Running a healthcare clinic today is about far more than providing excellent patient care. For many owners, the most difficult part of the job isn’t clinical—it’s human resources. From recruiting qualified staff to managing turnover, conflict resolution, and administrative burdens, these HR challenges consume countless hours and take an emotional toll on providers who should be focused on patients. The reality is that most practice owners were never trained to handle HR, yet it has become one of the biggest stress points in modern healthcare.
Why HR Is Now Ground Zero for Clinic Owners
In small and mid-sized practices especially, owners often wear too many hats—doctor, manager, recruiter, HR director, and even conflict mediator. Surveys consistently show that administrative burdens and staff turnover are the top frustrations for practice owners, and for good reason. On average, physicians spend nearly 9 hours a week handling HR-related tasks, a responsibility that not only pulls them away from patient care but also drives down job satisfaction and increases burnout.
The ripple effects are real. HR struggles lead to poor team morale, rising operational costs, scheduling errors, and patient dissatisfaction. And without reliable systems in place, owners find themselves in a constant cycle of hiring, training, and managing, leaving little energy for growth or innovation.
How Perform Practice Solutions Helps
This is where Perform Practice Solutions steps in. With years of proven success helping practice owners nationwide, their team transforms the way clinics handle HR and operations. Instead of struggling alone, owners gain access to tailored services that solve their most pressing challenges:
Perform Billing Solutions – Transparent, streamlined billing that optimizes cash flow and removes financial guesswork.
Virtual Staffing – Cost-effective staffing that improves efficiency and profitability without the headache of traditional hiring.
Perform Marketing Solutions – Comprehensive strategies to promote your practice and attract more patients.
Front-Desk 101 – Training and consulting to turn your front desk into a smooth, professional first point of contact.
Credentialing & Contracting – Compliance handled, so you can focus on care while your revenue stream stays secure.
By providing these tools, Perform Practice Solutions allows frustrated practice owners to regain control, reduce burnout, and build thriving, sustainable businesses.
Take the Next Step
At Perform Practice Solutions, the mission is simple: to help clinic owners create a business that works for them, not against them. If HR and operational burdens have left you feeling overwhelmed, it doesn’t have to be this way.
📞 Call (833) 764-0178 or visitPerformPracticeSolutions.comto schedule a consultation today. With the right support, you can stop surviving and start thriving in the ever-changing world of healthcare practice ownership. Follow us on@performpracticesolutions
With decades of multiple PT practice ownership experience and 10+ years of consulting for Physical Therapy, Chiropractic, Speech Therapy, and Occupational Therapy practices — including buying and selling, marketing, billing, and more — Kevin is the person to speak with when you want to simplicity amidst the chaos, to create more revenue, manage your staff more effectively, and build your brand.
How to Improve Patient Care
Providing excellent patient care goes beyond just treating an illness; it involves creating a compassionate, efficient, and supportive environment that addresses a person’s physical and emotional needs. Today, we bring key strategies to help healthcare professionals and facilities elevate their standards of care.
One of the most overlooked ways to improve patient care is through streamlined operations. When practices—whether physical therapy, dentistry, chiropractic, or other healthcare specialties—are weighed down by billing errors, insurance frustrations, and delayed payments, the patient experience suffers too. By removing these obstacles and ensuring financial workflows run smoothly, providers gain more time to focus on what truly matters: quality care and stronger patient relationships.
The patient-centered care (PCC) framework is a proven way to improve patient care and raise healthcare standards. It’s grounded in the clinical efficacy of a collaborative partnership between patients and healthcare providers—one in which people take a more active role in their own care decisions.
PCC moves beyond the traditional disease-focused model to place greater emphasis on patients’ unique needs, preferences, and values. It also prioritizes safety, recognizing that safety is the foundation of good patient care and an essential part of achieving quality outcomes.
Here’s how it improves patient care standards, plus 13 actionable ways healthcare organizations and doctors can apply PCC in practice.
Why is patient-centric care so important?
The U.S. healthcare system aims to deliver evidence-based, high-quality and cost-effective care that optimizes patient outcomes. To achieve this, it has increasingly relied on evidence-based medicine (EBM)—or evidence-based practice (EBP)—and PCC conjunctively.
While EBM’s standardized protocols can conflict with the individualization PCC requires, medical centers that effectively integrate both approaches support patients more holistically, improving outcomes and reducing the risk of error.
More comprehensive support
A common misconception is that PCC simply means granting all patient requests. But it involves:
Identifying and responding to patients’ perspectives and emotional needs
Working together to establish a mutual understanding of the condition, its treatment, and the roles of both physician and patient
These two points reflect PCC’s core principle: Healing depends not only on accurate diagnoses, but also on understanding and treating each patient as a whole person.
Stronger patient satisfaction
Individualized care improves patient satisfaction in several ways. Research shows that patients who receive PCC are more than four times likelier to report improved physical health, and over five times likelier to report improved mental health. PCC also enhances patients’ sense of treatment necessity more than sixfold.
Patient satisfaction also reduces costs, prevents discharge/readmission cycles and strengthens patient-clinician communication.
Lower the risk of error
When physicians combine components of PCC, like patient education, standardized policies and co-creation of care plans, they empower both themselves and their patients to understand situations and spot problems before they snowball. This error reduction improves patient outcomes and quickens care processes.
The 4Cs of quality patient care
The four core primary care functions—often called the four pillars, tenets or the 4Cs—were first developed in the 1990s to improve service quality. Since then, they’ve informed PCC’s frameworks and helped physicians measure and advance their quality of care.
The 4Cs are first contact, comprehensiveness, coordination and continuity:
Contact: Start of personalized patient care
“Contact,” or “first contact,” refers to the initial point that patients enter the healthcare system through a primary care provider. Its function is to help patients seek care for new health concerns and give them timely, individualized treatment when needed.
Comprehensiveness: Meeting all patient needs
“Comprehensiveness” refers to the scope of services available to address a wide range of patient needs, including preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services. Its function is to ensure that providers can manage most common conditions and collaborate with necessary specialists.
Coordination: Across the care system
“Coordination” refers to how primary care integrates services within and beyond the practice setting. It encourages key stakeholders to communicate effectively, giving patients a seamless transition across various levels and types of care.
Continuity: Building trust to improve patient care
“Continuity” refers to the ongoing, long-term relationship between patients and their primary care providers. Through routine interactions across time, providers should build a holistic understanding of patients’ health histories, preferences and needs—a process that helps improve patient care over time through continuity and trust.
How to improve patient care: 13 strategies
While several PCC frameworks exist, very few offer clear, actionable guidance for translating principles into everyday clinical practice.
To help address this problem, researchers from the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine and Department of Economics developed a conceptual framework guided by the Donabedian model: structure, process and outcome.
Here are 13 actionable strategies for improving patient care by implementing PCC, each drawn from the framework above—seven at the structural level, four at the process level, and two at the outcome level.
Structure
Strategies under “structure” relate to system‐ and organizational‐level stakeholders—such as senior leadership and policymakers—who establish the foundational supports necessary for patient‐centered care.
1. Incorporate a patient-centric care culture
Leaders should implement an organization-wide, unified vision focused on improving patient care through respect for diverse patient values and lived experiences. This can include standardizing PCC terminology, recognizing the role of diversity in holistic care and ensuring that shared decision‐making guides policy decisions.
2. Co-design training programs
Collaborate on training program development and implementation to standardize PCC training organization-wide. These programs should:
Integrate both patient and provider perspectives
Extend beyond formal curricula to include mentorship and ongoing leadership development
Involve all stakeholders—including administrative staff and volunteers—to ensure a sustained cultural shift toward PCC in day-to-day practice
3. Collaborate on health promotion and prevention
Policymakers, leaders and local organizations should co-design health promotion and prevention efforts to match the lived experiences of their patient populations. The more perspectives available, the more information goes into these efforts, leading to comprehensive plans.
4. Commit your workforce to patient-centric care
Provide clinicians with the resources and incentives they need to practice person-centered care. This can involve:
Adopting payment models that favor relationship‐building
Internally celebrating small wins related to PCC
Creating “communities of care,” which foster teamwork among key stakeholders to collectively meet patients’ needs
5. Provide an accommodating environment
A healthcare environment’s physical design—for example, natural lighting and noise control—influences both patient safety and perceived experiences. Beyond creating an environment that prioritizes safety, partner with patients to create settings that are welcoming, private and accommodating of individual needs.
6. Support the relevant technological infrastructure
Implement the necessary infrastructure for electronic health records and patient portals that connect providers throughout the care continuum. Systems should be both seamless and user-friendly. And all relevant professionals should receive training and ongoing technical support to make sure they (and their patients) can securely access and use these systems.
7. Measure patient-centric care
With input from patients, co‐design frameworks and meaningful metrics for measuring, monitoring and evaluating PCC—accounting for both complaints and compliments. Use these frameworks to identify gaps and drive improvement.
Process
The strategies under “process” involve front‐line and service‐delivery stakeholders.
8. Cultivate communication
There are two sides to the communications coin: listening and responding. As you listen to patients, aim to take an active role. Ask questions out of genuine concern, respond empathetically and consider your nonverbal behaviors. As you respond and share information with patients, work to create a shared understanding and tell patients all relevant details.
A valuable perspective highlights the importance of patient care in relation to advances in medical technology: “The physician plays a fundamental role at the intersection between medicine and technology, acting as the bridge between technological innovations and patient-centered care (PCC).”
“To maximize the benefits of these technologies, it is essential that we as health professionals act as guides and advocates, ensuring that patient-centered care remains the priority.”
9. Provide compassionate care
Respectful and compassionate care means being responsive to individual patient needs. Recognize the patient as an expert on their own health, and take the time necessary to understand the patient’s psychosocial context. In all cases, aim to build a partnership with patients—one built on empathy and transparency.
10. Engage patients in care management
Co-designing care plans gives patients an active role in managing their condition. This involves promoting health literacy, facilitating shared decision-making and actively gathering patient feedback, all of which can lead to better outcomes.
11. Ensure integrated care
Use unified digital platforms to securely and seamlessly communicate information to all key stakeholders across the continuum, and actively address any communications process fragmentations. For maximum transparency and ease of access, give patients a private and direct line to their digital records.
12. Measure access to care
Evaluate your system’s capacity to promptly and effectively deliver PCC. This involves systematically measuring the time it takes for patients to receive care, the impact of financial barriers and physician availability.
13. Consider patient self-reporting
Patient‐reported outcomes measures (PROMs), patient‐reported experience measures (PREMs) and patient‐reported adverse outcomes (PRAOs) all capture critical patient‐generated information. Together, they offer direct insight into key focus areas like patients’ daily functioning and care experiences.
Providers who integrate patient input into clinical practice improve outcomes and deliver higher-quality care. Use these metrics to inform future PCC initiatives.
At Perform Practice Solutions, billing isn’t just another service—it’s our specialty. Our experienced team supports PTs, chiropractors, and other providers with transparent, efficient billing solutions that free your staff from administrative burdens. But that is just one of our many services! Ready to transform your patient care and your practice’s bottom line? Schedule your free consultation with Kevin Rausch today, and let us answer your questions and build a customized solution for your practice. Book now, and discover how the right billing partner can make all the difference.
Patient retention is crucial in healthcare. When patients consistently return to their provider, it builds trust and improves health outcomes. High retention lets providers deeply understand patient history, leading to personalized, preventive care, and ultimately, a healthier community and a more stable healthcare environment.
Developing a robust set of patient retention strategies allows you to scale your business and reach profit milestones quicker. Knowing how to get more patients is an essential step. However, it’s equally important – if not more so – to find effective ways to keep patients returning to your practice rather than choosing a competitor for their healthcare needs.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the importance of patient retention in healthcare and provide you with 13 great patient retention ideas that you can use in your practice.
What is patient retention?
As a metric, patient retention is typically expressed as the total percentage of people who return to your practice multiple times. Typically, 60-70% of patients stay with their current practitioners. You can use this percentage as a benchmark for your own patient retention.
As a physician, your overall goal is to heal people rather than keep them coming back. However, most patients will need assistance with various injuries and ailments over their lifetime, and many physicians work in fields that involve multiple treatments or conditions that require regular monitoring, evaluation, and follow-up. Proper physician retention strategies ensure these patients stay with your practice throughout their healthcare journey.
Why is patient retention in healthcare important?
Developing strategies for patient retention is essential because research shows it costs 90% less to retain current patients2 than it does to attract new ones. Plus, with long-term patients, the trust you accumulate over time usually translates into a higher spend per visit compared to first-time patients. Cost is a significant factor for all healthcare providers in today’s competitive environment because practices and hospitals are under increasing pressure to cut costs3, which reduces profit margins.
Financial considerations aside, retention strategies in healthcare can also boost your brand image and professional reputation and bring in more new patients through word-of-mouth referrals. Modern-day patients conduct considerable research before selecting or switching their primary healthcare provider. Google receives over 1 billion health-related searches per day, and review sites like Yelp, ZocDocs, and Web MD empower patients with a wealth of information. So developing healthcare retention strategies that ensure a steady stream of positive online information about you and your practice is vital.
12 patient retention strategies
So, how to get patients to return to your practice? If you’re unsure where to start, this list of top patient retention ideas will help. You don’t necessarily need to use all of them, but it’s a good idea to utilize as many strategies as possible to ensure maximum retention.
1. Train your front desk staff
Your front-of-house staff is often the first human touchpoint for your patients. To keep them coming back for the care they need, your front desk staff needs regular training so they can provide a warm welcome, ample reassurance, and be able to answer patient questions thoroughly. Key topics for training should include customer service, complaint resolution, and product and pricing knowledge.
2. Streamline appointments and scheduling
According to our recent survey, 14% of physicians think making it easy for patients to book appointments is a key patient retention strategy. Doing so ensures patients can seamlessly schedule the visits they need. Making sure your website is fully functional on desktop and mobile is essential. You should also consider investing in scheduling software that allows you to send:
Welcome emails
Appointment reminders via email or text
Information about which insurance policies are accepted, and the documents patients should bring to their appointments, etc.
This shows your patients that you are professional, organized, and up-to-date with the newest medical practice technology, making it more likely they will return to your practice.
3. Create a positive first impression
Dissatisfied customers tell twice as many people about a negative experience as they do about a positive one. So your patient retention strategies should include providing extra touches that make patients feel at ease from their first visit and comfortable about returning in the future. Examples include:
Providing a welcome drink.
Offering a practice orientation.
Make your waiting room as relaxing as possible by incorporating comfortable seating and tasteful artwork.
Providing free Wi-Fi and phone charging facilities.
Making exam rooms light, airy, and welcoming
Providing on-site parking.
4. Reduce wait times
Having patients wait for their appointment is unavoidable, but minimizing wait times goes a long way to reduce anxiety and maximize retention. In fact, 36% of physicians believe reducing patient wait times is one of the most effective retention strategies.
But, what if reducing wait times proves difficult? Research shows that 80% of patients would be less frustrated if they knew how long their wait would be. So, even in situations where patient wait time is longer than ideal, you should consider using digital signage with updates on queue status. This has been proven to reduce perceived wait times by up to 35%. If patients feel their wait time is minimal, they’ll be more likely to come back to your practice next time they need medical help rather than risk waiting longer at a competitor’s office.
5. Personalize patient experiences
Patients want to be seen as individuals, not as an extension of their medical needs. With 44% of physicians noting that a higher level of personalization is key to patient retention, creating experiences that recognize patients as people is essential. Once you’ve invested in the relevant software that allows you to automate and streamline your appointment and scheduling processes, 24% of physicians believe that making a point of personalizing your welcome emails is a top way to improve communication with patients. 30% of survey respondents believe the same is true of personalized appointment reminders. If possible, provide patients with access to an online customer portal where they can view all of their account information. Consider sending out birthday greetings by email or text.
You can also personalize your patients’ in-person visits. Take the time to get to know them on an individual level by asking questions about their lives and memorizing key pieces of information. Always provide a thorough explanation of what you are doing and why, pay close attention to patient needs and questions, and avoid side conversations so they know they have your full focus.
6. Make payments easy
Paying medical bills can be stressful – especially when treatment is urgent or unexpected. Make it clear how payments should be made, and provide full details on how patients can pay using various methods such as Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs). If patients are confused about what’s covered under their insurance or how to pay, make sure your staff is familiar with how to check policies and provide the relevant advice. To maximize retention, consider offering monthly payment options so people aren’t tempted to put off their healthcare needs due to financial concerns. Currently, only 56% of our survey respondents noted their practice offers payment options to patients. Clearly, this strategy has room for growth.
7. Ask for feedback
Asking for patient feedback is one of the best patient retention strategies because giving customers a voice shows you genuinely care about their opinions and experiences. Though the feedback requests you send out can take many forms, questionnaires like net promoter score (NPS) surveys work well for businesses in the medical sector because they allow you to identify indifferent and unhappy patients that may be at risk of leaving your practice in favor of a competitor. By proactively reaching out before these customers ditch your services or leave a negative review, you can resolve their issues and turn them into loyal return customers. NPS surveys also identify happy patients you can reach out to, knowing referrals and positive reviews will be guaranteed.
8. Improve your website
You might not think your website is relevant to physician retention strategies, as you probably assume that repeat patients wouldn’t need to visit your website after their initial visit. However, it’s unlikely they’ll have your contact details and business information saved after just one consultation. So they’ll likely revisit your website to check your phone number, email address, or hours of operation, etc. Ensure your website is warm, welcoming, and easy to navigate. Where possible, include all of the essential information above the fold (the section showing on the screen when the site first loads) to avoid frustration that could cause website visitors to click away from your site in favor of a competitor website that is more visually appealing or easier to use.
9. Make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improvements
Because your patients might not remember your website URL, it’s essential they can find your website and business details easily online. To improve your Google rankings and ensure your practice details show up ahead of your competitors, it’s prudent to:
Have an up-to-date Google Business and Bing listing.
Update your web copy to include more keywords and improve metadata and alt tags, etc.
Capitalize on local SEO by including location-based longtail keywords (ex. Chicago IL pediatrician)
10. Respond to reviews
A recent survey found that 27% of physicians never respond to online reviews, and an additional 22% rarely do. However, responding to every review—whether positive or negative—is a key factor in building patient trust and encouraging return visits. Best practices for crafting effective review responses include:
Personalize your responses instead of ‘cut and pasting’ generic replies.
Never include information that could violate privacy laws.
Consult your legal department for advice if you’re ever worried about violating HIPPA by responding to a review.
11. Offer incentives
Patients who feel like they are getting something for free are much more likely to be loyal. Offering an incentive to reward patients for their repeat custom is a tried and tested way of getting people to return to your practice. Survey respondents view the following incentives as most important (listed in order):
A complimentary annual check up
Cash or percentage discounts
Exclusive access to healthcare information and advice through your patient portal
A free trial of one of your products or services
12. Build professional networks
Joining an international professional network gives you easy access to the global medical community, allowing you to engage in discussions with like-minded professionals and seek advice from experienced physicians who have successfully grown their practices using proven patient retention strategies. With access to a broad network of verified physicians across more than 150 countries, you can gain valuable insights and support to strengthen your own retention efforts.
Retain more patients
Boost your professional physician networking efforts and discover new patient retention strategies by joining a global medical community.
Built by physicians, for physicians, our platform fosters impactful peer-to-peer collaboration and discussions about issues that are important to you and your patients. So you can provide a better overall service, boost your professional reputation, and increase your patient retention simultaneously. Plus, you can showcase your expertise and experience by solving cases and participating in medical studies and surveys – all of which will propel your patient acquisition and retention efforts forward.
Want to build a family-friendly practice without losing sight of profitability and efficiency? Perform Practice Solutions helps clinic owners design practices that support your life—not just your workload. From front desk training to virtual staffing, credentialing, and stress-free billing, we help you build a business that serves your patients and your family.
Long-term patient relationships don’t just happen—they’re built through intentional strategy and consistent care. With Perform Practice Solutions by your side, you’ll gain the tools, systems, and support needed to turn first-time visits into lasting loyalty.Reach out today and discover how we can help your practice grow through smarter patient retention. Our expert consultants can help you implement strategies to improve patient retention and revenue. Schedule your free consultation with Kevin Rausch to get all your questions answered.
Cloud-based software offers a major advantage, transforming how medical, dental, and cosmetic surgery clinics operate. It streamlines workflows, boosts data security, improves collaboration, and ultimately enhances patient care. This shift not only cuts IT costs but also unlocks new levels of operational agility. Read on to discover the key benefits of using cloud software for smarter healthcare operations.
If you’re getting ready to launch a new practice, or you’re wanting to upgrade your existing IT, here’s why you can’t go past cloud clinical software.
When considering the clinical software that powers your practice, there are two main options: on-premise and cloud. On-premise software is the traditional software delivery model that’s installed on physical servers within your practice. Accessing the software can only be done on site, and you’ll often need IT support to manage the maintenance, upgrades and troubleshooting.
At the other end of the spectrum is cloud software. Cloud software is software that’s delivered over the internet through a subscription or ‘pay-as-you-go’ model. The software provider hosts and manages it through a network of remote servers and databases. They’re responsible for keeping the software up-to-date and secure, adding new functionality, and resolving technical issues. And access is simple: all you need is an internet-enabled device and a login. Sounds ideal? Here are the other ways your practice could benefit from switching to the cloud:
1. Greater efficiency through innovative design
Being relatively new to market, cloud software takes advantage of innovative, user-centric design that on-premise software often lacks. With years of user data to draw from, the latest cloud software is designed to be intuitive, fast and easy to use, with many traditional pain points eliminated.
MedicalDirector Helix, for example, has simplified, connected clinical and practice management workflows – resulting in faster load times and fewer clicks. Telehealth functionality is built in, and sits alongside the patient’s history, pathology and prescriptions. This creates greater efficiency for your practice, allowing your team to spend less time using software and more time with patients.
2. Simple updates and upgrades
Because cloud software is hosted for you, you don’t need to worry about downloading and installing files, running applications or managing your own updates. All software maintenance is taken care of by the software provider. This can reduce your IT support costs significantly, and give you peace of mind knowing that your critical IT functions are always up-to-date and running smoothly.
And since software updates and upgrades occur remotely, you may not even notice when they’re happening. Instead, you’ll just see the changes when you next log in to the software. This helps eliminate downtime for your practice, ensuring there’s no interruption to your delivery of patient care.
3. Automatic compliance with new regulations
ePrescribing, Active Ingredient Prescribing and Medicare Web Services are examples of recent changes that had to be incorporated into your clinical software so that your practice remained compliant. But if you use on-premise software, managing the updates may have required external IT support, and been time-consuming and disruptive.
With cloud software, on the other hand, you don’t need to worry about organising manual software updates yourself. Cloud software providers are responsible for integrating changes or updates to their software to meet any new government regulations or industry changes. That means your software will be automatically updated at the appropriate time to give you instant access to important new features and functionality.
4. Flexibility to future-proof your practice
Because cloud software is accessible from any internet-enabled device, it can be used outside clinic hours and from different locations. This makes it easier for you to treat patients outside of your physical premises, whether that’s in their home, or at a care facility or hospital. Your team can also work more flexibly, for example accessing patient notes and sending test results after hours.
Cloud software is also better equipped to support a growing practice as it gives you the ability to increase (or decrease) your IT resources as your needs change – without requiring more infrastructure or equipment. All you need to do is add new users to your subscription. It’s a much more cost-effective way of supporting the changing demands on your practice.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of cloud software, our team is available to answer your questions or arrange a demo of our cloud software solution, MedicalDirector Helix. Get in touch with us today.
Focus on what you do best—patient care—while we handle the rest. Our expert consultants can help you implement strategies to improve efficiency, patient satisfaction, and revenue. Let us handle your medical and dental billing. Schedule your free consultation with Kevin Rausch to get all your questions answered.Book here today or follow us onIG.
Opening a medical practice involves significant costs beyond medical knowledge. Sufficient initial capital is also vital for sustainability. Understanding these financial aspects is key to planning and securing funding for your practice. Read on to explore the main costs of starting a medical practice.
At Perform Practice Solutions we can help guide you in dozens of ways. We have seen all your challenges before!
Perform Healthcare Billing Solutions is just one example of ways we can save you money — and your precious time. We created Perform Healthcare Billing Solutions because we saw so many of our practice clients getting burned by either their in-house biller or worse: their medical billing agency. You work so hard treating patients and running your practice, count on us to get you paid and fast. Our team of expert healthcare billing experts works around the clock to maximize your claims, get solid info from your front desk, and bill daily! We average a 3-week bill to paid time! Let us show you just how fast you can get paid — and how we can save you your hard-earned money. This is just one of our many supportive services. Book with us and let’s talk!
Starting a medical practice from scratch can be exciting, but to invest in a practice that has healthy cash flow and can scale and grow, you need to identify and plan for your medical practice start-up costs – so you can avoid as many surprises as possible.
There are many costs to consider when starting your own medical practice, and it might seem overwhelming at first, trying to plan for every contingency. Even if you know what costs you will be facing, it can be difficult to know how much all the costs will really be once you start implementing your business plan.
Medical Director’s new guide, ‘Calculating the cost of starting your medical practice’ offers a range of practical tips to help give you a clearer picture of what common costs you need to factor into your financial plan when starting out.
Through conversations with leading healthcare and financial experts, the guide offers tested and instantly practical advice about how to:
Budget for expenses when starting out
Cut costs with cloud software
Calculate your set-up costs
Manage your finances
Finance your new practice.
Common medical practice start-up costs
You’ll get the full picture in the guide, but here’s a snapshot of some of the costs you need to consider if you’re thinking about starting a medical practice:
Business plan development
Preliminary accounting and legal advice to help you set up your new business entity
Insurances and licenses, including medical malpractice insurance, workers compensation insurance and property insurance.
Tenancy/lease bond agreements and property advice
Design and fitout
Telephone/internet installation
Statutory requirements and legal advice
Power connection
IT infrastructure plan
EFTPOS infrastructure
Medical equipment/materials/machinery, office space, basic office equipment, fixtures and fittings
Medical supplies and consumables
Software, including practice management system
Staff recruitment costs, training costs and wages
Market research, marketing material, signage, and a marketing plan.
Medical Director CEO Matthew Bardsley explains the importance of a sound financial plan for any successful medical practice. “A future-thinking, smart financial plan for any medical practice needs to start with the premise that every dollar spent in healthcare needs to contribute to the most efficient and effective way of providing ideal levels of patient care,” says Bardsley.
“Investing in the smartest, most innovative clinical practice management methods from the start will help empower your practice to scale and achieve a competitive advantage, while adapting to the needs of your patients now, and in the future.”
Factor in one-time expenses versus ongoing costs
As you develop your financial plan, be sure to identify which costs will be one-off, and which will recur monthly, quarterly and annually. This forecasting will help you manage and set up your budget realistically, and better organize your cash flow from the outset. It’s important to operate this way from the very beginning, so you don’t get caught out in the future.
No one-size-fits-all financial plan
Your exact start-up costs will depend on the type of medical practice you are starting, and the region in which you are operating. Costs in the different categories can also vary across industries and regions. For example, a specialist practice may need to invest in specialist clinical management software, while a larger general practice would need to invest in a larger IT package tailored to a bigger team of medical professionals and support staff.
Setting realistic expectations
It’s better to err on the side of caution, overestimating both the time and money it takes to start a medical practice. Some experts recommend adding at least 10% on top of your total costs to cover any miscellaneous expenses or unforeseen fees and charges.
Meanwhile, how long it takes for your private practice to open its doors to generate revenue can make a huge impact on your cash flow and costs. Don’t set unrealistic expectations and never rush. If you get the timing wrong, costs, fees, charges and even penalties can escalate quickly – and you can find yourself under pressure to comply without enough of an income stream. This could have a significant impact on not only your practice as a business, but your professional reputation in the industry.
Where to begin?
Do as much research as possible to get a clearer picture of your budget requirements and set expectations of your costs versus cash flow when starting out. There’s plenty of great advice at your fingertips.
Industry associations, like the RACGP, offer valuable advice for practitioners ready to start their own medical practices.
Industry solution providers, like Medical Director, can offer support and advice on IT infrastructure costs for software that will scale and grow with your medical practice.
Government bodies often offer tax and other incentives to help you when you set up your own business.
Financial institutions can offer tailored financial advice and guidance as to how best to structure any loans.
Tax and legal advisors can help you make sure you’re complying with all relevant legislation.
Our free guide can step you through all the calculations involved in starting a medical practice.
A final word from Bardsley. “Investing in the right efficient and scalable tools and systems when setting up your practice, will help pave the way for you to grow your reputation as a leader in your industry, while balancing your work and lifestyle in a way that suits you and your family best. I wish you the best of luck in setting up your new medical practice, and helping more Australians find better patient-centric care.”
Dreaming of focusing solely on patient care in your practice? Our expert consultants can help you implement strategies to improve efficiency, patient satisfaction, and revenue. Let us handle your medical and dental billing. Schedule your free consultation with Kevin Rausch to get all your questions answered.Book here today. Follow us onIG.
Developing a business plan is a standard practice for any medical venture. This structured document serves as a framework for outlining objectives, analyzing the local healthcare market, and projecting financial considerations. To gain a more detailed understanding of the key components of creating a business plan relevant to medical practice, continue reading below.
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If you’re planning to start your own practice, or you’re taking over someone else’s medical business and want to run it effectively, it’s a good idea to spend some time working out the details and putting together a formalised plan first. You may also want to get professional advice on your business planning, and any other aspects of running your medical practice you’re not sure about. In the meantime here are a few business planning basics to get you started.
Why have a business plan for your medical practice?
While it can be tempting to just dive right in and start setting up your new medical practice, a business plan can help you get prepared and make sure you stay on the right track as your practice grows.
A solid business plan is the foundation of any successful medical practice. With a business plan you can identify potential issues upfront and devise a strategy to avoid them. You can also set realistic goals for your business to help you keep moving in the right direction. If you’re looking for funding at any stage, you’ll also need to have a business plan. Most medical practices will struggle to get a business loan without a solid business plan in place.
What to include in your medical practice business plan
Your business plan should include the following:
A summary of your business, including the medical services you provide, your location, and the history of the business.
Financial information including projected cash flow, outgoings like medical equipment, marketing and practice management software costs and projected turnover.
Operational factors like trading hours, fees, staffing and potential suppliers
Risk identification and management – details of how you will manage the biggest potential risks, e.g. malpractice insurance, other insurances, data security and your credentialing process.
Marketing – how you will get new patients and retain the existing ones.
As well as all the information about your medical practice and strategy, it’s also important to set goals and targets for your new venture. These should be in your business plan so you can keep track of them and make sure you’re working towards them consistently.
Making sure you have a solid business plan
So how do you make sure your medical practice business plan is solid? It’s very easy to have your plan in your head, but if you don’t get it out, it’s going to be hard for anyone else, especially the other providers and support staff in your practice to implement it. So the first step is to put it down on paper, or in a word document.
Once you’ve got a detailed plan on paper, don’t just put it in a drawer and leave it. Business planning should be a regular task for you and your business partners. Once you have your business plan in place, make sure you review it at least once a year, preferably more and update it as your business priorities change.
Writing a business plan for your medical practice might seem like a time consuming task, but it’s well worth the effort. With a strong business plan, you can grow your practice, achieve your goals and avoid many of the pitfalls that can trip up practice owners who haven’t taken the time to plan ahead.
Focus on patient care, we’ll guide you through the business side. Our expert consultants can help you implement strategies to improve efficiency, patient satisfaction, and revenue. Let us handle your medical and dental billing, virtual staffing, and even marketing. We’ve seen your challenges many times and have 101 tools to support you. Schedule your free consultation with Kevin Rausch to get all your questions answered. Book here.
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Perform Practice Solutions helps clinic owners nationwide adjust to the changing and challenging reality of practice ownership. With its innovative coaching platform, transparent billing platforms, and marketing services, Perform Practice Solutions provides frustrated and hard-working owners with an alternative way forward. It's not easy, but it is possible.
