Management Styles in Private Practice 

One of the most difficult things to both teach and learn in private practice is the development of both business and patient management styles. For most of us, the private practice of healthcare is not something we are taught in training, with rare exceptions. And developing our own management style is rarely contemplated until we get confronted by reality. 

 Physicians need to seek out the practical MBA-like skills we do not have. To think otherwise is a recipe for pure disaster in any business! A year hasn’t gone by when I haven’t read several management books and have both taken and taught courses in business related to private practice growth and management. I encourage you to do the same.

 But the biggest advantage of developing our own management styles is that it does add predictability to our practices. Most importantly, our patients and staff are taught how and when to best engage us. 

Guidelines, timeframes, and boundaries for both are established right up front. This not only cuts our stress levels tremendously but boosts the patient’s self-responsibility, which determines both clinical outcomes and not surprisingly practice incomes.

 Here’s the big takeaway. It’s much more important to establish and then continue to hone our management skills and style as opposed to pretending to manage our patients and practice by default.

 Far too often, management by default is the worst nightmare we can unknowingly create and the biggest reason for practice failure. 

Do not let this be you! Read, study, go to workshops and keep good notes! Reach out personally and let me know if I can help you too. You’ll be glad you did!