maintenance to make sure you keep both your employees and patients satisfied.

This includes:

• Making sure you have the right business skills amongst you and your staff.
• Keeping your office fully stocked with supplies for your patients and staff.
• Keeping abreast of what your competition is doing.
• Asking for advice to put you on the path to success.

There (of course) is so much more that goes into operating a successful private medical practice. Following these 4 helpful tips just may make or break the managing of your medical practice.

We do offer a free practice analysis to identify inefficiencies in your practice to help guide you towards the next steps that best fit your needs.