Why a medical practice business plan needs to be agile
A successful medical practice starts with a forward-thinking, flexible business plan that evaluates each aspect of the ‘business’ of your new practice.
In MedicalDirector’s latest ebook, ‘The Smart Guide to Starting a Medical Practice,’ we reveal what it takes to create a robust plan that clearly communicates your business information to partners, staff, stakeholders such as financial institutions, while setting you apart from the competition.
Define agile processes and systems
Why can fast food chains run so seamlessly and scale so fast? Because they start with extremely efficient, agile and simple systems, and processes that even a teenager could understand.
Applying this principle to a medical practice, a successful set up needs to be built on systems and processes that are streamlined, agile and scalable.
A system that is easy to understand, train and use will not only make the entire set up process more efficient, but make growing your practice, training more staff and scaling that much smoother.
Get the basics right
When you’re starting a practice, you also need to understand basic business structure, and weigh up all the pros and cons. Is it going to be an associateship, a virtual practice or a traditional practice? Do your research thoroughly and obtain sound business advice before you decide which option is best for you.
A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis can help evaluate each aspect of your business, identify any gaps, strengths, weaknesses and tackle potential pain points or risks. It also helps create a solid, foundational blueprint from which you can build upon.
Start with cloud software, the rest will follow
According to Professor (Dr) Martin Samy, founder of the Samy Medical Group in Western Australia, an agile, cost-effective and future-proofed business plan actually starts with cloud software. This is because the efficiencies of cloud technology impact so many aspects of your medical practice.
According to Prof Samy, one of the common mistakes health professionals make when starting a medical practice is failing to realise how critical a good IT system from the start is to the entire business planning process.
“When I started the Samy Medical Group, the first thing I did was look for cloud-software I could trust,” he said. “Now you might be thinking, why didn’t you start with your business plan, why did you start with finding the right cloud system? Well it’s because cloud impacts everything, from staff resources, capital resources to wider strategic planning.”
Importantly, with cloud, Prof Samy also eliminated server costs, IT support costs and staff support costs from the start.
“I could buy simple computer hardware and laptops – because all you need is the Internet,” he added. “Such a huge cost saving from the outset makes a huge difference to my business plan and operational costs.”
It also influenced how many patients the practice could forecast to see a day and helped the practice see clearly from the outset how Samy Medical Group could make money.
“It even impacted whether we wanted to go bulk billing or not,” he explained. “In fact, we wouldn’t go for bulk billing if it wasn’t for cloud. That’s how much of an influence cloud has on your business plan.”
To find out more, download our free ebook: ‘The Smart Guide to Starting a Medical Practice.’
