How to Hire a Medical Assistant for Your Direct Primary Care Practice
Hiring a medical assistant or an office manage for your direct primary care practice is a huge step. This will free up more of your time to care for patients or work on administrative tasks or grow the business, as you will spend less time collecting vital signs or inventorying medications or other small tasks that you can now delegate to your medical assistant.
I would argue that the most important part of your hiring journey is finding someone that you’re going to work well with. Maybe you worked with an excellent medical assistant or nurse during your residency training and that person is available for hire. Give them a call and ask them if they’d be interested in joining your practice. If so, this will work out well, because you’ve already worked with them and you will have a mutual understanding about expectations.
There are several items you need to check off your list before you hire an employee for your direct primary care practice.
Find a medical assistant or a nurse that you’re going to work well with
Invite them to become a part of your practice
Send them a Medical Assistant Roles and Responsibilities Form (see Startup DPC course on hiring another doctor)
Invite them to your office to go through what would be expected and offer them a contract if necessary (some states are at will employment states where a contract is not necessary)
Print federal minimum wage poster
Print OSHA safety poster
Get worker's compensation insurance (not required in all states if there are exactly two employees)
This typically costs roughly 1% of wages per year
Create a log for employee injuries
Update Policies and Procedures document
Document training for OSHA, blood-borne pathogens, and HIPAA (if clinic is a covered entity)
Download electronic copies of material safety data sheets (MSDS) for all chemicals used in the workplace
Create employment contract (see Startup DPC course on hiring another doctor)
Ensure accounting software can handle payroll (e.g. biweekly direct deposits, W4 form/withholding)
Ask new employee for anticipated time off in the coming 6 months to 1 year
For our business, we started out with Gusto for payroll services, but the software missed some tax payments. It was more of a nuisance than anything that cost a lot of money or late fees. But the time spent correcting these mistakes was frustrating. Therefore, I contacted my accountant who helped me set up a new payroll system through Run Payroll, and I’ve been very happy with it.
That being said, this will likely be your first time running payroll. Therefore, it will be helpful to reach out to your accountant, who has likely helped hundreds of other businesses set up their payroll software. Take advantage of their expertise and go with what they recommend.
How to Hire a Doctor for Your Direct Primary Care Practice
Doctors who are starting direct primary care practice typically grow to a saturation point - their practice panel is full, but more patients are eager to join. If this is the case for you, check out our course on how to hire a doctor for your direct primary care practice. It will give you the tools you need to hire that second doctor for your DPC practice and the confidence to get the job done!
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