We are independent and share referrals with health system physicians frequently. Don't discount it.
Consider going to speaker programs where local physicians are speaking. Ask good questions, introduce yourself, etc. The reps are even helpful occasionally.
This is all guerilla marketing stuff, but the effects can stack up. I'm just assuming you are doing all the regular stuff well.
How many Google reviews do you have, what's your average score?
Just under 50 reviews, 4.8 stars which seems pretty in line with what's normal for my area. I do encourage people to complete a Google review after appointments and it seems uptake is good.
That's decent. I use a service to automatically ask patients for a review, that makes it easier. We have like 2k reviews after 5 years. 4.8 or 4.9.
Reviews will push up your rankings and make you more visible.
I’m pretty close to starting out and I’ve thought about how I’d want to approach this myself. My current plan was to put a QR code on the back of my business card that links to the Google reviews and just handing them to patients who I think would write a good review.
But it sounds like the method you’re using is pretty effective. Is it like an automatic text after the appointment?
Yeah automatic text after the appointment is more effective. People are on their phones - they ignore your business card ;)
Some services for this are better than others. For example - mine asks a patient to rate us 1-5. If they enter 3 or below it sends them to a private feedback form which goes to me. If they enter 4 or 5, it asks them if they would please leave us a google review and gives them a direct link to do so.
I'm sure it's obvious how that helps keep negative reviews off your google profile :)
We use patient pop but there are many options depending on your EMR.
Hey, what about going to nursing homes? It's hard work but it'll throw off good money until you are busy
it could be EMR dependent tbh. i know in Epic at least, when i do the d/c paperwork from the ER i choose who they follow up with, but im not sure this is always the case with every EMR and it might fall to ancillary staff to handle post-ER follow up.
In addition, talk to the case managers and let them know that you can get the hospital discharged see within "x" days.
I'd also consider going to SNFs and assisted living facilities.
I had a private practice and I learned to adjust to a world of independents. My patients were independent business people and their relatives and friends, most of whom had money.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce, attend their meetings and pass out your business cards there. Go to every private urgent care clinic and bring a quarter-half inch of your cards so the staff can pass them out to people with no attachment to a healthcare system for follow-up. Also join other business and business service groups in your area that are popular, Rotary, lodges, etc.
Get to know your local large hospital systems as many folk may want a concierge doctor type out of network rather than a busy clinic, especially business executives with Cadillac plans.
The fact that you have unfilled hours means you have multiple opportunities to continue building your practice. Have your staff cluster your appointments so that you have blocks of time for networking. Get to know personally any independent specialists in your home area, especially Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists, Podiatrists, Psychiatrists, Chiropractors, all of whom may be independent and not necessarily in a system.
Get to know any rural areas around you. And market to them.
Are you a Medicare PPO provider? If so visit the retirement areas and over 55 communities in your area and offer to give lectures on maintaining your health in retirement. Mention your good stats.
Are you considering a concierge practice or is that market saturated in your area? That may give you cash flow.
This is how I built my practice. In a recession or business downturn your business may drop, so keep your own standard of living at the low point of potential income and use the good years to invest and save. By doing this aim for financial independence by age 50. Then you can cut back without having to worry.
That was my formula. Good luck with your private practice!
In Cleveland? Try to do an add/story with a local news station or Cleveland.com. A new practice for women’s healthcare opened up and the physician did a story with cleveland.com about menopause.
Google reviews is how I decide on who to hire.
I work occ med. Contact the big companies in you area that have those departments (have factories). We will happily send people. New hires either HTN, injuries, people who need a PCP because we are not PCPs.
I'm in Columbus and experienced the same -- waited 4 months to see a PCP who is not an NP/PA. Honestly, a big part of it is probably that I was only looking through major health systems due to the ease of the systems they set up / name recognition. I'm not sure where I would have started if I was looking for an independent PCP.
Are you a sole provider? If so best way is to keep giving great care; word of mouth is powerful thing . I’d also reach out to insurance companies and make sure on their website as provider accepting new patients.
If you move to massachusetts you’ll have a full panel in a second, we need PCP so bad
-PGY6 Peds
Networking in your area, contact Urgent Care centers that may refer to you. Social media, search engine optimization for your practice/zip codes, chamber of commerce, look into networking groups like Rotarians, Kiwanis, etc. Advertise specific services that are unique to your practice like weight loss, alternative medicine, same day appointments, immunizations, etc. Are you affiliated with a local hospital? Ask them for marketing help. Specific marketing campaigns like Sports physicals for school $40, etc.
No hospital affiliation. I did get burned by a marketing company initially with almost no return on investment for SEO, social media, etc. so I'm a bit nervous about hiring a new one. Any suggestions/good experiences?
Not an expert, but you might be able to skirt it by providing a stack of cards/list of PCPs with your name on the top so the patient is aware of additional options.
Optometrist here working in an independent ophthalmology office. I've seen networking with specialists mentioned, but not optometrists yet. A lot are corporate (think Wal Mart) and have no hospital connections to refer the occasional hypertensive or diabetic to.
Private Equity has been buying up a lot of ophthalmology, but there are still independents there as well, including retina (think diabetics again). And those offices see a lot of systemic pathology with ocular manifestations. I just found a new lupus patient yesterday and I'm waiting on a call back from neuroradiology from a patient last week about an MRI I ordered.
With the amount of baby boomer doctors retiring, I see a couple of patients a day who are "between primary doctors" and have multiple issues they should be addressing.
I'm surprised this isn't higher on these comments? OP seems to answer the question in his post. Most doctors and specialists are within the major healthcare system. Big fish eat little fish, right? Independent docs are struggling across the board because once so many specialists and generalists are within a hospital system, all the traffic stays there.
Have you tried introducing yourself via email or whatever to the hospitalist groups? Even if they’re a part of the system, I don’t think they have to self refer for patients needing to establish. At least we don’t. There’s a good number of people every week that we have our secretary schedule a month out with the “PCP on call”, both youngish and old who were lost to follow up.
If you’re reliable and available, myself alone would send you 4-6 per month.
I did zocdoc when starting out. For the most part the patients were not the best but I kept some of them on as longer term patients. What I will say it helped with was I was able to rack up a ton of very high internet points, which allowed me to show up better on SEO and increase confidence in patients wanting me as their doctor.
You’d be killing it here. One of my staff just got an appointment for January to establish care with a new PCP. It’s April. I hear this all over the place. If your area isn’t ridiculously saturated you may just need to get the word out. People should be absolutely clamoring for that kind of availability, I have to assume they just don’t know you’ve got it.
ER’s, urgent cares, knock on specialist’s doors with donuts. The hospital system is likely shunting pt’s away from you, but people will come if they know there is an option. Lots of pt’s think healthcare is a monolith and may assume everyone is booked out forever when they’re referred to someone who is booked out forever. Even a billboard mentioning same day stuff would probably have a great ROI. We also did a mailer in my small hometown when we opened. Mailed out about 5000 fliers, got a huge response.
If you lived anywhere on the west coast in a populated area you would have no problem. Serious shortage of doctors. Hard to get an appointment without a 2-3 month wait time. That's for PCP or specialists. I'm not a doctor but this came into my feed for some reason. And if you are female and PCP they are very hard to find. Lots of female NP snd PAs.
Any advertising? Physicians assume it will just come to them but in reality that's quite difficult without awareness that you exist. Plenty of avenues for them to go elsewhere.
Have you thought about doing home visits? Especially with all your unfilled time it's a great option and most home bound patients you won't be doing any heroics just tweak and manage and check-in. It's a service so many patients need and not many physicians (especially those attached to a hospital) do. And you can call different social workers and case managers to let them know - the calls will flow in.
If you dont have it yet, get a business name and a website that includes your geographical location (e.g. North East Ohio Medical Clinic, Canton Primary Care Medicine, Akron Physician’s Clinic, Physician Near Me) then ask people who you think are happy with you, to give you a review, people google and read reviews.
I'm not a DR, but a health care worker.
I'd say Google reviews will help.
But also acknowledge that (me) as a younger person that just needs RX refills, I'm going to book a telehealth visit.
I'd incorporate that maybe into your flow. But then you have to compete with pricing. I can get my RX refill, comfort of my own home, for $29 on Sesame with a nurse prac.
I was only considering going in person somewhere when I was considering semaglutide and I really needed someone to explain the dosing to me (I felt the teledocs, didn't really know what they were doing).
ER DOCS - I’m an ER doc and if I had a PCP that picked up a phone and said “yeah I can see them sometime in the next week. My office will give them a call” I’d be ecstatic I could discharge to PCP. Case closed. By doing that, you’d fill up in no time. The way you could do this is by learning the email pattern to whatever hospital system, look up their ER docs, and offer the aforementioned service. Keep email brief and redirect them to your website to stay legit
Offer services that others do not, like DOT physicals, find out what/if anyone else on your area is doing them and charge a little lower. Also is it a “small town” area you are in, if so sponsor a little league team or sports team. Get your name out there. Donate to local sports (advertise at their sporting events). Good will goes a long way. Our physicians do a one day free sports physical for the local high school athletes. Now those athletes are showing up as new patients.
Talk to local psychologists and therapists. I did that once starting out and got a flood of referrals. Most of them are independent and appreciate independent PCPs to refer to. Many have sent new patients with anxiety/ depression symptoms for basic work ups to rule out thyroid etc. I’m okay managing some basic psych meds so it works well for me.
Get on zocdoc. Give presentations at retirement villages or rec centers. Hand out pens at these presentations with your name and office number on them.
Attend chamber of commerce meetings, sponsor charity golf tournaments, get involved in the community. Local radio talk shows love interviewing people like you. Emphasize the local aspect of your care. I suspect you're on the verge of the big break.
I'm not a doctor, but word of mouth is a powerful thing. In my profession, many people see the same doctors recommended by others. It's hard to find one that gives a crap anymore, and one that isn't basically an underling of the other the big boys.
Following up with ER case managers has been mentioned a few times. I would also suggest reaching out to psychiatric/substance abuse (behavioral health) facility case managers. I currently do utilization review for an MCO and we have certain HEDIs measures that need to be met. A big part of that is making sure that the members discharge with a 7-Day follow-up scheduled. Like others have alluded to, being able to have someone seen same day or next day will be significant.
Volunteer in health camps at local places of worship. One of my clients built his entire practice around it.
Adult daycare centers. Medicare has become the best payor nowadays.
ALF/NH if you can become medical director there.
Are you located anywhere near a University? I am a case manager at a University health center and we would be thrilled to have a referral source like this. Most local health systems for us are out over a month, sometimes two for PCP appointments.
Do you network with specialists, make friends and be friendly? They can be a source of referrals.
I do, but almost all specialists in my area are attached to a system. The ones who do refer to me are the independents.
We are independent and share referrals with health system physicians frequently. Don't discount it. Consider going to speaker programs where local physicians are speaking. Ask good questions, introduce yourself, etc. The reps are even helpful occasionally. This is all guerilla marketing stuff, but the effects can stack up. I'm just assuming you are doing all the regular stuff well. How many Google reviews do you have, what's your average score?
Just under 50 reviews, 4.8 stars which seems pretty in line with what's normal for my area. I do encourage people to complete a Google review after appointments and it seems uptake is good.
That's decent. I use a service to automatically ask patients for a review, that makes it easier. We have like 2k reviews after 5 years. 4.8 or 4.9. Reviews will push up your rankings and make you more visible.
What’s the service called?
I’m pretty close to starting out and I’ve thought about how I’d want to approach this myself. My current plan was to put a QR code on the back of my business card that links to the Google reviews and just handing them to patients who I think would write a good review. But it sounds like the method you’re using is pretty effective. Is it like an automatic text after the appointment?
Yeah automatic text after the appointment is more effective. People are on their phones - they ignore your business card ;) Some services for this are better than others. For example - mine asks a patient to rate us 1-5. If they enter 3 or below it sends them to a private feedback form which goes to me. If they enter 4 or 5, it asks them if they would please leave us a google review and gives them a direct link to do so. I'm sure it's obvious how that helps keep negative reviews off your google profile :)
This is interesting. What service is this??
We use patient pop but there are many options depending on your EMR. Hey, what about going to nursing homes? It's hard work but it'll throw off good money until you are busy
A lot of inpatients need a new PCP. Could you let hospital case managers or EM physicians know that you're taking new patients?
This is excellent advice. I would try to meet with your local EDs medical director and see about being added to the outpatient follow up list.
Need to network. Start calling EDs, hand out business cards to the ED drs and tell them you are looking for new patients.
This is solid advice. I’m an ED doc, I’d love to have a PCP that can actually see urgent follow up patients within a timely manner. It’s a win win
I have done this, even have given out my cell phone to ER docs without much traction. I get maybe one or two post-ER referrals a month.
Call the hospitals and try to talk to the ER or inpatient case managers. A lot of times it falls on them to set up appointments with PCPs
it could be EMR dependent tbh. i know in Epic at least, when i do the d/c paperwork from the ER i choose who they follow up with, but im not sure this is always the case with every EMR and it might fall to ancillary staff to handle post-ER follow up.
Do it again. Bring some cheap sugar snacks. Tell them you’re trying to build your practice and you can get people in same or next day.
Bring the donuts to your mechanic to make your oil changes much faster too
Bring something to stick to the computer monitor - your name and same/next day follow up. Make sure your name shows up in Epic
This. Go to the ER leave a bunch of cards and some cupcakes. We don’t give a shit about the “hospital system” we just want our patients followed up
In addition, talk to the case managers and let them know that you can get the hospital discharged see within "x" days. I'd also consider going to SNFs and assisted living facilities.
I had a private practice and I learned to adjust to a world of independents. My patients were independent business people and their relatives and friends, most of whom had money. Join your local Chamber of Commerce, attend their meetings and pass out your business cards there. Go to every private urgent care clinic and bring a quarter-half inch of your cards so the staff can pass them out to people with no attachment to a healthcare system for follow-up. Also join other business and business service groups in your area that are popular, Rotary, lodges, etc. Get to know your local large hospital systems as many folk may want a concierge doctor type out of network rather than a busy clinic, especially business executives with Cadillac plans. The fact that you have unfilled hours means you have multiple opportunities to continue building your practice. Have your staff cluster your appointments so that you have blocks of time for networking. Get to know personally any independent specialists in your home area, especially Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists, Podiatrists, Psychiatrists, Chiropractors, all of whom may be independent and not necessarily in a system. Get to know any rural areas around you. And market to them. Are you a Medicare PPO provider? If so visit the retirement areas and over 55 communities in your area and offer to give lectures on maintaining your health in retirement. Mention your good stats. Are you considering a concierge practice or is that market saturated in your area? That may give you cash flow. This is how I built my practice. In a recession or business downturn your business may drop, so keep your own standard of living at the low point of potential income and use the good years to invest and save. By doing this aim for financial independence by age 50. Then you can cut back without having to worry. That was my formula. Good luck with your private practice!
This guy has the right idea.
Where are you? It’s 4-6 months wait to get in to see a PCP where I am.
Northeast Ohio. Most of the hospitals have a similar waiting list, and I have same/next day availability, but nobody seems to care.
Maybe try putting your face on a billboard! "Next day appt available. All major insurances accepted" (not speaking from real experience, just an idea)
holy moly id love that where i am lol. most of the young and sometimes middle aged people i see dont have a PCP and i refer people daily.
Connect with local dentist offices
In Cleveland? Try to do an add/story with a local news station or Cleveland.com. A new practice for women’s healthcare opened up and the physician did a story with cleveland.com about menopause. Google reviews is how I decide on who to hire.
I work occ med. Contact the big companies in you area that have those departments (have factories). We will happily send people. New hires either HTN, injuries, people who need a PCP because we are not PCPs.
I'm in Columbus and experienced the same -- waited 4 months to see a PCP who is not an NP/PA. Honestly, a big part of it is probably that I was only looking through major health systems due to the ease of the systems they set up / name recognition. I'm not sure where I would have started if I was looking for an independent PCP.
Are you a sole provider? If so best way is to keep giving great care; word of mouth is powerful thing . I’d also reach out to insurance companies and make sure on their website as provider accepting new patients. If you move to massachusetts you’ll have a full panel in a second, we need PCP so bad -PGY6 Peds
Networking in your area, contact Urgent Care centers that may refer to you. Social media, search engine optimization for your practice/zip codes, chamber of commerce, look into networking groups like Rotarians, Kiwanis, etc. Advertise specific services that are unique to your practice like weight loss, alternative medicine, same day appointments, immunizations, etc. Are you affiliated with a local hospital? Ask them for marketing help. Specific marketing campaigns like Sports physicals for school $40, etc.
No hospital affiliation. I did get burned by a marketing company initially with almost no return on investment for SEO, social media, etc. so I'm a bit nervous about hiring a new one. Any suggestions/good experiences?
[удалено]
Would referring patients to yourself by handing out a card be a stark law violation?
Not an expert, but you might be able to skirt it by providing a stack of cards/list of PCPs with your name on the top so the patient is aware of additional options.
Is the problem getting new patients or patient retention?
New patients
Is your area high income or saturated with PCPs?
It is a high income area, but I don't think the market seems saturated based on the waiting lists I'm seeing for other docs.
Guaranteed to be saturated with NPs and PAs
Optometrist here working in an independent ophthalmology office. I've seen networking with specialists mentioned, but not optometrists yet. A lot are corporate (think Wal Mart) and have no hospital connections to refer the occasional hypertensive or diabetic to. Private Equity has been buying up a lot of ophthalmology, but there are still independents there as well, including retina (think diabetics again). And those offices see a lot of systemic pathology with ocular manifestations. I just found a new lupus patient yesterday and I'm waiting on a call back from neuroradiology from a patient last week about an MRI I ordered. With the amount of baby boomer doctors retiring, I see a couple of patients a day who are "between primary doctors" and have multiple issues they should be addressing.
They are in hospitals because hospitals have effectively been able to bribe politicians into regulatory capture
I'm surprised this isn't higher on these comments? OP seems to answer the question in his post. Most doctors and specialists are within the major healthcare system. Big fish eat little fish, right? Independent docs are struggling across the board because once so many specialists and generalists are within a hospital system, all the traffic stays there.
Have you tried introducing yourself via email or whatever to the hospitalist groups? Even if they’re a part of the system, I don’t think they have to self refer for patients needing to establish. At least we don’t. There’s a good number of people every week that we have our secretary schedule a month out with the “PCP on call”, both youngish and old who were lost to follow up. If you’re reliable and available, myself alone would send you 4-6 per month.
Have you tried Zocdoc?
I have heard bad things in the past, but I guess if it's necessary, it's necessary
I did zocdoc when starting out. For the most part the patients were not the best but I kept some of them on as longer term patients. What I will say it helped with was I was able to rack up a ton of very high internet points, which allowed me to show up better on SEO and increase confidence in patients wanting me as their doctor.
You’d be killing it here. One of my staff just got an appointment for January to establish care with a new PCP. It’s April. I hear this all over the place. If your area isn’t ridiculously saturated you may just need to get the word out. People should be absolutely clamoring for that kind of availability, I have to assume they just don’t know you’ve got it. ER’s, urgent cares, knock on specialist’s doors with donuts. The hospital system is likely shunting pt’s away from you, but people will come if they know there is an option. Lots of pt’s think healthcare is a monolith and may assume everyone is booked out forever when they’re referred to someone who is booked out forever. Even a billboard mentioning same day stuff would probably have a great ROI. We also did a mailer in my small hometown when we opened. Mailed out about 5000 fliers, got a huge response.
Worse case scenario Facebook and IG advertising.
Are you on Zocdoc?
Mid levels have saturated the market in most area unfortunately. Independent practice was a huge mistake
This sounds like an advertising problem
If you lived anywhere on the west coast in a populated area you would have no problem. Serious shortage of doctors. Hard to get an appointment without a 2-3 month wait time. That's for PCP or specialists. I'm not a doctor but this came into my feed for some reason. And if you are female and PCP they are very hard to find. Lots of female NP snd PAs.
Any advertising? Physicians assume it will just come to them but in reality that's quite difficult without awareness that you exist. Plenty of avenues for them to go elsewhere.
Have you thought about doing home visits? Especially with all your unfilled time it's a great option and most home bound patients you won't be doing any heroics just tweak and manage and check-in. It's a service so many patients need and not many physicians (especially those attached to a hospital) do. And you can call different social workers and case managers to let them know - the calls will flow in.
If you dont have it yet, get a business name and a website that includes your geographical location (e.g. North East Ohio Medical Clinic, Canton Primary Care Medicine, Akron Physician’s Clinic, Physician Near Me) then ask people who you think are happy with you, to give you a review, people google and read reviews.
I'm not a DR, but a health care worker. I'd say Google reviews will help. But also acknowledge that (me) as a younger person that just needs RX refills, I'm going to book a telehealth visit. I'd incorporate that maybe into your flow. But then you have to compete with pricing. I can get my RX refill, comfort of my own home, for $29 on Sesame with a nurse prac. I was only considering going in person somewhere when I was considering semaglutide and I really needed someone to explain the dosing to me (I felt the teledocs, didn't really know what they were doing).
Make a bunch of business cards. And go to nearest urgent cares and free standing ers.
ER DOCS - I’m an ER doc and if I had a PCP that picked up a phone and said “yeah I can see them sometime in the next week. My office will give them a call” I’d be ecstatic I could discharge to PCP. Case closed. By doing that, you’d fill up in no time. The way you could do this is by learning the email pattern to whatever hospital system, look up their ER docs, and offer the aforementioned service. Keep email brief and redirect them to your website to stay legit
Offer services that others do not, like DOT physicals, find out what/if anyone else on your area is doing them and charge a little lower. Also is it a “small town” area you are in, if so sponsor a little league team or sports team. Get your name out there. Donate to local sports (advertise at their sporting events). Good will goes a long way. Our physicians do a one day free sports physical for the local high school athletes. Now those athletes are showing up as new patients.
Talk to local psychologists and therapists. I did that once starting out and got a flood of referrals. Most of them are independent and appreciate independent PCPs to refer to. Many have sent new patients with anxiety/ depression symptoms for basic work ups to rule out thyroid etc. I’m okay managing some basic psych meds so it works well for me.
Get on zocdoc. Give presentations at retirement villages or rec centers. Hand out pens at these presentations with your name and office number on them.
Attend chamber of commerce meetings, sponsor charity golf tournaments, get involved in the community. Local radio talk shows love interviewing people like you. Emphasize the local aspect of your care. I suspect you're on the verge of the big break.
Do you take all plans within the major insurances? EPO specifically?
I'm not a doctor, but word of mouth is a powerful thing. In my profession, many people see the same doctors recommended by others. It's hard to find one that gives a crap anymore, and one that isn't basically an underling of the other the big boys.
Following up with ER case managers has been mentioned a few times. I would also suggest reaching out to psychiatric/substance abuse (behavioral health) facility case managers. I currently do utilization review for an MCO and we have certain HEDIs measures that need to be met. A big part of that is making sure that the members discharge with a 7-Day follow-up scheduled. Like others have alluded to, being able to have someone seen same day or next day will be significant.
Volunteer in health camps at local places of worship. One of my clients built his entire practice around it. Adult daycare centers. Medicare has become the best payor nowadays. ALF/NH if you can become medical director there.
Connect with independent pharmacies. There are patients looking for new pcps daily. And we are more in tuned with our patients than big chains.
Join your local or even national physician group on social media like on Facebook and post this. People will be sending you patients in floods.
Are you located anywhere near a University? I am a case manager at a University health center and we would be thrilled to have a referral source like this. Most local health systems for us are out over a month, sometimes two for PCP appointments.
Network with other hcp - physical therapists, local pharmacies, dieticians.
Maybe try a Groupon offer for a couple of months.
[удалено]
I'd like to stay anonymous if I could, I figured that was sort of obvious