One of the things I get to discuss with consulting clients is the impact that their decisions have on their health, prosperity, and yes even their lifespan and career longevity.

Let’s face it the private practice of healthcare can be enormously stressful. Some of this of course occurs in any occupation. But more recently the expansion of regulations, requirements everything from how we keep our records, documents, or clinical findings, as well as direct challenges by third parties and the government make this much more difficult. Thank goodness this is less of a burden in DPC.

I often argue quite frankly that so much of this “stuff” is unnecessary. But that of course is another story entirely.

There are however things you can do that will greatly reduce the BS in private practice and impact your future in a very positive way.

The best way to do this is to start to treat practice like the business it really is. Every day, learn more and more CEO skills.

Learn what the greats in business and practice do year after year.

And the most important piece is learning to make decisions. Too many businesses, and yes private practice owners, do not take this seriously enough. They sometimes delegate things to managers and even support staff that they should be handling themselves.

Most significantly, this includes things like which patients to accept or not, which employers to participate with or not, etc.

Jack Welch is famous for stating that every year we need to cut out the bottom 15% of our business. That means in practice systems, perhaps staffing and even some non-compliant patients.

I respectfully submit to you today making these sometimes difficult decisions first will have the biggest impact on the rest of your year and perhaps the rest of your career!