Like Grey's Anatomy And General Hospital? Here Are 95 Things You Need To Succeed As A Real Life Doctor

Shows like Grey’s Anatomy make being a doctor seem so appealing, and they also make it seem easy. But of course we know it isn’t...

Shows like Grey’s Anatomy make being a doctor seem so appealing, and they also make it seem easy. But of course we know it isn’t. Here are 95 things you would need to succeed in real life as a physician.

Have Fun

Be a great clinician — continuing education. I spent time and money to gain knowledge about implantology and now implant is #1 revenue for the practice.

Have a vision. Comprehensive treatment. You will not know when you have reached your goal if you don’t have one.

Treat your patients as you would treat your family. It doesn’t matter to LuxDen what insurance the patient has. We would create an ideal plan and present it.

Keep yourself and your team accountable.

Have fun along the way. I am trying to give back to my team by organizing extra events. Boat ride, picnic, etc. - Dr. Leonard Umanoff

Know What You Want

Have a clear vision of what you want your practice to be and stick to that goal. I think it is so important to know what you want to do with your business and stick to that plan. You can’t distract yourself by what other people are doing. I knew I wanted everyone to feel welcomed in my practice and for them to know that everything that I offer is safe to use. I have procedures and products for everyone, no matter your skin color.

You have to keep in mind that your practice is your baby for the first few years, and it will be your absolute priority for a while. I worked day and night without a vacation for many years. I missed a lot of friends and family events. I had to give up my steady full-time job with the faith that my business would thrive.

Have a solid network of colleagues whom you can bounce ideas off and seek counsel when needed. I have very supportive and trustworthy colleagues that have supported me and given me great business ideas. They’ve been there for me when I needed help in counsel, including a plastic surgeon, and other professionals I’ve worked with in the industry.

Ensure that you have all necessary government and legal requirements needed to run your practice. No one tells you what you need to legally operate and provide specific services. I had to do research on what licenses or permits I needed to open a business, including directly reaching out to local state authorities and organizations to ensure that I was in compliance based on the services that I provide. You can’t make assumptions with your business so it’s important to stay informed and up to date on policies, licenses and other permits.

Ensure that you have a good business attorney to secure all of your consent forms and legal forms to protect your business and assets. I found a good business and medical malpractice attorney through my colleagues who has provided all my contest and legal forms to protect my business, myself, and my assets. This also ensures that I am compliant with confidentially rules and regulations and forms of contests for patients. - Dr. Zoe Gazola

Finding A Niche

1. Administrative: Websites, Social Media, Forms, & EHR Platform

A website is the number one key to being found in private practice. If you do not have something that is searchable, shareable, or linked up to other websites, it is going to be difficult to grow. Creating a website along with social media steps and SEO can help with the exposure of your business. Forms and EHR are pretty darn important! How are you going to take your notes for clients if you do not have forms with policies, intake paperwork, and a platform to send and receive this all through. If you are hiring new contractors or employees have the paperwork ready for onboarding. Have a company policy and agreement form completed and a contract they are to negotiate and abide under.

2. Business: Checklist to make things official, legal, & your business plan

Get your business registered with the state, have your IRS EIN number for taxes, talk to an accountant about what is the best type of business to be registered under, malpractice insurance, and all that completed. You can either DIY or pay an accountant who specializes in this to help you do this if you do not want to! Along with that, therapists need everything to be HIPPA compliant and a business associate’s agreement with sites. Especially with telehealth sessions for people. Consulting with a lawyer for legal documents and forms that can be assured to look correct is key. Lastly, have a business plan. In the first year learning the taxes may be hard, figuring out the forms might be difficult, but before you know it the training wheels are off, and you are riding the bike. Now, it is time to think about the money you bring in, what is going to taxes the next year, what goes back to the business, and how are you going to sustain your plan. What are the action steps? How do you review this? Do you need to sit down weekly and carve an hour or two out of your schedule to do this? Who is going to support you and hold you accountable for these goals? Find an accountability buddy and team up to talk through the business of it all, it will make it that much easier and less painful if that is not your jam!

3. Counselor Specific Niche: Finding your scope & once found what do you do with it

Wait, what is a niche? A niche is a specialty area of therapy that you focus on and do great work with those specific clients. One of my niches is sex therapy focusing on helping couples, ages 21+, learn how to explore and communicate what is sexually exciting for them, to have the best sex of their lives!

Finding a niche is SO important! Why? When you find a niche, you find what you love, and GET to do work! When you are spreading yourself thin, you are going to burn out, plain and simple. By having niches, you get to focus on additional training, CEUs, podcasts, readings in only those areas, and feels more riveting! You are focusing on your passions when in a helping role and that feels good. It is okay to say no if something is not in your niche, that is your time to refer out. Even if it is your niche and you think the relationship is not the best fit, that is okay to refer out too! Do not be afraid to hold your boundaries and repel clients, if you do not, you may end up resenting the work you do.

Once found, practice your 30-second elevator speech on repeat. Use communication that is easy to understand, not therapist or clinical, but human-like. For example, if I said I treat the diagnosis of the female orgasmic disorder and work on sensate focus techniques with clients, do you know what that is? Probably not, break it down! If I say, I work with individuals and couples struggling with orgasm, to have better sex for the rest of their lives, do you get it now? Much different! Use language that is clear, concise, and understandable. Use this speech in all your networking events, ways to market you, and your elevator speech may develop over time and that is okay, you got to start somewhere!

4. Finance$: Save $1,000–5,000 before you start your business.

Before you hop into the private practice world, set aside a budget of money for future expenses. Private practice can be a slow start, and it is important to be fiscally responsible. You still got those bills to pay honey! Next, think about your rates, what you need as a therapist, and what is the number that is ultimately going to support business and personal expenses. You have got to pay yourself too!

Think through money, do you have a sliding scale? If so, how many clients can be on this scale? How do you decide that? Do you want to be on insurance panels or not be on insurance panels? That is the question or is it cash pay all the way!?

Think these things through prior to moving over, have a money conversation with a partner(s), and practice the rate conversation before having it with clients. Consult an accountant who works with therapists and private practice owners. That is their niche, don’t you want to work with them? Sign me up!

It is time to think about the money you bring in, what is going to taxes the next year, what goes back to the business, and how are you going to sustain your plan. Track how much a Psychology Today profile is, its return on investment compared to other company websites, EHR costs, training, CEUs, and create a budget for your business. Excel spreadsheet or Quick books it up right away and create that habit immediately once you start tracking costs!

5. Relationships: Business is all about relationships, start networking NOW!

You are going to get clients from relationships. You are going to market your brand to everybody. You will connect with other providers to build relationships and accurate referrals. This can be through virtual coffee dates, group meetings, and networking events. That is how you get the referrals, a website is one thing, but it is the people we make connections with the most that are going to remember why and how our services stand out to be the best fit. Outsourcing after some time may be a great option. When the to do list is too long and stressful, reflect on what would be the best thing to get help on the most. Think about what you can give your emotional energy to and what you cannot. That is going to help sort this list out and who you can call on to help with social media, marketing, advertising, billing, referrals, and more! - Jackie Golob

Become An Expert

1. Not surprisingly, is shrink your niche!

Choose a niche that focuses on the people you truly want to help and you can become an expert in. This helps you refine your marketing messaging and helps them understand that you’re speaking directly to them, and not just anybody.

Let’s take 3 physiotherapists that are specialized in lower back problems:

Physiotherapist A — “When you suffer from lower back pain, come see me. I’m the expert.”

Physiotherapist B — “When you are a bricklayer and suffer from lower back pain, come to me. This is my specialty.”

Physiotherapist C — “When you are a bricklayer, over 55 years old, and suffer from lower back pain, come to me. I help you live pain-free again.”

Now who in your opinion is the real expert? Being a bricklayer is a tough job. You work a lot on your knees, bending over forward, so getting lower back issues seems almost part of the job. When you’re over 55 years old, you probably have been a bricklayer all of your career, so implicitly, chances are, your back is worn out. When you can help those people live pain free, you must be the true expert! Suppose I’m 30 years old, bricklayer, and I start to feel my lower back. I would call number C to see if he (or she) would help me, because I don’t want to wait another 25 years before I fall into that group. My back might be worn out by that time! And of course, therapist C will help me. Or, if I’m an office worker bothered by my lower back and I am looking for a therapist, I would also approach therapist C. Because when he can help bricklayers, mine should be a piece of cake. And of course, I will be helped. You see, there is a difference between your marketing message and the people you help. For me, I still get clients for hypnotherapy sessions and of course I help them, but I don’t mention it anywhere.

Let’s use a metaphor to emphasize the point of “shrinking your niche:” When you go out to fish, do you want to fish in a small pond and catch every fish in it, or do you want to fish in the ocean, hoping one fish will bite? If you’re just hoping any fish will bite, how do you know which kind of bait to use?

2. Sell the end result, not the process!

This one was also a game changer for me. One of my coaches told me “Sell what they want, give what they need.” It made me realize I was selling what people needed, not what they wanted. I wanted to transform people, to make them the best versions of themselves. So, I sold a coaching program in which I would change their limiting beliefs into supporting beliefs, uncover their hidden talents, boost their self-confidence, and in short, make them the version 2.0 of themselves. However, the prospect can’t imagine how version 2.0 would be, and what it’s worth to them. If I would ask $10,000 for a program of 6 months, they couldn’t decide whether it was worth the investment. But let’s say they were making $50k a year, and if I would coach them for 6 months, and after that period, they would be able to generate an income of $75k a year. Then a $10k investment makes perfect sense! In fact, that would be a great deal. What I would have to do to make that happen, is that I still might need to change their limiting beliefs into supporting beliefs, uncover their hidden talents, boost their self-confidence; in short, make them the version 2.0 of themselves. So, the coaching could still be exactly the same, but now it is in service of the results they desire. Another interesting twist is that the amount of time to achieve the end result, has become irrelevant, in fact, the less time needed, the better. Let’s say I would coach you for 2-hours and you would be able to generate an additional $25k because of it. Then a $10k investment still makes perfect sense!

Still, I see lots of coaches and therapists out there selling the tools and processes instead of the end results. Let’s take massage therapists as an example. They are selling lomi lomi massages, hot stone massages, ayurvedic massages, sport massages, deep tissue massages, etcetera. I wouldn’t know why I would need a certain massage. But if I would know what the benefit would be, or the end result, or what issue I should have in order to benefit the most from a certain type of massage, I wouldn’t have any issue to choose whatsoever. For me, hypnotherapy is an expert skill I use to help my clients. But I don’t advertise it proactively. I might say something like this: “It takes anywhere between 30–90 days to create a new habit. Or, I can do it for you in a one hour session. Which do you prefer?”

Let’s use another metaphor to explain my point: let’s imagine two advertisements for the same Apple iPod. The first ad states “4 GB of internal memory,” the second one states “200 hours of music in your back pocket.” What do you think the customers are looking for?

3. It’s not about you!

This one goes a bit deeper to pricing your services and is closely related to number 2. A lot of starting therapists are afraid to charge a lot of money for their services, because they wonder “Who is going to pay me $150 for an hour work? That feels outrageous!” But the client is not paying for your time, they are paying for the end result you deliver. Businesses exist to solve problems. The client has a problem and we, as coaches, have the tools and skills to solve that problem. The bigger the problem we solve, the more they are willing to pay for it. I used to explain it to my clients as follows:

“When you’re going to have a haircut, you’re paying anywhere between $20-$80, and it grows back within 6 weeks. When you go out for dinner, you easily pay $50-$100 for the two of you. When you buy jeans from a famous brand, pricing starts at $100 dollars and could be as high as $1,000. And here you are, you have the skills and tools to help somebody get rid of an issue he or she has had for the last 5, 10, 15, or more years, and your solutions get rid of that problem forever. What is that worth to them?”.

4. Give temporary discounts!

I know this one is up for a lot of discussions and all other experts have different opinions about it, so please let me explain what I mean.

When you are introducing a new service or product, have two prices in mind: the price you desire to ask for your service or product, and the price you feel comfortable with asking. The difference is the discount you give. This has four benefits:

It will be easier to raise your prices, because you start giving less discount the more comfortable you are selling your program.

When you keep saying that the normal price is $XX, you get used to it, you grow into it. And the moment you forget to give a discount and charge the desired price, you’re totally comfortable with it!

The perceived value of your service is higher, so you will be valued higher as well.

You can ask something in return when you give a discount, like a video testimonial when they’re satisfied, or an introduction to three connections your client believes would benefit from your services as well.

Just make sure you frame it well. In case you’re already in the market for some time, remember this as well: you can raise your price 25% and lose 20% of your current clients to keep the same income……

Sidenote: isn’t it funny that a lot of experts that tell you not to give discounts, sell their programs for a “one time only offer you won’t get anywhere else?”

5. Don’t call yourself a starter or a new coach.

On day one, you’re a starter, on day two, you’re in business. You might be new on the market, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have experience. All of your life experiences, skills, trainings, learnings, insights, etcetera have brought you to this point, so even though you’re new to this particular market, you’re still bringing everything with you.

I remember a client that “started” his current business in 2015, specialized in burnouts. It also stated that on his LinkedIn profile. But he started out as a physiotherapist back in 1983! When I heard his story, I summarized it as follows:

When he started out as a physiotherapist in 1983, he had a lot of clients that suffered from fatigue, loss of energy, and other issues. Nowadays we would call it burnout, but back then “they were just tired.”

To help his clients regain their energy, he trained himself in acupuncture and added that to his portfolio in 1995, changing the name of his practice as well.

In the next years, he followed several coaching programs, adding coaching to his portfolio so that he could coach his clients to prevent falling back into old behavior, potentially resulting in another burnout, adding again a new company name in 2008.

And to make it even more clear to his potential clients, he created his current company name in 2015, reflecting his expertise in treating burnouts.

So, he didn’t just start his company in 2015, the new company name in 2015 was the logical result of 32 years of experience treating people who are burned out. Don’t you think that has been a game changer in his mindset as well?

And now that we’re on it, I would like to add a little bonus tip: when people decide to do business with you, you call it an investment (“your investment will be”). When they decide not to do business with you, you start talking about costs (“what will it cost you when you do it on your own? How much time will it cost you to achieve the same results?”) It’s a mindset thing 😉. - Erwin Wils

Improve Patient's Health

First, be very clear about the answer to the question: “Why would someone come to see me rather than any other doctor?”

I know many practices (and businesses for that matter) that can answer the first part of that question, but not the second. It is that second part that defines what your practice is going to be and how to build it.

There are lots of right answers to this question. Patients might choose a practice because it’s closer, it’s cheaper, it’s more specialized, etc. There is no one right answer, but it’s very difficult to build a thriving practice without any answer.

At Case Integrative Health we believe patients choose us over other practices because we have “MDs delivering integrative care for complex chronic diseases using evidence-based medicine.” The mix of MDs practicing whole-body integrative medicine against some challenging diseases is very unique.

Knowing this is our niche helps dictate our business decisions, from who to hire, to how we raise awareness, to how we structure our patient intake process, treatments, and more.

The second key to a thriving practice is: be purposeful about building culture from Day 1. Figure out what values are important to you in your practice, what behaviors you want to see from your team, and integrate them into everything you do.

The values we expect at CIH are that team members be: patient-centric, innovative, respectful, and passionate. As a team, we’ve defined what each of those means, and we hold each other accountable. To reinforce our values, we hold weekly one-on-ones to discuss them. We pay cultural bonuses every quarter based on living the values. We talk about it every chance we get.

Your practice will develop a culture whether you engineer it or not, so you may as well build it right from the start. It’s a lot harder to fix a broken culture than to build one correctly from the start. Years of fixing broken businesses taught me that.

The third key is a reminder for doctors: you can’t do your job until everyone on your team has done theirs. As the actual (or de facto) leader of the clinic, the staff will look to you for guidance, direction, and validation. Everybody on staff has a role to play to create a great patient experience. You cannot over-communicate gratitude to your team.

It’s very easy for doctors to spend all their time behind closed doors with patients. It’s what you’ve been trained for and, for many, it feeds the ego. Patients give you respect and validation. You are the reason that they are in the clinic in the first place!

Recognize that the patient experience doesn’t start or end in your office. There are a lot of people working very hard to get the patient to the right spot, at the right time, with the right paperwork, labs, etc. so that you can swoop in and do your thing. After you leave, more people have thankless hours wrestling with insurance to make sure you get paid, triage post-visit questions, or even just water the plants and take out the trash.

All of these things have to happen for your clinic to be an amazing experience, and most of it goes unnoticed — unless YOU say something. So say something! Notice the details your team gets right and publically thank them for it. You’ll be amazed at how much harder they want to work to make your life easier.

Expanding on my previous point, my fourth key is to pay attention to the entire patient experience. It’s easy to believe that consults and treatments are the only elements driving health outcomes. That gives away huge opportunities to help patients across every interaction they have with your clinic.

How is the experience signing up to be a new patient? Does the front desk staff convey compassion and knowledge about the treatment plans that instill the patient with confidence, or are they accidentally undermining your protocols?

How is the clinic designed and built? Are the exam rooms white boxes with high-gloss paint, tungsten lighting that is too bright for the size of the room? How is the airflow in the clinic? Are the treatment rooms the centerpiece of the clinic or converted closets? Is there office clutter visible to patients in every direction? Several studies of architecture and human health have linked material choice to health markers. The right materials for a waiting room can slow breathing and heart rates, lower blood pressure and stress levels.

We’re meeting patients at a sick and fragile point in their lives. It’s our job to make every interaction supportive of healing.

Finally, the most important key: improve your patients’ health. This might sound obvious, but we see many patients who report that their previous doctors weren’t invested in working to help them heal. We are obsessive about making sure we’re moving the dial on improving health outcomes.

Our patients are loyal to us because we are partners in their healing process, but they become true advocates for us when we help them achieve their health goals, even if that takes years. Your clinic might be dealing with patients at different points in their lives. Make sure you are a partner in their health and that you’re making them better. - Matt Kelley

Know Yourself And Limitations

1. Look for small and big wins (and losses) in life to get the confidence to adapt and move forward. Build upon those successes and ramp up — just like allergy shots! Our own internal fears and concerns are often the thing that holds us back. If past successes don’t readily come to mind on your own, speak with a mentor — like many of mine who encouraged me to gain broad exposure, which became a core theme of my career. A good mentor should also tactfully point out failures that knock you down so you can come back stronger and grow as an individual.

2. Service before — not instead of — self. You can’t pour from an empty cup. I still manage to play drums after 38 years and I’m currently in a rock ‘n roll band with other healthcare professionals. We manage to play some charity shows for good causes and that fills up our cups.

3. Be adaptable to new ways of thinking, within and outside of your organization. This is essential in healthcare, but really transcends all fields.

4. Know yourself, and know your limits. Try to assess whether or not you might be cut out for private practice, to begin with. It’s one thing to pursue something you’ve never done before that might scare you; the reward is often worth the risk. That’s different than exhausting yourself on a path that’s not meant for you. A good starter question to ask yourself: How did you feel as an on-call senior resident, when you were alone, and in charge of a chaotic floor? Timid, scared, exhilarated? If you’re paralyzed by the thought of that, you might want to reconsider the private practice.

5. Lastly, or maybe better, a good overall first step is to drill down: The American Medical Association has a nice questionnaire that actually helps physicians evaluate what sort of practice model they’re suited for; I had already made my decision when I became aware of it, but it did validate my decision after the fact. I wished I had access to that questionnaire years ago– I probably would have gone into private practice much earlier. - Dr. Loren E. Isakson

Great Employee Relationships

The first thing to know is you’ll need a proper foundation, which means forming the right entity for your practice. You can form a Professional LLC (PLLC) or a Professional Corporation (PC). You should also connect with the right insurance company to further protect you. We’ve run into many professionals that have started a regular LLC or Corporation, when in fact they’ve need a PLLC or PC. They had to dissolve their companies and start over, costing them thousands.

The second thing is having the right contracts and waivers in place. This assures that you are once again protected and that patients who fill out the forms are ready to work with you. Any good business has contracts in place, and we have been called by medical professionals that didn’t clearly state what their scope of services were and suffered the consequences down the road. We live in a highly litigious society, so contracts can help mitigate risk.

The third thing is having great employee relationships. With anyone that you hire, you want to ensure you have the right agreements in place so the relationship will be structured properly and openly. But also, you want to treat them fairly because employees are the biggest promoters of your business. As the owner of a P.C. I have tried to create an environment that is different than any law firm. I want my employees to enjoy coming into work just as much as I do.

The fourth point is marketing and sales. Obviously, you have a great practice, but other people also need to know that your practice is great also. You need to be able to tell the world what you do, and marketing is the way to do so. Marketing also means having the right systems in place. I have spent thousands on advertising for top results on search engines, just to be ill-prepared to handle all the calls and follow-up. If you go the marketing route, do your research and implement the proper systems.

The final thing is great bedside manner. Having a strong relationship with the patients is important to making sure they trust you. If you have built a strong rapport with patients, you can also start to feel more comfortable in your own practice. I can’t tell you how many clients I have worked with that reach out when they have another business idea or that call with a quick question. I have always lived by the idea of creating raving fans by building strong relationships with my clients. I also try to offer as much value as possible to every client I have. So, if you’re a medical professional, be as kind, understanding, and transparent as possible, so you can create some fans of your own. - Gregory Stone

Hiring and Firing

1) Marketing and Sales- Without knowing marketing and sales your business is at a huge risk of stagnating or failing. You cannot possibly help people without helping them find you.

Marketing involves educating the potential client about his or her options, while at the same time reminding him or her about the unfairness of the situation so the potential client will take action to contact us to get a free case evaluation and to have questions answered.

We strive to offer as much free value as possible in our marketing regarding what remedies are available, how the process works, pitfalls to avoid, costly misconceptions, and important questions to ask any firm they are interested in hiring. We also provide reviews and testimonials so potential clients can see the positive experience past clients have had with us.

Finally, we explain what sets us apart from other firms including our policy of immediately answering phone calls, returning phone calls when we’re not available in one business day or less, and our fair fee guarantee where we never get paid more than our clients for out of court representation (95% of our cases are resolved out of court) and only get paid out of court if we obtain a successful result for our clients.

Sales are about addressing potential clients’ questions, objections, and concerns about moving forward. It is not about manipulation tactics. It’s about educating the potential client so he or she understands that moving forward with representation is in his or her best interest because it is quick, easy, and free to do so and that not moving forward would be a mistake.

2) How to create systems and processes- The mistake many business owners make is not putting what they know down on paper with lists, processes, and scripts their team can be trained on and can refer to when questions or situations come up. These materials should also be turned into training videos.

This takes lots of time upfront, but pays great dividends over time, speeding up training, increasing productivity, and reducing mistakes.

I went through a training session for over two hours with support staff teaching them how to do potential client intake, i.e., getting vehicle, contact, and case information for the attorneys to review and doing role plays with different potential client vehicles and scenarios. We also created a video of the training to share with new hires when they are being trained.

3) Cash flow management- If you do not manage revenue and expenses properly, you will not have a successful business and therefore cannot help more people. The key is to resist increasing your pay as an owner when extra money comes in so you have reserves for unexpected expenses, and for slower revenue months that could occur for a variety of reasons.

My rule of thumb is that unless the firm has at least 2 (preferably 3) months in reserves after all monthly expenses (rent, payroll, marketing, etc.) are paid, I will not pay myself anything beyond my normal pay. I learned this the hard way during my first year of business, and I’m glad I learned it then.

4) Hiring and Firing- You want to hire team members that both perform well and are a good culture fit. Your team can make or break your firm based on these factors. People are usually on their best behavior in interviews so it’s important to ask probing questions and to evaluate not just the verbal answers, but also body language to determine if someone is a good fit. I will always choose a hard worker over a high potential employee. Also, I will always choose a kind candidate rather than an overly gregarious one.

Firing has been a big challenge for me because I’m an empath and after doing my own trauma healing research and work I realized that many people are traumatized. With that being said, a rotten apple can spoil the whole bunch.

I had an employee whose performance was above average but was making the rest of the team very unhappy. She wouldn’t say good morning to other team members when greeted and even demanded not to have anyone talk to her on certain days.

Even though I knew she had trauma challenges, I really needed to let this employee go for the good of the team. Upon being fired (which I did with a witness in the room, always a good idea when firing), she proceeded to yell at me for 45 minutes before leaving. It was worth it to let her get everything out so she and the firm could both move on.

5) How to deal with employees and clients- The key is empathy and understanding while holding to principles. You want your employees to know you care about them as humans rather than just as cogs in your business machine. Life happens, be it illness, emergencies, or special events. As long as it is not abused, your understanding of these scenarios is important. At the same time, this is a job so employees cannot be allowed to disregard PTO and sick time policies.

Expressing gratitude and appreciation of team members is important, along with providing constructive feedback, and training in a positive way.

Finally, it is important to manage egos and to get employees to see the big picture and not take the actions of team members personally. In fact, to always assume good intentions. This is simple but not easy. There have been many times that I’ve had to talk to employees of the ledge and persuade them not to react in a way that would increase conflict or alienate another team member.

With clients, you must always do what you say you will for them and lead with empathy if they are ever upset. If they are upset about something, let them fully express themselves. When they are done, summarize what they told you to make sure you understand fully what the issue is. People want to feel heard and understood. Only then should you discuss potential solutions. You should never try reason and logic with a client when they are heated and venting about an issue.

I had one client who was furious about an offer he felt was inadequate. He wanted to go to the media and file a lawsuit. I let him express himself fully, acknowledged his feelings, and agreed the situation was unfair. After the client felt fully heard and understood, he calmed down and was open to listening to my negotiating advice. He ended up getting a settlement he was happy with and left a glowing review. This would not have happened if I argued with him and told him he was being unreasonable.

By the way, never, EVER, tell a client that he or she is being unreasonable. That is the quickest way to make a client explode and feel that you are against him or her. - Shalev “Lev” Amar

Similar Vision And Goals

An unparalleled work culture. Medical professionals, like many other professions, are held to a high integrity and code of ethics, expertise, and professionalism. The work culture you associate yourself with determines the standards of the practice and the integrity of the doctors themselves. A work culture held to the most important elements can set a practice apart. For example, when caring for a patience, K&B Management ensures that we are abreast and adopt the most innovative technology in not just providing a patient for what he or she wants, but also ensuring that procedures are top-notch and patient care is treated as a priority.

A team with similar vision and goals. My partner, Dr. Bharti, has shown that a team that is aligned is very important. Coming from similar backgrounds and having the same passion and standards, we are able to provide some of the best care and procedures for our patients. A team that shares the same vision and goals are more likely to work together to achieve them. When we are faced with patient concerns or innovative differences, the team we have built works together to meet our goals. Discussions are respectful and explore all possible areas of improvement.

Relentless passion for the job. I started out with the aim of helping others through aesthetic medicine. I’ve learned that one can succeed greatly with passion and through the help of innovation and advancements in medicine, we are most able to help patients achieve more out of life. My passion stems from the early days of a failing restaurant and I have had to apply the same lessons for my practice and now for other practices through K&B Management.

Extreme ownership in your work. A large part of running a practice and now helping others grow their practices is taking ownership. When things go right, it is easy to take ownership for successes. However, during hardship, many shun from this ownership. It is important not just for ourselves, but also for the people we work with such as employees and patients, that we take full ownership during good and bad times. When a procedure is compromised, and this happens in the profession for all medical professionals, it is vital that we are able to clearly access the complications and problems, while ensuring patients or employees that we are working on it. This ownership trait is what sets most successful professionals apart from those who are not able to see the issues at hand.

A goal towards excellence in outcomes. It does not matter what area of expertise in medicine you are in. Excellence could mean many different things in the various areas of medicine. But it does mean that you strive for the best of the patient always. The goal towards excellence means that you are willing to explore all possible avenues of advancements and you are committed to meeting these goals, even if it means you have to explore options beyond your comfort zone. - Dr. Bill Kortesis

Earn The Trust

Happy Employees- My employees are the lifeline to the practice. Patients interact more with my staff than myself. They should be well trained and able to treat everyone with respect. I’ve left many medical practices because of the way the staff treated me and not the doctor. I never want that to happen in my practice.

Work hard to earn the trust of your patients. Every patient is different. I spend time trying to get to know what patients’ concerns are and try to formulate treatment based on their main concerns.

Listen- Patients know their mouths. You have to listen to symptoms and never rush them. It is very easy to diagnose an issue if you hear what they have to say.

Treat all patients with respect. Many patients come into the office very nervous and sometimes they may be perceived as rude and not very friendly. In many instances, if these patients are given respect and felt heard, they will turn out to be long-lasting patients of the practice.

Do not sell dentistry!!! Do what the patient needs. Dentistry is a health profession and patients should not feel like they are being pushed treatment they are not interested in. My job is to discuss needs and how to address them. - Dr. Nicolas deFabrique

Develop Your Niche

On to the main event as it would be said! I have covered much of these already in the above questions but I will recap them and cover maybe a couple of extra ones that may surprise the readers.

Develop your Niche/Brand: This is so key in figuring out your passion. Your niche is the thing you want to be known for and are ready to speak ad nauseam about. One of my prior business coaches had said “the thing you want to be known for is the thing you are willing to talk about until you are sick of talking about it..” This can be your focus in your social media postings. But often as physicians we have a general practice that sees everything. My overall brand is on men’s health and more specifically PHAT Syndrome in men. You can look that up and find my site about it to learn more. But in practice, I don’t just see men. I see all ages, all genders, and nearly all conditions. Specific niches all boil down to straightforward corrections and steps to heal those issues. This allows you to create several marketing funnels that lead to one masterclass. The niche fits in there but allows for many conditions to lead to one masterclass. Less work, more return.

Patient Onboarding program: This is key to save phone time for staff and get your patients pre-educated for what to expect on day one of seeing you and will answer 99% of their questions about what you do, what to expect, what labs you run, and what to do for them to find out if their insurance covers your services. A couple of simple videos and some copy in the email gives them the steps to become a patient. If they can’t follow those steps then you are darn sure they won’t do much of what you ask them to do. This has cut out the one-timers in our practice. The one-and-done patients that have insurance wish to check it out. They are not invested often in their health; they let the insurance plan they have to dictate their health. We want clients who are vested in their health and want to optimize their longevity. This little easy one single email process has greatly increased our patient retention and patient success rates.

Courses/Masterclasses/webinars: Here is a key to creating value for your clients. Implementing weekly 30–40 minute live sessions for your members to learn the key things you want them to know greatly improves outcomes and allows you to create multiple marketing opportunities. One webinar can become the masterclass to sell, email copy, social media posts, and eventually a practice-based guide for clients or an ebook for clients to buy. We offer one free masterclass to all of our email lists once a month. Our members get three per month of these as part of their membership. We roll these weekly webinars into masterclasses on our Lakeside Academy site on which we can sell to potential clients or while doing other tasks in the community, online or at seminars/conferences. Once you have 12–18 months of courses done you can reuse these in perpetuity for all of your marketing practice needs. Then you can create new ones as you get inspired and add them in the rotation

Membership: Creating value for patients is essential to building a successful practice. Members get additional health-related courses, discounts on supplements/IV’s/Injections, use of various therapies in the office, and much more. This helps to guarantee a set income for the most part per month and keeps you focused on things to do so you don’t get lost in the mix of what to do each week and month for your marketing, growth, and planning. You can add value to the membership in many ways. Ask your patients what they want because often it isn’t what you think they want. Then build this into the membership programs.

Don’t be afraid to let a client go: Often we feel we can’t fire a patient. I mean they have no problem firing us. If a patient doesn’t follow your care plans or becomes too much for the staff to handle, let me go nicely. Be kind about letting them go. We are not everyone’s cup of tea. Often it is just not the right fit for them or you and recognizing it earlier than later is essential. Just be honest and state the facts “ I don’t think I am the right physician for you. I will help you find the right one for you and will continue care until we find the right fit for you. But at this time I think it best we help you the best way we can by finding a better fit for you and your needs.” It isn’t anyone’s fault but it just doesn’t fit right. This will save headaches and heartache on all staff, you, and the patient. - Dr. Jerry Bailey

Provide Education

The patient is a consumer. Think about the patient the same way as other service providers think about their customers. Meet them where they are — consider not only what they need, but what they want. Put yourself in the position of a patient when you think about how they access your services, your hours of availability and your response times. Success requires affability, availability, and ability. I’ll let you place them in order of importance. At Village Medical, we offer accessible healthcare through in-person, tele-health and via primary care in the home — meeting our patients however we can, to deliver care at the right place, and the right time.

Align with like-minded colleagues. Recognize that healthcare is team-based and that no one provider can meet the needs of all patients. Find medical specialists, ancillary providers and hospitals that treat patients the way you want them to be treated. Share the type of access, communication and coordination you would want for your own family. Most specialists want to be the best consultants they can be, but don’t know your expectations.

Recognize that success should be measured on outcomes and not on volume. Understand that the healthcare reimbursement model is moving to value — or outcomes. Start the journey to a proactive and risk-stratified approach to your patients. Create disease registries that allow for proactive outreach, making sure that patients who you see are those who need to be seen. What happens between visits is as important as what happens in the exam room, so find ways to take in data that help you understand your patients more completely.

Check your personal privilege at the exam room door. Recognize that you don’t have all the answers and what we know today is radically different than what we learned in medical school. Remember your experiences are not the same as your patients. Be open to non-traditional solutions for traditional problems as long as you “do no harm.” Identify experts in exercise, diet and non-traditional interventions, read what your patients are reading, and don’t underestimate the power of the internet and social media.

Provide education and guidance. Always remember that a patient’s clinical presentation is likely only the tip of the iceberg. Solving their presenting problem is important, but not as important as the influence you can have on their long-term health outcomes, as a trusted healthcare provider. Be a source of evidence-based advice and guidance, and never underestimate your influence. - Dr. Clive Fields

Spending More Time

The primary recommendation I have for any healthcare provider is to love what you do and let that passion shine when working with your patients. When you show your healing intention, it becomes infectious to your patients, and they will be excited to tell others.

Next, walk the talk and be a true role model of health. Trust me, when you act and feel the part, your patients will be much more compliant and more likely to refer.

Another big tip is being financially accessible to your community by charging a fair price for your services. We are here to help our community and not gouge their wallets to live on a vacuous hilltop mansion.

My fourth piece of advice would always strive to master your craft. There is a reason they call it a practice. I absolutely love learning and incorporating new technology and techniques into practice. After 28 years, this is what constantly keeps me excited about practicing.

Finally, I would recommend spending more time with your patients and learning to communicate with them clearly. Patients want to be nurtured and cared for, and when you spend the time, they will feel that you truly care. This will help your practice thrive and help prevent the number one cause of a malpractice claim: lack of communication. Also, lose the ego; when you make a mistake, be honest and accountable with your patients. You will be surprised how forgiving patients are when you fess up. - Kevin Khalili

Never Stop Learning

Invest in knowledge: Never stop learning. Know your field well and the knowledge you gain yields the highest returns.

Invest in clinical anchors: Create the culture with your team to have strong beliefs in the vision and mission of the practice to provide extraordinary care.

Invest in people: Create leadership and accountability. Show your people you care. In return, they will care about you and your patients.

Invest in your health: Overall wellness is the fuel for a productive day. Don’t waste one minute while you are awake.

Invest in progressive technology: Enhance patient safety and surgical outcomes. Never lose sight of workflow optimization. - Dr. Bao-Thy Grant

Treat Patients As Family

Stay true to who you are and what your brand is. Oftentimes that is not the easy or quickest way to make money and everyone always has an opinion. Personally, I wanted a boutique aesthetic practice that offered high-end, high-quality, services. My goal was to create natural results and improve my patient’s confidence and quality of life. That means I’ve often had to turn patients away. I’ve also not offered frequent sales and discounts. I’ve been told by many that you never say no, all money is good, and if discounts will get people in the door, go for it. While it takes more time to do it my way, the end results will be a practice that you are proud to have your name behind.

Treat every patient as if they were a family member or friend. It’s easy in today’s age to get lost behind a screen, to rush through visits, and to treat everyone like they are just a number. We get to know our patients well during their treatments and recovery and conversely, they get to know us. They know we are always available and we can always be reached night or day. It makes the relationship a very unique one and inevitably is what drives patients to refer us to their friends and family.

Stand behind every service, product, and treatment you offer. In our field, it’s easy for patients to feel like you are pushing services or products. I’ve often found that patients come in with an interest, they are curious, they know what bothers them but they are not quite sure they want to take the leap to treatment. My office staff and I use the products we sell, in fact, I don’t sell anything that I don’t have first-hand experience with. We’ve had the treatments that I offer. What better way to endorse, believe in, and recommend a treatment than to do it on yourself?

Be honest. Sometimes that means saying no. While that does not help your bottom line in the short run, it does amazing things in the long run. Patients quickly learn that you won’t just offer a procedure because they ask for it. You offer it only if it will achieve their goals in a natural and, more importantly, safe way. They learn to trust you. You also gain a reputation in the community and that is something you cannot put a dollar amount on.

Create a team that shares the same mission. It’s important that everyone shares a common goal and that goal should and always be to create a great and safe experience for the patient. Every encounter from that first phone call can make or break your practice, so it’s very important to make sure that each staff member is on board, works well together, and works well with you. It’s amazing how easily patients can pick up on the vibe or tension in the office, so these dynamics cannot be overlooked. At the end of the day, I cannot do my job well without the support and work of my team, so surround yourself with the best, treat them well, and, in turn, your practice will only grow and flourish. - Dr. Smita Ramanadham

Know The Trends

Financial sacrifice is mandatory to reach your goals. Keep track of where the money is going. Those little things add up — whether it’s a water bill that’s too high or paper goods going missing. Work your business and find that leak so you know where money is being lost. I’ll never forget my mother literally putting the staff on a mission to find a dripping faucet because she noticed a steady increase in our water bill. This is a true story. She would not rest until the leak was discovered and fixed. It made a difference!

Have a passion for patients, your employees, and your team — You must care about the people who work with you and for you, and I mean the whole person. Your employees cannot be concerned about the business if they don’t have peace of mind about their own families and children. You have to work in everyone’s best interest. One year my mom bought snowblowers for all the employees who had been with the organization for ten years. She’s always done things like that. I also had an employee who was concerned about her son’s ability to talk, and I approved her to utilize our own speech pathologist on staff at no charge. When you’re invested in their kids’ lives, they’re invested in your program.

Evolution is inevitable — Stay relevant, know the trends in the industry. I had a hard time trying to convince my mother that our fee schedule was right. She couldn’t understand why we weren’t charging the same as our competitors. I’ve learned to charge a bit less per day than going rates. I do this so that we never have to justify ourselves or be challenged in court when we explain our rates.

Self-evaluation with course correction is mandatory. A few years back, we evaluated repeated failures with patients attempting to live independently in a controlled setting. We wanted them to have independence without the setbacks. So, we decided to create community-based apartments. Now we have the Irvine Neuro Rehab Center, where dormitory-style housing is available, but patients are never alone in the facility. Our competitors have since copied us and adopted similar models. You can’t be afraid to self-evaluate. There’s always room for improvement. We built another center in 2015 to keep up with what was going on with treatments, and now we offer aquatic therapy.

Set annual metrics — establish a budget with goals so you can plan if you’re going to expand. We always have a financial savings goal so that every year we save a certain amount of money. Even when you pay yourself, you still must save for the unknown. - Artesia McNeal-Washington

Provide Certainty

Provide patients with certainty that they are in the right place. I pay attention to every little detail that contributes to an exciting and appealing whole. (Yes, those words can be used to describe a medical practice!) For example: When patients walk in, they immediately notice the brightly colored walls, which are uplifting.

Adding to the ambiance are the sounds of upbeat jazz and rock music, running ad-free. My patients and I enjoy musicians from Ricky Lee Jones to the Eagles.

In the reception area, there are no glass partitions separating patients from our receptionist (except during the pandemic, when it’s been reassuring to our patients that we have a plexiglass divider). Everyone is acknowledged with an immediate greeting and smile.

Enticing visuals are important, too. At Performance Health Center, these include photos of the Grammy-winning rock stars for whom I provide Backstage Care. This helps patients connect us with people they admire, and reinforces that they will get “rock star treatment” too. Almost every wall is also plastered with photos that our patients have sent us — living active lives pain-free, as a result of our care!

I have always valued cleanliness, which is a huge advantage when patients walk in. They’ll never see a speck of dirt.

Chiropractic care has become well established, but for many, I am their first experience and there are still misconceptions about what we do. It is amazing how many patients I meet for the first time who tell me they feel they are in the right place. That is the impression we try so hard to make. - Dr. Bradley Weiss

Go Beyond Expectation

1. Pure intentions

Since we’re working with another human being, our intentions should be to serve, love, listen, and do everything we can to help solve their problem. If your motives and intentions are to harm or simply take others’ money, then your success is going to be limited. The feeling that the patient leaves with will never be as good as it can be if your intentions are not pure. It has a lot to do with giving off good-healing energy.

2. Clear organizational structure

Action and execution of a successful practice require clear organizational structure. People should always understand their roles, tasks, and goals, along with how to assist in the overall vision. Communication is the bridge that must exist when you start adding complexity into your practice such as new employees, patients, locations, equipment, and so on. I have met with and spoken to many practitioners who never made the effort to put in any organizational structure and therefore are in a constant state of frustration, attempting to figure out why they can’t grow. Our brains are not capable of remembering, managing, and controlling every action and behavior needed.

3. Excited culture

It’s almost impossible to expand without others. Excitement in your culture can be developed from camaraderie, team builders, testimonial shares, and engaging one another in the truest intentions of serving another human being. When somebody on your team or one of your patients is excited, it becomes contagious and they want to tell others. We have had many offsite retreats, team builders, and spent ample hours on developing why we exist as a culture. You cannot just go through the motions; you have to put your best energy out there for others to feel.

4. Systems for success

Strong systems are what makes things reproducible and scalable. If you do not have an organizational structure and systems in place, then everybody gets a unique experience that can be good or bad. Systems are not only for patients, but also for employees. They are internal and external, including marketing, networking, and sales.

5. Creating a buzz

Buzz is the gasoline that makes the fire grow and it’s all about marketing, branding, and cool energy. What story are other people telling on your behalf? What makes your practice unique and different? When you find ways to create a buzz, your marketing turns into a ripple effect in which momentum builds fast. I have always found that if everybody is swimming in one direction, that is the greatest way to create a buzz. Make some splashes and waves, like wearing completely different clothing than a traditional practitioner or providing a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Go beyond what’s expected! - Dr. Bryan Joseph

Decision Making

1.Doctor-Patient Relationship = Good Social Media Presence

We have to recognize that most dissatisfaction from our consumer is coming from barriers that have been put up and disrupted the doctor-patient relationship which is what we all want as a patient. We have to focus on bringing that back to healthcare as it is the fundamental tenant that drives our profession and will build a practice. Same as being a mom and pop boat dealer versus a conglomerate. Learning to leverage an excellent doctor-patient relationship into a world class online presence through Google Business pages and reviews as well as other online review systems will grow your business and this will be a direct result of improving your doctor-patient relationship with your patients.

2. Shared Decision Making = Marketing 101 (word of mouth)

There is plenty of data out there that if we talk to our patients and explain the choices, they are 3–5x more satisfied with their care. As awareness has grown secondary to litigation surrounding synthetic mesh placement in hernia repair and our desire to enhance the doctor-patient relationship we implemented shared decision making in our practice. This was driven by patient demand and our core value “Your Hernia. Your Choice”. Since implementing the shared decision making process we have found that the majority of our patients choose a newer technology of a reinforced biologic material called OviTex from TelaBio and our robotic ReBAR (Reinforced Biologic Augmented Repair) technique. As a result our business has continued to grow with word of mouth spreading quickly on this non-synthetic mesh based repair and the ability to choose the repair that is right for that particular patient.

3. Disruptive Technology FOR patients. Not OF patients. = Value

This is one of our core values and has been a central driver in our education of patients as well as communication with our patients across the continuum of the hernia delivery care process. When I started the virtual hernia center I looked at all the steps in the process from initial contact to the practice, first consultation, surgery scheduling, day of surgery and follow up. I looked at the process and realized that all the bottle necks in the process are mainly do to poor communication between the doctor/practice and the patient. Hence we looked for a technology that the vast majority of patients could leverage without additional training to remove these bottle necks. We settled on Klara because it integrated direct texting to me/office staff, telehealth, and forms so all paperwork and information can be completed remotely and seamlessly without long waits in the office and wasted time. This model was driven even further by the COVID19 pandemic. Unlike traditional EHRs and computer systems in healthcare this technology disrupted the norms of hernia care delivery while making the patient experience better and improving customer value.

4. Telehealth = Efficient & Enhanced Patient Care

Integration and comfortability with telehealth will grow your business exponentially. The entire virtual hernia center is based on this and we were fully functional during the pandemic crating unprecedented demand. This has carried over to our daily business and has enhanced our patient experience so that between the mobile registration capabilities and a brief telehealth visit we can optimize any in office consultation needed by making sure that we have everything ready to go prior to the appointment. What this also does is keeps us on time which we all know there is never a doctors office that is on time when you go into the office. In addition, we are redefining the post-op follow up visit into a continuous care model by remote monitoring after surgery. This has a lot of value if an issue arises to triage it faster and also to patients who do not need to come sit in the office for hours for a 5 min look and see. I cannot stress how much adoption of telehealth and utilization in the correct aspects of one’s practice can truly optimize your care delivery and in doing so improve patient satisfaction. In addition, this allows a flexible schedule for patients that they appreciate. I regularly see folks in the evening or on weekends when it is convenient for them.

5. Flexible delivery care model = Optimized business

We cover all the delivery care models from full telehealth consultations to in office care. This allows us to minimize the time in the office and use a model of space rental by time in multi-specialty clinics instead of paying a month at a time and not utilizing the space most the time. Our EMR is completely mobile compatible with Apple or Android and being platform agnostic enhances the ability of us as well as our patients to access the platform and eliminates the need/overhead for an office with dedicated computers lowering our overhead and a need for 24/7 brick and mortal office. Our messaging system does not require a patient to download an app just comes through a normal text message and then opens on a HIPAA browser page when the link is clicked. Hence we are not wasting staff time in training patients to use it. Office utilization is minimized by leveraging tech to provide post-op care and eliminate answering services that are merely placeholders and barriers to patient access to their physician. Our ability to flex and pivot quickly in response to the changing environment of healthcare has proven priceless. Early in healthcare physicians carried their practice in a black bag, now they can carry all their tools in the palm of their hands by means of a black smartphone if they choose. This philosophy is essential to success of a private practice in todays healthcare. - Dr. Paul Szotek