You didn’t spend years in college and then all the time and energy starting your practice just to see it fail. Before giving up hope, there are a few simple things you can think about. We’ve asked 10 successful doctors the most significant mistakes they made when they first started practicing medicine.
Your reputation is what can make or break you in medicine, no matter where you live. Around 85% of people are now using the internet to find their health care provider. They’ll use search engines to read reviews to see how the doctor responded to previous patients or if they couldn’t be bothered.
Not Reading Reviews
Your patients are who keep you in business. You need to take the time to look at your profile and read any reviews that have been left. A simple online search for your practice’s name will show multiple sites where they have been posted.
Read and Comment On Negative Reviews
It’s unlikely every review you find is going to be positive. Take time to read the negatives ones and don’t act out in anger. You can use this as an opportunity to let people know what you’re doing to solve that individual’s issue and improve yourself. An example of this is maybe you were having a bad day and came off rude and snappish to a patient. You should apologize for their bad experience and reassure them that the mistake won’t happen again.
Make Sure Your Physician Profile Is Up To Date
Your physician profile is a great way to market yourself. People often come across a profile that only has the physician’s name, old address, and phone number that’s no longer in service. Now what? How do they contact you? You already know the answer to that. They wouldn’t bother trying to; they’d just move on to the next name.
What to Include on Your Physician Profile
- Name, address, and phone number
- Professional photo
- Eduction, areas of expertise, and any awards or recognitions you’ve earned
- Insurances that are accepted
Neglecting To Ask Patients For Comments
Most of the comments you find about a business are going to be negative because people don’t simply ask for reviews. On the patient’s way out, ask them if they’d mind leaving a comment on your clinic’s website. More than likely, they’d be happy too.
Mistakes Made With Employees
Everyone knows that your employees make or break your business. No matter how good you are at your job, if you don’t have the right people backing you up, it’s not going to matter. This is why it’s so important to pay close attention to who you hire and how they are trained.
Lack Of Training
If you don’t properly train your employees they’re not going to know how to do the job properly. It’s not just the other doctors that matter but the front desk staff and anyone who handles sensitive data. If a patient’s information gets leaked this can leave you open to a lot of lawsuits. Also if your scheduling staff doesn’t know how to properly schedule appoints you’ll end up losing potential clients.
Micromanaging
Most physicians have type-A personalities and have a terrible time delegating. They tend to micromanage their employees leaving them annoyed and frustrated, significantly decreasing employee satisfaction. Think of why this is; even when you started school there was a clear hierarchy. People knew instinctively who was in charge and who wasn’t. This doesn’t stop when you become a doctor, instead, it probably gets worse.
In order to overcome this, you have to be willing to admit you do not know how to run the facility on your own. You can’t schedule appointments, keep all the files up to date, return the phone calls, and do all of the vital signs on your own. Plus if you tried, you’d burn yourself out in the first two days.
If you are one of those who have recently had to leave their medical practice due to any of these mistakes you can easily find a position you’ll love on Practice Match. Searching is easy all you have to do is put in your specialty and the area you want. This site makes it easy to find a position you’ll love.
If you find that you’re guilty of any of these mistakes, the good news is it’s not too late to fix them. Focus on a website you can be proud of and ask people for reviews. But the most important thing you can do is make sure you train your staff properly and then let them do their job.
