Doctor starting a practice
Is a doctor’s practice a service or a business? Frankly I find it very difficult to define it clearly. The costs involved are huge. Even if a doctor wants to do something ‘free’ he / she has to charge some amount to cover the costs and the effort. Forget the money involved, what are the questions that a doctor starting his practice has to answer…let us look at some:
1. Where to locate the practice? – should be in a rich locality / middle class locality / down market locality?
2. Should one practice solo or with a group of friends?
3. How many other health professionals should one employ / partner with?
4. What format to use – sole proprietor, partnership or a private limited company?
5. How will it be different from the other practices?
6. What will be the timing?
7. Will patients be seen ONLY by appointment or will there be walk ins allowed?
8. How will you attract patients?
9. What will be the ambience? Is there enough place for parking, sitting place for patients, etc?
10. Private practice vs. being employed in a big hospital – pros and cons?
11. Should I start afresh or should I buy into an existing practice?
12. Should equipment be bought, hired or leased?
13. What records should I keep?
14. How much to invest in technology? will I afford? will I understand?
15. Should I buy a house or stay in a rented house – the financial implications on practice?
16. Once I get married will my spouse be a part of my practice or will I marry a non medical person – planning perspective.
17. What licences, permissions, sanctions, insurance, do I require to start my practice?
18. Who should be my CA, lawyer, insurance consultant, – all these are required BEFORE STARTING.
19. What will be the financial implications of all these actions / desires.
20. Will I find time to read www.subramoney.com every day ?
lakshminarasimman
sir point 20 is super
anne..oru vilambaram..
Umang
Unfortunately mdeical profession has become a business. Its fine to an extent that docs make good money since they put a lot of hard work and money to reach there, but when they start to play with the pateint’s health and wealth just to fill their cofferss I feel sad. I have a dream that my child becomes a doc and does a lot of good work. People have lost faith in the medical practisioners for good or bad….
subra
doctors, CAs, Income tax officers, politicians, teachers, priests – all represent a microcosm of the society. Please do not point fingers at one profession.
Dr Prasoon anand
well said sir !
As for our society , we have good or bad Professionals .
Please do not demand any thing different .
.
PN
Isn’t this supposed to be part of their training ? Atleast some parts…
Dr sanjay prabhu
Thanks subra for helping me shape my finances and also accepting that we have our bad and our good but still we generally do a fine job.there are always afew good men.
Nivedita
My maternal uncle is a Cardiologist. He has no tie ups with any lab person and does not entertain such requests.
He has a large number of patients whom he treats gratis, because they cannot pay his fees, and that’s a meagre INR300.
In fact he asserts, if he refuses such patients, then where will they go to get treated properly?
sweta
Hi Subra Sir,
I think we do understand these questions. Could you post some guidelines on how to go about answering them?
@PN – The training solely focuses on training a medical professional. No management (practice or any other aspect), finance or business training is a part of it
@Umang – I don’t understand why you’d want to link malpractice & negligence to money making. Just like any other profession, there are good and bad doctors too; and I mean the skill level!! After about 10+ years of a very expensive education and ill paying jobs you expect free service? They are seriously underpaid & overworked. The overworked part could be a reason for bad judgements at times. Try pulling off continuous 36-48 hours duties and you will get my point!!