Show Up for Private Practice Management
Show up for your private practice
“80% of Success is Showing Up” – Woody Allen
This remark is pretty accurate. When clinicians “show up” that means we make ourselves available to provide excellent clinical care. This is good. This is the core of our business. Turns out however, just showing up for our patients may actually not be enough. Private practice management requires clinicians wear the many hats of business owners.
The problem with clinical private practice compared to other health care organizations is that most clinicians are required to show up for about seven jobs on a daily basis in order to be successful. They find themselves managing private practice administration, scheduling and streamlining the patient process, handling billing, therapy notes and files, tracking revenue, overseeing marketing/advertising, doing accounting and more.
An additional struggle for clinicians is we come from an industry where our “clinical training” simply addressed one component of our position. Yup, no actual business education for us. We graduate, take an entry level position and then over time make our way out to the private sector to pioneer our own practice. Often with no business strategy. Let’s be honest, most of us have never even seen a business plan.
So here’s to clinicians of the new era. Clinicians who not only show up for clients but are now “showing up” to anything and everything other than just seeing patients. Here’s to showing up for business education. After all a private practice, isn’t just a practice that one masters over time, it’s our livelihood. It’s also the source of our inspiration and a place patients depend on for the very best mental health care.