Try these power-ups to boost your physician private practice

Thriving as a physician in private practice has arguably never been more challenging. At the same time, amid the increasing corporate consolidation of U.S. medicine, the autonomy afforded by private practice has lasting and powerful appeal to many physicians—whether they are just finishing residency or already well into their careers.

It takes astute clinical judgment as well as a commitment to collaboration and solving challenging problems to succeed in independent settings that are often fluid, and the AMA offers the resources and support physicians need to start off right on the path to success in private practice.

That includes AMA Private Practice Simple Solutions, a series of no-cost, open-access, rapid-learning cycles that help practices implement actionable changes to quickly increase efficiency. Each eight-week Private Practice Simple Solutions learning collaborative addresses one topic area important to private practices and begins with a webinar of pre-recorded content presented by subject matter experts. Registration is required.

Following the kick-off webinar, an asynchronous discussion board offers weekly prompts for participants that encourage interaction with peers and questions for the experts to address. Midway through the learning collaborative, participants attend a live webinar for a moderated Q&A on the topic that will inform the direction of the discussion prompts for the remainder of the session.

“The AMA has a lot of really great resources on efficiency and sustainability,” according to Taylor Johnson. She is AMA manager of physician practice development and part of the program development team, which has done “a deep dive into the processes that are most important for physicians in private practice.”

Explore just a few of the transformative physician private practice insights shared as part of this series, as covered by the AMA news team.

1. To kickstart your practice recruiting efforts, develop an elevator pitch

   1. You cannot deliver care and flourish in private practice without having the right people in place. Practices that need to increase their medical and professional staffs should devise a strategy to identify what kind of people they need and where to find them.
   2. And the recruitment effort doesn’t stop there. Prospective physician colleagues and others need to be recruited through demonstration of an organizational culture and environment that meets their future career needs.

2. Start building your practice’s brand with the right research

   1. Building a brand for your physician private practice takes more than buying advertising space in a local publication. It takes research, say health care marketing and branding experts. To help differentiate your physician private practice, identify your strengths and distinctive attributes, assess patient and community needs. Also, conduct a competitive review of your market.

3. Earn staff buy-in for your private practice’s vision

   1. Money matters most of all in recruiting and retaining physician private practice staff, employees say. But practice-management experts counter that compensation is only part of a comprehensive strategy to recruit and retain new employees. Employee buy-in, getting staff to understand and participate in the vision of leadership, is critical. Read further on how to keep staff engaged at your physician private practice.

4. Harness the practice benefits of team-based care

   1. March Madness. The World Series. The Super Bowl. Nothing is more exciting than watching a well-organized team performing at the top of its game. Teamwork isn’t limited to sports, though. Physician private practices can benefit from organized workflows and shared effort that can reduce expenses and practically eliminate physician burnout.
   2. Properly implemented, team-based care can address some of the most important problems identified by physicians—improving accessibility, quality of care, patient flow, satisfaction and engagement. And if you want to dive deeper for more time-saving tips, check out the AMA STEPS Forward^® Private Practice Playbook.

5. Draw patients to your private practice with the right digital footprint

   1. Don’t just look for patients in the waiting rooms of your physician private practice. Patients today are likelier to turn to the internet when they seek medical answers, and if you want to connect with them you will need to reach out online with advanced marketing strategies to create a bigger digital footprint.
   2. Patients gravitate to the web for information about physician qualifications, medical resources and individual physician reviews, and successful practices must communicate effectively online with state-of-the-art webpage design, active social media participation and creative digital content.

6. Get a stronger handle on the revenue cycle

   1. A physician private practice with a good handle on its revenue cycle can bring in more dollars and adapt more quickly to external forces such as lower payment rates. It can also increase patient satisfaction.
   2. Revenue cycle management is an evolving, sometimes complicated, process to administer. Learn about the eight essential steps involved and why it’s critical to assess your revenue cycle on a regular basis.

7. Target EHR note bloat to help streamline E/M documentation

   1. For years, nurses at a large academic medical center would take patients to their exam room and ask them what they wanted their primary care physician to address that day. The nurse would record comments on a handwritten piece of paper and then give it to the physician, who would type it into the EHR’s visit note. It took too long for the team to come up with the time-saving step of having the nurse type in the information.
   2. That is just one example of how unnecessary documentation burdens are perpetuated, even when quick fixes are readily available. Learn why physicians are encouraged to put their documentation practices through a de-implementation process (PDF) that “removes the sludge” from their EHR by getting rid of low-value processes or outdated requirements.
   3. To support AMA members in managing their practices more efficiently, the AMA has teamed up with Medline to provide significant cost savings on 300,000-plus medical, surgical and pharmaceutical supplies for their practices.

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Enroll in the AMA Medline Buying Program and enjoy exclusive access to these medical supply discounts:

• Up to 20% savings on all purchases.
• Next-day delivery and low order minimums.
• Zero cost to join for AMA members.
• Medline’s extensive apparel program.

Learn more about the AMA Medline Buying Program and how to enroll.

Also, find out more about the AMA Private Practice Physicians Section, which works to preserve the freedom, independence and integrity of private practice.