The Private Medical Practice Academy

To start with, make a list of supplies that you everything you need:  drugs, syringes, gloves, paper for your exam table, cleaning supplies and more. Include how often you are using these supplies because we’ll need this info to figure out the quantities you need to order. 

You’ll want to develop an inventory system will help you track how often you use each item and when you need to reorder. 

Before I talk about where to buy supplies—buying  for your practice is no different than buying anything else. You need to comparison shop. There is tremendous variability in pricing. 

You can buy from individual vendors. Create an excel spreadsheet –put the item name in each row and the vendor in the column so that you can compare prices of vendors. You will also want to consider buying from a General Purchasing Organization (GPO).

How do GPOs source and negotiate prices for products and services?

 GPOs help source and negotiate prices for drugs, medical devices, and other products and services for healthcare providers.  GPOs don’t take own or take possession of the product. They are the middlemen. 

If GPOs are middlemen, how do they save healthcare providers money?

It is simply an economy of scale issue. It takes time and effort fr a supplier to negotiate a price for every item it sells with every healthcare provider that wants to purchase that item. GPOs can decrease costs by lowering transaction costs and prices through joint negotiation. 

How much can I save with a GPO?
GPOs can save providers 10% to 18%.

How else can a GPO benefit me?
As a small private practice, you may discover that it is difficult to obtain certain products at the scale you need them. Joining a GPO can help you procure the product because they have a steady inventory and a lower per unit cost on each order. 

GPOs pre-screen vendors to reduce the risk of working with a problematic supplier. GPOs also has access to more member reviews. You can save time and manpower because your staff doesn’t have to screen each vendor for every purchase. 

How to choose a GPO?
You will need to vet any GPO that you want to join. Start by asking other medical practices that you know. There are many large national, regional and local GPOs. Combine that with the ability to join multiple GPOs, easily

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Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Here are some strategies that can help keep you on schedule. 

• Get to clinic before your first scheduled patient. Preferably you get to clinic early. If you show up at 8 am, your first patient is at 8am and then you first need put out whatever this morning’s fire is, you start the day off behind and you will be all day long.  The other advantage to getting in early is to huddle with  your MA so that you have a game plan for potential bottlenecks. 
• Create a block schedule. Train your scheduler the rules of the block schedule. 
•  Communicate scheduling issues with your scheduler. If you have a patient that always takes more time, schedule them in a longer slot. 
• Don't routinely double book. If it takes you 15 min to see a follow-up and you put 2 patients in every 15 min slot you will invariably run behind. 
• There will be times that you have to double-book. Have a code so you don't double book one of those patients that always takes longer. 
• When you enter the room, set an agenda by greeting the patient, and asking them what they are here for today. The better you define and manage the expectations of the visit, the greater the patient satisfaction.  
• Set the timer on your phone. The vibrating phone is a gentle reminder that  time is up. 
• Have a plan with your MA-instant message, a knock on the door, a "call."
• Do your absolute best to not answer calls in the middle of clinic. Use HIPAA compliant email and text messaging for quick questions. If you must talk on the phone, set up a time—before patients, after patients or as a scheduled appointment. 
• Have information about diseases and procedures ready to print during the visit. Discussing the patient handout(s) and then handing it to the patient at discharge with improve patient comprehension, decrease phone calls to your office and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. 
• Most EMRs have instant messaging. If yours doesn’t, install a HIPAA compliant instant messaging application. We all know how questions, unplanned tests and procedures can disrupt your otherwise perfectly flowing day. With instant messaging you can be in an EMR chart and have a separate window open for instant messages to communicate with your staff without leaving the room. 
• Create a list of supplies that every exam room should be stocked with.

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

To reduce the volume of after-hour phone calls, you need to have a policy that implements these strategies.

Implement strategies that help reduce after-hour call volume without sacrificing patient care. 

1. Set up your phone system's phone tree
When a patient calls after hours, your phone system should answer and give the patient a set of instructions. The message should start with, “If this is a medical emergency, please hang up and dial 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.” 

2. Automate commonly requested information

Your after-hours message should include the information that patients are routinely looking for like your address, office hours, directions to the office, your fax number and your website URL. Mention your website multiple times during the message to direct patients to that site. The person recording this message must articulate clearly and speak slowly so. this automated message can be easily understood. 

3. Divert non-clinical calls

Non-clinical calls, including requests to change, cancel and schedule appointments, requests for medical records, and billing questions can account for a significant percentage of your after-hours calls. Set up a phone tree prompt that sends people to a voicemail box that the staff will answer during regular office hours. 

4. Automate medication refills

Ideally, refills are timed to patient follow-ups. Have all refill requests come from the pharmacy. Adopt a policy of no refills on nights, weekends and holidays. Employ a phone tree prompt that sends patients to a voicemail box for non-urgent refill requests.

5.  Indicate that you may bill for non-urgent calls

Another strategy is to inform the caller that if they chose to contact the on-call provider, there will be a charge for the service. You can decide whether you want this to apply to all calls or only ones that are not urgent. You can also decide whether or not you actually want to drop a charge. 

5. Instruct callers to hang up and dial the answering service directly

If you are going to use an answering service, I would suggest having a pre-recorded message on your phone system that directs patients who still want to speak with the on-call provider to hang up and call the answering service directly.

6. Target high uti

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

When you run a private medical practice, you’re invariably going to need services and vendors outside of your practice.   What you need to know is that any person or organization that you hire to handle, use, distribute, or access protected health information is a Business Associate (BA) and that you need to have a Business Associate Agreement (BAA.) 

You need to have a Business Associate Agreement in place before you share protected health information.  

The goal behind the Business Associate Agreement is to acknowledge that both parties are obligated to follow federal HIPAA regulations and to protect both parties in the event of a breach.

According to HHS, the Business Associate Agreement must: 

• Describe the permitted and required protected health information uses by the Business Associate and /or their subcontractors
• State that the Business Associate and their Subcontractors will not use or further disclose protected health information beyond what is  permitted or required by the contract or as required by law;
• And require the Business Associate and their Subcontractors to use appropriate safeguards to prevent inappropriate protected health information use or disclosure

A Business Associate Subcontractor is a person or entity to that the BA delegates to perform a function, activity or service.  

Contractors and Confidentiality Agreements

Your employees, independent contractors who work exclusively for your company or a sole proprietor with other clients are not BAs. In this case your practice is solely responsible if someone breaches protected health information. One way to address this from a compliance perspective is to have your employees and independent contractors sign a confidentiality agreement.  The confidentiality agreements should:

• Clarify the type of information the agreement covers.
• Describe what type of information cannot be copied, downloaded or modified. As an aside, this is a very common source of a HIPAA breach—when some piece of protected health information is downloaded onto a desktop because its “easier” to access but it’s not secured.
• Address issues like not removing a laptop containing protected health information from your office
• State information must be returned upon employer’s request
• Disci

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

We send and receive email every day so  it would seem natural to send emails to your patients. But what if the emails contain protected health information? How do you make email HIPAA compliant?

How you will use email with protected health information

The first questions to ask are, “Is my email network is behind a firewall?” Are you only emailing protected health information between you and your staff within the confines of the firewall? If you answer yes to both questions, then you don’t need to encrypt your emails. But, you do need access controls for email accounts so that only those individuals who are authorized have access to protected health information.

On the other hand, if you intend to use email to send protected health information externally, you are responsible for protecting the protected health information—in other words, making it HIPAA compliant.  Encryption is the key to making your email HIPAA-compliant but it’s not that simple. Many email service providers that offer an encrypted email service are not HIPAA compliant because they do not incorporate all the necessary safeguards to meet the requirements of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. 

 Here are some of the things you will want to consider to make your email is HIPAA compliant 

• Ensure you have end-to-end encryption for email
• Enter into a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement with your email provider
• The most important step—Develop policies on the use of email and train your staff
• Emails containing PHI need to be retained for 6 years
• Secure, encrypted email archiving saves storage space and is indexed making its easier to search
• Obtain consent from patients before communicating with them by email

HIPAA email compliance should be included in your compliance plan. You don’t want something we all do every day—send and receive emails to get you into HIPAA trouble. If you are unsure of the requirements of HIPAA compliant speak with a healthcare attorney that specializes in HIPAA to advise you of your responsibilities and the requirements of HIPAA with respect to email.

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

Trying to figure out how the digital world fits into your private practice can seem very overwhelming. Today, I had a great conversation with Dr. Dana Corriel, a board certified internist, entrepreneur, digital stratgeist and the founder of doctorsonsocialmedia.com to get her insights. 

Here are some of the key points we discussed: 

• Social Media is Media. It's a form of advertising. Don't think about it as "Social"
• Whatever content you put into the digital space represents you and your brand
• Your priority is the prime real estate you own--your website
  • Make your website unique
  • Provide content geared to the audience you want to read it
• You can re-purpose content from your website 
  • Post it on one of the social media channels--Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
  • Be consistent
• Establish yourself as an expert
  • Publish articles on doctorsonsocialmedia.com and other sites so that you are identified as an expert in your field
• You never know who will see your content--patients, referral sources, others.
• Use social media to drive people back to your website.
• People may not find you on social media but your patients and referral sources will definitely check out your website before coming to see you or referring patients.

Dana Corriel, MD, is a board certified internist, entrepreneur & digital stratgeist. She is the founder of DoctorsonSocialMedia.com, an online platform that functions as a mix of media outlet, marketplace, & talent agency for “medical brains”, serving both a physicians and public audience. Over the years, Dr. Corriel has learned how to create truly stand-out content online & has expanded her own career in just a few short years, using simple online tools. Her company has helped numerous physician influencers and innovative new healthcare businesses grow, thanks to its communities and networking power. Many of these experts now successfully occupy top healthcare positions, appear in influential outlets, and accomplish feats doctors never thought possible.

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

I’m sure that you’ve heard the expression:  build it and they will come.  You started your private practice because you want to see patients. But how do you build your patient volume?

In this episode, you'll learn 6 steps to accelerate your ramp-up. 

• Define your message
  • Differentiate yourself from the competition
• Create your brand
  • The name of your business
  • Your tagline
  • Your domain name
  • Your logo
• You need printed materials. This isn't old-fashioned. 
  • Business cards
  • Appointment cards
  • Stationary
  • Brochures
• Your website is your digital business card
• Promote early and often
  • Tell people where you are
  • Schedule appointments before your opening day
• Your open house
  • Not just a celebration
  • It's a powerful form of advertisement

You will want to implement these 6 steps before you open your business in order to maximize the likelihood that you will be busy straight from the start.

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

In this episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Wendy Margolin who owns Sparkr Marketing and is the founder of The Clinician’s Social Media Club. I asked Wendy to join me to discuss where social media fits into the private practice physician's business plan.  Here are some of the topics we discussed:

• How to choose which social media channel(s) should you choose
• What content should you post
• How to get your posts seen
• Should you spend money on ads (and how much)
• Your personal FB profile vs. your practice's business page
• How to use your practice's FB page to engage with your community
• How to monitor whether your SM posts are working for you.

One of the key points we discussed was using your personal FB profile to share your business info. Unfortunately, your FB business page is much more likely to get folks that are already interested in hearing from you. So how do you connect with others? You can use your personal FB profile. But--how do you separate your posts about the info you want to share about your practice and your truly personal info?  You can divide your FB contacts into FB audiences. Here’s a link to how to divide Facebook audiences. 

My take-home message to you about social media: It's a top in your tool chest. Even if a new patient doesn't find you on social media, they probably checked out your website and FB page. 

Click here if you'd like to know more about Wendy Margolin's  The Clinician’s Social Media Club for monthly fill-in-the-blank social media captions and customizable Canva templates. 

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

The Notice of Privacy Practices is a form that many patients toss in the garbage but that can you into a lot of trouble and costs an enormous amount of money.  HIPAA guarantees a variety of patient rights--including a patient’s right to know how you’re going to use their Protected Health Information (PHI.) As part of that,  you are required to describe your office’s privacy practices in writing in an easy-to-read document called a Notice of Privacy Practices.

The HIPAA guidelines state that you must “do your best” to get your patients to sign an acknowledgment that indicates that they have

• received a copy of your Notice of Privacy Practices
• been made aware of a notice copy posted in your waiting area, or
• been informed that a copy is available on your practice’s website

What should you include in your privacy notice:

• Rights:  Your privacy notice must clearly spell out your patients’ rights 
• Choice: Patient privacy choices must also be clearly listed
• Use: You are required to tell your patients how you will use their information
• Date and Sign: Although your patients are not required to sign and date your privacy notice, there must be a place for them to do so on the document 
• Change: Your patients have the right to change the instructions on how you are authorized to utilize their information 

Here's a HIPAA-compliant sample Notice of Privacy Practices form.  

How to use the form correctly:

• Timing: Every new patient packet must contain a complete copy of your privacy notice. Have patients review your privacy notice again at least every three years.
• Availability:   Post a copy of your Notice of Privacy Practices where your patients can easily see it. 
• Signature: Make a “good faith” effort to document acknowledgment of your privacy notice by getting your patient to sign and date it. 
•  Refusal to Sign: If they refuse to sign,  document the reasons.
• Language:  Your Notice of Privacy Practices form needs to be available in other language options as your practice represents.

Who can Sign a Privacy Notice? 

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!

If you practice medicine, sooner or later you’ll get to the point that you want to fire a patient. Whatever the reason that you may have for terminating the physician-patient relationship, there needs to a clear and consistent policy and procedure for doing so or you're exposing yourself to hassles and unnecessary potential liability. 

Once you have made the difficult decision to end the doctor-patient relationship, there are a number of steps you need to take:

1. Understand the legal standards for duty of care and for patient termination.
   • Duty of care—this refers to the doctors responsibility to provide patients with treatment.  In order for a physician to be obligated to a patient, you must either:
     • have a pre-existing relationship with the patient
     • have a commitment to the patient by proxy
     • take affirmative action to treat the patient
2. You need to send out a termination letter to the patient. 
3. Notify all office staff about the termination. 
4. If you have more than one physician, you absolutely want to notify all practice physicians about the termination.  
5. Your next step is to remove the patient from your roster of active patients. 
6. After you have fired the patient, i.e. sent the termination letter, it’s imperative that you document All Post-Firing Encounters. 
7. You need to use  a disclaimer for Emergency Care. 
8. You need to know how much notice you need to give the patient. 
   • There’s no federal standard that defines “reasonable notice"
   • Know your state's requirements 
   • Look to your payor contracts for guidance 
   • Contact a healthcare attorney in your state

Here's a list of dos and don’ts for you, as the treating physician to keep in mind as you interact with your soon-to-be ex-patient:

• Never discuss the patient’s health or wellbeing if you encounter him or outside of the office. 
• If you participate in health fairs, online medical discussions or any other situation in which there is the potential for your opinions to be interpreted as medical advice, you will want to include a disclaimer. 

In the end, there will be occasions where you want to and are justified in firing a patient. You just want to make sure that you do it the right way.

For a full searchabl

Support the show

Want to hear more tips on how to start, run and grow your practice and related medical businesses, please sign up for my newsletter at https://www.thepracticebuildingmd.com

Join my FB group, The Private Medical Practice Academy.

Enroll in How To Start Your Own Practice and get the step-by-step process for opening your practice.

Join The Private Medical Practice Academy Membership for live group coaching, expert guest speakers and everything you need to know to start, grow and leverage your private practice. The course, How To Start Your Own Practice is included in the membership, as a bonus.

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts"I love Sandy Weitz and The Private Medical Practice Academy Podcast." <-- If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people -- just like you -- move toward the practice they want . Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!