To staff or not to staff in a DPC practice
(By Tami Singh, MD)
Incorporating staff in a DPC office can be controversial just like other aspects of DPC. What’s the greatest part about DPC is if you have seen one you have NOT SEEN ALL.
My favorite quote from some of the pioneers.
Some offices start with staff others decide to keep their overhead low (DPC motto) and run a micro practice with no staff.
When I first started my DPC solo practice Aspire Health in 2017, I set out to learn all the roles that played in opening and running a DPC practice. I wore many hats and enjoyed the journey. There were many learning curves but, in the end, I was able to be successful ALL ALONE for the first year. I brought on a medical assistant after I realized there were some things I just didn’t want to do anymore. Knowing everyone’s position helped me when I hired staff to know exactly what duties were required of them.
Currently, we have 5 part-time medical assistants, 3 virtual assistants, and 2 physicians.
The flow for the office medical assistants is to provide an excellent customer service experience to our patients when they are present in the office.
The virtual medical assistants are focused on providing the same excellent customer service but on the back-office side interacting with patients through phone, emails, and text messages. Some of their duties entail answering phones, uploading labs, faxing, refilling meds, sending forms, enrolling patients, acute calls, and requesting medical records.
As our office continues to grow the office and virtual staff have been a great support to myself and my colleague. It all allows us to enjoy being physicians under our terms excluding unnecessary interactions and duties.
