Introduction
Back in April, I got a ton of insightful questions from a doctor looking to start and grow their direct primary care practice. One of their questions was about hiring a second doctor. In today’s blog post we’re going to take a deeper look on why and how to hire a second doctor for your direct primary care practice.
SHOULD I HIRE A SECOND DOCTOR FOR MY DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?
Here’s the original question:
Last one: I see you have a partner in your practice! Do you find this has been financially advantageous for you practice compared to a solo practice?
There are so many tangible and intangible benefits to hiring a second doctor in your direct primary care practice. I mentioned this above, but by hiring a great physician in my practice, I’ve gained a trusted colleague and a great friend.
Drs. Paul Thomas, MD and Raquel Orlich, DO of Plum Health DPC in Detroit Michigan. When your direct primary care practice is nearing capacity, it’s time to start looking for a new doctor to join your practice. In our latest course on How To Hire Another Doctor For Your Direct Primary Care Practice, we show you how to do just that!
Having a second doctor allows me to have someone to share an interesting case with, who can help me manage my patients better by teaching me things along the way. A second doctor also allows me to take a vacation in a relatively care-free way - I don’t have to close my clinic or not be available for my patients because the second doctor can absorb those urgent concerns in my absence.
For me, I didn’t hire a second doctor to make more money, but I did hire a second doctor to build a more sustainable practice. Eventually, as my colleague fills their panel with more patients, I will earn more money, but this was never a top priority.
My top priority has always been delivering excellent care and service to the people in my community, and my practice partner joined my practice to help me achieve this goal. And, that’s why we’re successful.
HOW TO HIRE A SECOND DOCTOR FOR Your DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE
Just about every week, a direct primary care doctor reaches out to me and asks how we went about hiring new doctors to our DPC practice here in Detroit. So far, we’ve hired two doctors to join our practice at Plum Health DPC, and we have a third doctor joining us in February 2021.
Drs. Paul Thomas, MD, Jamie Qualls, DO, and Raquel Orlich, DO of Plum Health DPC. Hiring your first doctor for your direct primary care practice can be a difficult process, but it doesn’t have to be. Check out our latest course on hiring doctors to help you grow your practice, build a more sustainable practice, and serve more patients in your community.
Dr. Raquel Orlich and Dr. Jamie Qualls have helped us grow our practice and serve more members in our community. Hiring these doctors is a win-win-win. Patients in our community win because they have access to three kind, caring, and thoughtful physicians who are actively lowering the cost of health care in the community. Our doctors win because they have the opportunity to build trusting, long-term relationships with their patients, and earn a comparable salary to a doctor in the fee-for-service system while seeing fewer patients each day. Our practice wins because we’re able to become more sustainable over the long term with a capacity for more patients and therefore greater revenues.
The hiring process starts with building a successful foundation and that looks like having a successful business and brand onto which you can add more physicians. Doctors are attracted to our practice because we have a compelling mission, vision, and values, and doctors can see themselves furthering that mission. At Plum Health, we believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible for everyone, and we all work together to achieve that goal.
If you don’t have a successful practice and if you don’t have a strong mission statement, it will be hard to attract another doctor to your practice.
Beyond attracting another doctor to your practice, you need to be able to write a contract, offer a contract, provide a reasonable salary and benefits package, purchase malpractice insurance, and go through several other steps to get this doctor from interested in your practice to working in your practice and serving patients in your community.
This can be a difficult process, so we’ve created a course to help you in your journey. The course, called How to Hire Another Doctor for Your Direct Primary Care Practice includes the following:
Best Practices for Hiring A Second Doctor into your Direct Primary Care Practice
The Three Signs That You're Ready to Hire Another Doctor
Why Doctors Struggle to Find Another Doctor to Join Them
How to Attract the Next Doctor for Your Direct Primary Care Practice
Having This Framework is a MUST Before You Hire Your Next Doctor
The Single Best Place to Find a New Doctor for Your Direct Primary Care Practice
Three Other Great Places to Find Another Doctor For Your Practice
What You Must Do Before You Offer a Contract
How to Pay Your New Doctor: Details on Compensation
How to Pay Your New Doctor: How to Raise the Money
Sealing the Deal - What You Must Do AFTER the Contract is Offered
Going from a Signed Contract to the Start Date - What You Should Do Before Your Doctor Starts
Detailed Legal Information to Cover Taxes, State Requirements, and Other Info
Our Full Press Release for Our New Doctor That Got Us Amazing Press Coverage
If you’d like to learn more about or purchase this course, you can find it here.
Thanks for reading and learning more about this topic, and best of luck in the hiring process!
-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC
HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING AN DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?
If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.
The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.
Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!
-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC