5 Critical Tools For Physician Leaders by drtalks

5 Critical Tools for Physician Leaders

Any good business or nonprofit organization needs a great “one-liner.”

A “one-liner,” which is often referred to as an “elevator pitch,” is a short description that tells people what your business is about in a way that draws them into a story.

If you tell someone, “I’m a doctor,” they may not be interested. You’ve got to invite them into a story where they are the hero and you are the guide. The one-liner is the first step towards that goal.

If you’re in a leadership role, have all of your team members memorize the oneliner and recite it until they know it by heart. You’ll be amazed at how much business traffic you can get when all of your employees give the exact same narrative to all potential clients/customers.

Let’s get stated!

Brent W. Lacey, M.D. Founder of The Scope of Practice editor@TheScopeofPractice.com

Step 1: Ask yourself some questions

Spend some time critically thinking about your personal values, goals, and philosophy. Don’t try to make it perfect yet. Just write down anything that comes to mind. Start by answering these questions to help you put some thoughts together.

• What are your skills and abilities?

• What are you passionate about?

• What have been the most important experiences in your life and in your career?

• Which of your personal attributes do your friends and colleagues value most?

• How do you define success?

• How do you want other people to see you?

• Think about the people you most respect. Which of their qualities do you most desire to emulate?

Step 2: Get input from mentors and friends

Once you’ve answered those questions for yourself, find time to sit down one-on-one with close friends, mentors, and family. Ask the questions of the people who know you best and get their thoughts. What attributes of yours do they most value?

After you’ve asked them for their input, compare their answers to your thoughts from the previous brainstorming exercise. Did the conversations spark some new ideas that you hadn’t previously considered?

Step 3: Write the first draft

As you sit down to write your first draft of the one-liner, consider these four aspects of what a good one-liner should be:

1. Memorable: This needs to be something you can recall easily. If it’s a three page manifesto with flowery language and grandiose ideas, you probably won’t be able to remember it, and it’ll end up forgotten in a drawer somewhere. Even if you really want to have a long, epic explanation of your goals and dreams, have 1-2 summary sentences that distill the main points to a memorable one-liner that you can use in your daily life.

2. High Impact: The one-liner should make a difference. This should be ambitious. This is an opportunity to reach for the stars. How can you make a difference in the world? What does your life and career need to look like to achieve your goals?

3. Clear: Write a one-liner using precise, clear language. Poetry may be beautiful, but it will tend to be confusing rather than clarifying. Anyone should be able to read your one-liner and instantly know what your company does and how it makes their life better.

4. Yours: You can’t write a one-liner for anyone’s company but your own. Seek input from friends and mentors, but ultimately the one-liner has to be your personal brand.

Here is the simple, three part framework I recommend for crafting your one-liner. The concept was inspired by Donald Miller’s work in his book, Building a Storybrand.

• Part 1: What is the problem you are trying to overcome? Who are you serving?

• Part 2: What skills, talents, or abilities do you have and how do you use them to solve this problem or serve these people?

• Part 3: How do you help those people whom you serve to achieve success for themselves??

On the next page, you can use the space provided to write a draft. Then, we’ll combine them into a unified one-liner.

Step 3: Write the first draft

Part 1: _________________________________________________________________

Part 2: _________________________________________________________________

Part 3: _________________________________________________________________

Now, just put it all together. Here is an example, using the concepts I used to create a one-liner for The Scope of Practice.

Part 1: Most physicians and dentists enter their profession with large amounts of personal debt. And beyond that - they begin working with little to no knowledge of how to actually run a practice. They should be able to help their patients and do what they love without being stressed by all the other obligations that come with managing a medical practice.

Part 2: We use our experiences, compassion, and knowledge to help physicians. Through our writing and speaking abilities, we can equip physicians with the tools they need.

Part 3: We create resources, provide knowledge, recommend products, and create connections that will assist people in reaching their goals.

Putting it all together, our one-liner for The Scope of Practice is:

Most physicians and dentists enter their profession with large amounts of personal debt and little to no knowledge of how to actually run a practice. “The Scope of Practice” is a place where you can gain the knowledge you need to run your business successfully and master your personal ﬁnances.

Step

4: Get feedback and leave it for a week

Now that you’ve put some work into creating a first draft, you should also consider showing it to close friends and mentors to ask for feedback. Is the one-liner clear? Does it align with your values? Do your confidants agree that it fits your personality, goals, and ambitions?

Once you’ve obtained some input, I recommend you stop working on it for a week.

Remember, this is meant to be an exercise to help you create a one-liner that will define your career for perhaps decades. Taking a pause to let your research and writing gel in your mind will allow you to approach the final draft with clear purpose. It’ll help you cool to the ideas that seemed great in the heat of the moment but on reflection may not be the best thoughts.

Spend the next week thinking back on the exercise a little, but don’t sit down for any more brainstorming sessions. If a great idea comes to you, write it down and add it to your research to revisit after the week has passed. Give the first draft some time to settle in your mind before you take a final pass at it.

step 5: create the final draft

You’ve had a week to consider your initial ideas, and you’ve gotten some (hopefully good) feedback from friends and colleagues. Now it’s time to write out the final draft of your mission statement.

Go back through step 3 in this guide and see if your current draft meets the four standards for a good one-liner: memorable, impacting, clear, yours. If you don’t think it meets these four goals, edit and rework it using the feedback you obtained and the new thoughts you came up with during the last week. You can use the space below to write your final draft.

step 6: print it, publicize it, and live it!

Your one-liner is only as valuable to you as you make it. If you print it and leave it in a drawer, it will never have any more value than the paper it’s typed on.

I recommend printing out a copy and keeping it easily accessible. I know people who have typed this out formally, signed and dated it, and framed it to put on the wall in their office. The more value you place on this one-liner, the more value it will have.

Celebrate this accomplishment! There are thousands of people working in the healthcare industry who have long since lost their purpose and are wandering aimlessly each day, just working to collect a paycheck.

There will come a day when you feel the weight of your job threatening to crush your spirit. Up to 80% of health care professionals report experiencing some degree of burnout, so chances are that you will too, someday. When that day comes, refer back to this one-liner. This will restore you to your purpose for becoming a health care professional in the first place.

Now that you have this one-liner written, live it out! This should be a statement of who you are, so go out and live it every day. Excellence in the small things is what builds a life of extraordinary quality.

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I hope this exercise gives you a tool to help you clarify your marketing message in order to attract and retain business so you can achieve your career goals! Keep this one-liner on a card in your pocket until you can recite it from memory.

I started The Scope of Practice because I’ve seen that most physicians and dentists enter their profession with large amounts of personal debt and little to no knowledge of how to actually run a practice. The Scope of Practice is a place where you can gain the knowledge you need to run your business successfully and master your personal finances.

I have a lot of free resources available to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to email me at editor@thescopeofpractice.com and tell me how I can serve you better.

If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of the other great resources I have for you at www.TheScopeofPractice.com.

The Scope of Practice Podcast is a weekly podcast where we interview physicians and industry experts on topics that will help you manage your business more successfully and master your personal ﬁnances. Subscribe here!

32 easy ways to Celebrate your team members

BRENT W. LACEY, M.D.

People don’t leave their jobs only because of money. Most of the time they leave because they don’t like their boss or they don’t feel appreciated.

What are you doing to recognize your team members and celebrate their accomplishments?

It doesn’t have to be super complicated or even really formal. Some of the best recognitions are meaningful but not monetary. Trophies tend to collect dust. Words of affirmation collect memories.

Your team members want to be recognized for their good work. This free guide will give you some ideas of how you can do that so you’ll have a better team culture.

Take 3 easy steps towards having a more energized, more productive staff:

1. Print this guide.

2. Pick 1 or 2 simple ways to recognize your team members.

3. Enjoy the smiles and gratitude from your team members who feel appreciated.

Let’s

get stated!

Brent W. Lacey, M.D. Founder of The Scope of Practice editor@TheScopeofPractice.com

culture and values in addition to your team member’s accomplishment. Celebrate them, but use the opportunity to remind people why that accomplishment is important to the company’s mission.

• Recognize your team members publicly

A quiet thank-you note has its place, but nothing makes people feel greater than be recognized in front of their peers.

• Encourage a culture of recognition

Jealousy is cancer for a team’s culture. Encourage team members to look for ways to celebrate each other. Remind people that celebration of one team member doesn’t negate the value of the others.

• Recognize teams as well as individuals

When a team hits a major milestone or has a major win, celebrate the whole team! Get teams involved in finding ways to get excited about each other’s achievements.

• Get creative!!

Cash bonuses and time off are easy ways to recognize your team, but there are lots of great ideas that are free. The next few pages contain some great ones, but you can get super creative with this! Get your team to brainstorm ideas too. How would they most like to be recognized?

1. Say “Thank you” to someone. Do this often. In fact, find someone to thank every single day.

2. Send them a handwritten thank you note.

3. Give them a shoutout on social media.

4. Encourage team members to celebrate each other.

5. Have a bell in the office that people can ring when they make a sale or have a big accomplishment.

6. Keep an “acknowledgement box” instead of “suggestion box.” Encourage team members to drop notes in the box when they see their colleagues doing something worthy of celebration.

change the work schedule

7. Give a pass for early work release.

8. Give them a full (paid) day off.

9. Offer a flexible schedule (work from home, etc).

12. Give a gift that relates to their favorite hobbies.

13. Send them to school/training to build their skill set.

14. Offer use of a company vehicle.

15. Create an employee of the month program. Be careful how you do this, as it runs the risk of becoming cliché.

16. Pay for a personal trainer or a gym membership.

17. Offer an allowance for desk upgrades, such as a standing desk or ergonomic chair.

18. Offer to give a charitable donation on their behalf to a charity that’s important to them.

19.Help pay for daycare.

20. Send their spouse flowers or a basket of cookies at work to say thank you for sharing your team member with your team. Nothing will make the team member feel more special than having their spouse be told how much you appreciate them.

21. Gift cards (partner with local businesses) or cash bonuses

22. Event tickets (e.g. movies, concerts, theater, sporting events)

23. Cash bonus if they refer someone and you end up hiring them. This is one of my favorites. This encourages people to refer great people for you to hire.

27.Massage days. Hire a masseuse to give massages for a day.

28.Company-wide or individual team potlucks

29.Off-site events like game night or grill night

30.Have an ice cream sundae bar one day

31.Create employee competitions like an art contest or Battle of the Bands.

32. If you want to get personal and creative, how about a custom Lego minifig?

their profession with large amounts of personal debt and little to no knowledge of how to actually run a practice.

The Scope of Practice is a place where you can gain the knowledge you need to run your business successfully and master your personal finances.

If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of the other great resources I have for you at www.TheScopeOfPractice.com.

Get more great resources!

• See the Resources page for free stuff!

• Interested in one-on-one financial coaching? Email me to schedule a free 10 minute consultation. Email me at info@TheScopeofPractice.com

See these other great articles

• Personal finances articles

• Practice management articles

• Early career and young professionals articles

Are you interested in submitting a guest post or getting one on one coaching for your business or personal ﬁnances? Click here!

Any

good business

or nonprofit organization will have a mission statement and/or core values. These statements of value describe the heart and soul of the company, as well as the company's goals.

You as an individual will also benefit from having a written document you can refer to that describes your purpose and your reasons for serving in the health care field. Keep this document in an accessible place and have copies at work and at home that you can refer to periodically to renew your purpose for your career.

If you’re in a leadership role, have all of your team members go through the exercise, either on their own or as a group exercise. You’ll be amazed at how this simple action can lead to a renewed sense of purpose and an increase in productivity as well as job satisfaction.

This mission statement will encapsulate who you are as a person and as a professional. It’s worth taking some time to do this well. Seek input from trusted friends and mentors, and then really use it in your day-to-day life.

Let’s get stated!

Brent W. Lacey, M.D. Founder of The Scope of Practice editor@TheScopeofPractice.com

Step 1: Ask yourself some questions

• What are your skills and abilities?

• What are you passionate about?

• What have been the most important experiences in your life and in your career?

• Which of your personal attributes do your friends and colleagues value most?

• How do you define success?

• How do you want other people to see you?

• Think about the people you most respect. Which of their qualities do you most desire to emulate?

Step 2: Get input from mentors and friends

Don’t feel like you have to take everything that your friends and colleagues say as the final answer. Remember, this is YOUR personal mission statement. Use all of notes to craft the narrative that will ultimately be your mission statement.

Step 3: Write the first draft

As you sit down to write your first draft of the mission statement, consider these four aspects of what a good personal mission statement should be:

1. Memorable: This needs to be something you can recall easily. If it’s a three page manifesto with flowery language and grandiose ideas, you probably won’t be able to remember it, and it’ll end up forgotten in a drawer somewhere. Even if you really want to have a long, epic explanation of your goals and dreams, have a summary sentence that distills the main points of the mission statement to a memorable oneliner that you can use in your daily life.

2. High Impact: Your mission statement should make a difference. This should be ambitious. If you’ve already achieved everything that your mission statement describes, then your mission statement isn’t lofty enough. This is an opportunity to reach for the stars. How can you make a difference in the world? What does your life and career need to look like to achieve your goals?

3. Clear: Write a mission statement using precise, clear language. Poetry may be beautiful, but it will tend to be confusing rather than clarifying. Anyone should be able to read your mission statement and instantly know what is important to you and what your personal and professional goals are.

4. Yours: You can’t write a personal mission statement for anyone’s goals but your own. Seek input from friends and mentors, but ultimately the mission statement has to be your personal brand.

Here is the simple, three part framework I recommend for crafting your mission statement. The concept was inspired by Donald Miller’s work in his book, Building a Storybrand.

• Part 1: What is the problem you are trying to overcome? Who are you serving?

• Part 2: What skills, talents, or abilities do you have and how do you use them to solve this problem or serve these people?

• Part 3: How do you help those people whom you serve to achieve success for themselves??

On the next page, you can use the space provided to write a draft. Then, we’ll combine them into a unified personal mission statement.

Step 3: Write the first draft

Part 1: _________________________________________________________________

Part 2: _________________________________________________________________

Part 3: _________________________________________________________________

Now, just put it all together. Here is an example, using the concepts I used to create a mission statement for The Scope of Practice.

Part 2: We use our experiences, compassion, and knowledge to help physicians. Through our writing and speaking abilities, we can equip physicians with the tools they need.

Part 3: We create resources, provide knowledge, recommend products, and create connections that will assist people in reaching their goals.

Putting it all together, our mission statement for The Scope of Practice is:

Step 4: Get feedback and leave it for a week

Now that you’ve put some work into creating a first draft, you should also consider showing it to close friends and mentors to ask for feedback. Is the mission statement clear? Does it align with your values? Do your confidants agree that it fits your personality, goals, and ambitions?

Once you’ve obtained some input, I recommend you stop working on it for a week.

Remember, this is meant to be an exercise to help you create a mission statement that will define your career for perhaps decades. Taking a pause to let your research and writing gel in your mind will allow you to approach the final draft with clear purpose. It’ll help you cool to the ideas that seemed great in the heat of the moment but on reflection may not be the best thoughts.

step 5: create the final draft

Go back through step 3 in this guide and see if your current draft meets the four standards for a good mission statement: memorable, impacting, clear, yours. If you don’t think it meets these four goals, edit and rework it using the feedback you obtained and the new thoughts you came up with during the last week. You can use the space below to write your final draft.

step

6: print it, publicize it, and live it!

Your mission statement is only as valuable to you as you make it. If you print it and leave it in a drawer, it will never have any more value than the paper it’s typed on.

There will come a day when you feel the weight of your job threatening to crush your spirit. Up to 80% of health care professionals report experiencing some degree of burnout, so chances are that you will too, someday. When that day comes, refer back to this mission statement. This will restore you to your purpose for becoming a health care professional in the first place.

Now that you have this mission statement written, live it out! This should be a statement of who you are, so go out and live it every day. Excellence in the small things is what builds a life of extraordinary quality.

Sample mission statements from quality businesses:

Chick-fil-A’s mission statement is: “Be America’s best quick-service restaurant.” The Chick-fil-A Corporate Purpose is: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that it entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chickfil-A.”

REI’s, (outdoor clothing and equipment retailer) mission statement is: ”We inspire, educate and outﬁt for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship."

Costco’s mission statement reads: “Costco's mission is to continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.”

Lowe’s Home Improvement proclaims the following vision statement: "We will provide customer-valued solutions with the best prices, products and services to make Lowe's the ﬁrst choice for home improvement.”

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I hope this exercise gives you an opportunity to define your purpose for your career so you can fulfill your true calling. Keep this personal mission statement close so you can refer back to it regularly. Use it to remind yourself of the passion that drove you to the health care field in the first place.

I have a lot of free resources available to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to email me at editor@thescopeofpractice.com and tell me how we can serve you better.

If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of the other great resources I have for you at www.TheScopeofPractice.com.

Get more great resources!

• See the Resources page for free stuff!

• Interested in one-on-one financial coaching? Email me to schedule a free 10 minute consultation. Email me at info@TheScopeofPractice.com

Are you interested in sponsoring the website, submitting a guest post, or hiring me for a speaking engagement? Click here!

Is your clinic’s productivity as strong as you wish it were?

Most medical clinics offer excellent clinical care to their patients. However, it’s often the case that inefficiencies or shortcomings prevent a clinic from reaching its true potential.

As a physician leader or small business owner, you have a great opportunity to lead the way in revamping your clinic’s processes to maximize the value you can provide.

This guide is great because it will walk you through ten simple ideas you can use to improve the efficiency, productivity, or customer experience in your clinic.

Many of these ideas will require some work, but trust me, the effort will be worth it!!

Take 3 easy steps towards realizing your clinic’s true potential:

1. Print this guide.

2. Identify the areas where you can make improvements.

3. Implement these improvements and enjoy the renewed success of your clinic!

Let’s get stated!

Brent W. Lacey, M.D. Founder of The Scope of Practice editor@TheScopeofPractice.com

10 day simple clinic makeover checklist

Take the 10 Day Simple Clinic Makeover Challenge and see how far you can get. If you get 10 out of 10 in 10 days, you’re a rock star! If not, celebrate every milestone you hit, every issue you address, and every improvement however small.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your clinic won’t be perfected in a day either. Here’s a chart to help you organize your makeover challenge activities.

Challenge day/item

1: Improve efficiency

2: Update clinic décor

3: hiring/firing

4: “secret shopper”

5: referring doctors

6: Digital reputation

7: revamp your website

8: address no-shows

9: team members

10: team culture

Your course(s) of action

Day 1: Improve efficiency

This might be easier said than done, but there are a lot of ways to improve your efficiency in your clinic. Here are a few of the most common tricks that I’ve seen or used that increase efficiency in clinic encounters.

1. Review charts and write notes ahead of time. You can copy forward previous notes for established patients, or copy information from a referring provider for new patients into a note before you see them. This can be done prior to clinic, on a lunch break, or whenever you have spare time, rather than when you’re talking to the patient. Just be sure to update and edit any “copy forward” sections.

2. Master your EMR templates. Have your IT people teach you how to use shortcuts in your EMR so you spend less time writing each note.

3. Learn to type fast, get good dictation software, or hire a transcriptionist. Don’t let typing be the thing that slows you down.

4. Type as you talk. If you type your own notes, position your computer in the room so you can look at the patient but still type your note as you talk. That way, you can finish the note before you leave the room.

5. Have the patients arrive 20 minutes early. This is harder to control, but you can tell patients their arrival time is 10:00AM, for example, for a 10:20 appointment. If they arrive a little after 10, they’ll still have plenty of time to be ready in time for the visit.

6. Train your team members to be your gatekeepers. Your team can triage emails, phone messages, and tasks for you so you only deal with the most important ones, and they can handle the rest.

7. Ask your staff for their opinions. You’d be surprised how many great ideas your team will have if you just ask.

8. Ask for patient feedback. Your patients are your customer, and they’re the greatest source of realistic feedback about how to make your clinic experience better.

Day 2: Update clinic décor

When I did my first clinic exam room “makeover,” it was basically just a simple matter of taking out old posters, repainting, and putting up some nice décor pieces. It was really simple and made a HUGE difference!! The pictures below are of my own exam room.

Here are some key things to consider as you decide how to decorate your clinic.

1. Clean out the clutter and throw away anything outdated. Get rid of faded brochures, posters, magazines, and anything else that says “old.”

2. Patch and paint. A fresh coat of paint with a light, neutral color makes a world of difference.

3. Position your computer. If you type as you talk, make sure you face the computer in a way that allows you to maintain eye contact with the patient.

4. Minimize the equipment sitting out. Keep it simple. Put equipment in a cabinet or drawer.

5. Don’t put your diploma on the wall. Patients don’t really care where you went to school. Make the décor pleasant and aesthetically pleasing.

6. Apply this to the rest of your clinic. Starting with the waiting room, look at the décor throughout the clinic. Are the pictures hung well? Are the pictures nice to look at? Are the chairs comfortable? Is the carpet old and stained?

Day 3: hiring/firing

Jim Collins wrote a great analogy in his phenomenal book on business Good to Great. He describes a company like a bus. If you want the bus to get where it’s going, be on time, not break down, and have an enjoyable ride, you need to do three things really well:

1. Get the right people on the bus. (Hire the right people.)

2. Get the right people into the right seats on the bus. (Get your team members doing the jobs that best suit their skills and passions.)

3. Get the wrong people off the bus. (Fire the people that don’t meet expectations.)

Does your hiring/firing process need an overhaul? If you have annual employee turnover >15%, then yes it does. If you have a toxic company culture, then yes it does. Here are some key things to consider:

Hiring

1. Set and maintain high expectations for employees. Discuss those expectations in the interview.

2. Review the CV/résumé: It may not seal the deal, but you should at least call their references and confirm their education claims.

3. Interview with a senior partner or CEO: Set expectations, discuss the strategic future of the company, learn the person’s personality.

4. Interview with clinic/office manager: Get an idea of how the interviewee would fit in the company culture.

5. Informal interview: Take them to a sporting event or some other informal event. See what they’re like when they let their guard down.

6. Probationary period: Have a period of 60-90 days that the person can quit or be fired for any reason. That gives both the person and the company ample opportunity to see if they’re a good fit, and to quickly let them go if they’re not.

Firing

1. Address problems directly and in writing. Be specific and clear.

2. Set clear deadlines for meeting expectations. 2-4 weeks max.

3. Fire them if they don’t meet expectations!! Be brave, let them go!

Day 4: Use a “secret shopper”

As the person who works in the clinic, you have the “curse of knowledge.” That is, you’re so close to the situation that you often unknowingly overlook flaws in your practice.

You can ask someone to come in to the clinic and go through the process of being a patient there for a clinical encounter. Have them present themselves as a patient without telling your staff they’re being observed. If your staff knows they’re being watched, they’ll preemptively change their behavior to put forward the best image.

You can hire someone to come do this, or just ask someone that you know to do it for free. Have them make notes on affability and competence of staff, ease of scheduling the appointment, physical space (layout, décor, cleanliness, etc.), interaction with the physician, etc..

Have several people do this on different days of the week. Make sure that each aspect of your clinic gets evaluated. Then, compile your notes and share them with your team to discuss what changes should be made to improve efficiency, productivity, or the customer experience.

Day 5: reach out to referring doctors

You are in the referral business. Whether you’re in primary care or a specialty, you are getting referrals from somewhere. Maybe it’s the hospitalists in your local hospital. Maybe it’s docs from the local ER or urgent care center. Maybe it’s from primary care providers.

No matter how you get your referrals, it’s imperative that you treat your referring providers well. If they stop referring business to you, you’ll go out of business.

Here are some ways that you can ensure that you’re earning the support of your referring providers:

1. Provide exceptional patient care. This is obvious, but you have to be excellent! If you take bad care of patients, you won’t get any patients sent to you.

2. Provide exceptional customer service. Keep your waiting times short, have a simple scheduling process, be nice to everyone (providers and patients), and have excellent communication with your patients.

3. Be a teacher for your patients and referring providers. Teach your patients about their disease, and teach your referring providers how to better care for their patients with regard to your specialty. Offer to give a 30-60 minute lecture to referring providers’ staff on management of diseases you treat.

4. Communicate well. Send a letter to the referring provider telling them what you’re doing with the patient. Keep them in the loop.

5. Help referring providers with their most difficult cases.

• The difficult patient: Help the rude, demanding, and anxious patients come to terms with their disease and treatment plans.

• The difficult disease: Take over management of challenging or complex cases so the referring providers don’t have to.

• The difficult outcome: Tell the referring providers about any case that has a bad outcome like cancer, terminal illness, or high risk scenario so they don’t get blindsided by the patient asking questions.

Day 6: your digital reputation

>60% of patients find their physicians by searching online. You need an online presence! What are you doing to build your “digital reputation?”

You can start by working on getting good patient reviews. People are >10x more likely to post a negative review than a positive one. You’ll get some negative reviews inevitably. You need a large number of positive ones to drown out the negative ones and give you a good average.

Here are some strategies for building your “digital reputation.”

1. Ask for reviews. If a patient has a good experience, have your front desk team ask them to post a review on Google, social media sites, or any of the many healthcare rating websites.

2. Police your reviews regularly. You can have someone on your staff do this so you don’t have to. Make sure to stay HIPAA-compliant. Thank people for positive reviews. For negative reviews, post a response asking them to call the clinic so your team can help them address their concerns.

3. Have a blog. A blog is singularly useful. It will drive traffic to your website, and it establishes your expertise before the patient sets foot in your clinic. Post useful content relative to the diseases you commonly treat.

4. Construct a good website. We’ll do a deeper dive on this tomorrow, but for now just make sure that your home page has an easy way for patients to schedule appointments with you.

5. Build a strong social media presence. Younger generations spend a huge amount of time on social media. If your company is not on social media, you’re missing out on getting business. Post regularly, at least a few times a week. Post announcements, blog posts, and seasonal recommendations (e.g. back to school exams, flu shots in the winter, etc.)

Day 7: revamp your website

Your website is perhaps the biggest opportunity you have to reach people. Most people find their doctors online or through social media.

• Is your website easy to navigate?

• Is it visually appealing?

• Does it offer good information about the diseases you treat?

There are a number of good books you can buy on creating a website that brings in business effectively. The best one I can recommend is called Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.

He recommends a few basic strategies that I think all of us should employ:

1. Can your website convert a reader into a client within 7 seconds? Could you show someone the home page on your website for only 7 seconds and have them be able to tell you afterwards what you do/sell, why it makes their life better, and how do they connect to you in order to get it? If they can’t tell you those things in only 7 seconds, you have to make the website more plain and clear.

2. Do you have a lead generator? You need something you can give away in exchange for someone’s email. Make an informative pdf download that relates to your specialty. It could be something like, “10 things you can do to lower your blood pressure” if you’re a cardiologist. An OB/GYN’s might be “5 signs that you might have pre-eclampsia.”

3. Send a series of follow-up emails. Follow up the download with some emails informing the patient about the diseases you treat, the value of the healthcare you provide, and eventually an offer to schedule an appointment for them.

Spend some time building a good website. Better yet, invest some money and hire a professional to build it for you. This is definitely worth the money.

Day 8: Minimize the financial impact of no-shows

Don’t you just hate it when you have a full day of clinic and 4 people cancel? Well, if you are a salaried physician, it might be fine for you. But, if your compensation is in any way tied to wRVU or billing/collections, that’s a real problem!

How do you minimize the impact of no-shows? Here are a few strategies.

1. Charge for no-shows and late cancellations. If you charge a nominal fee, say $20 for a no-show or same-day cancellation, it will greatly reduce the noshow rate. When patients have no financial disincentive, they feel free to cancel or no-show since there’s no consequence. The charge doesn’t have to be much (<$50) to generate the deterrent effect. Make sure to take a credit card number when you schedule the appointment so you can charge them in the event of a no-show.

2. Get a good phone number for the patient when they schedule their visit. You need to be able to get in touch with the patient, so get good phone numbers (home and cell if available) as well as a good email address.

3. Call patients the day before to remind them of their appointment. Some patients honestly forget their appointment date or time. A simple reminder phone call can be really helpful in reducing the no-show rate.

4. Text patients an hour before their appointment to remind them. If you have texting capabilities, set an auto-reminder program to text the patients an hour or two before their appointment as a final reminder.

5. Send letters to the referring provider notifying them of the no-show. Let the referring provider know about the no-show. They’ll appreciate being in the loop, since they care about their patients getting the care they need.

6. Fire the “repeat offenders.” Warn patients that continued no-shows may result in them having to seek care elsewhere. Have a written policy you can email or give in writing to patients when they schedule their appointment stating that after a certain number of no-shows or same-day cancellations (no more than 3), they will not receive care at your facilities and will have to seek care elsewhere. Make sure you comply with your state’s laws on providing care to “fired patients” for the requisite amount of time in order to give them time to find a new provider (30 days in many states).

Day 9: maximize utility of team members

On day 3, you went through the hiring and firing processes of your clinic and made them better. Now that you’ve got a plan for getting the right team members, let’s work on getting them into the right role in your clinic.

It’s not enough to have the right people. You’ve got to have the right people doing the right jobs. Here are a couple of ways to go about this:

1. Personality or aptitude tests. This can be a great way to measure people’s strengths and weaknesses. Maybe they have a knack for math or accounting and you didn’t realize it. Maybe they’re natural marketers but not good with interpersonal interactions. Learn their strengths, then help them leverage those strengths to find success.

2. Figure out what jobs need to be done. If you’re not certain a job is offering value, it’s hard to motivate the person in that job to do it. Take stock of each staff position and determine whether it’s necessary. Should the role be expanded? Combined with another role? Do new roles need to be created? Consider visiting another clinic to determine what jobs your clinic might need.

3. Is there someone with a passion for something valuable that you can create a job for? Maybe someone’s passionate about something, and you never realized you needed that job to be done! Ask each staff member what their passions are. What are their hobbies, interests, and skills? Are they suited to a position you should create?

4. Ask people what they think their job is. Start by asking people what they think their job is. Independently, you write down your expectations of the job and see how they compare. If they’re wildly different, you need to do a better job educating your staff on their roles.

5. Utilize your leadership team. If you have a clinic manager or office manager, use them to help conduct interviews, distribute surveys, conduct aptitude assessments, and determine everyone’s ideal role.

Day 10: team culture

Nothing says “great place for health care” like a motivated team where everyone likes each other.

Sadly, that’s not always the case. I’ve heard it said, and I think it’s true, that:

“Business culture eats business strategy for breakfast.”

If you don’t have a dynamic, thriving team culture, you’ll have stagnant growth and an unpleasant work environment. Here are a few ideas for kickstarting your team’s culture growth.

1. Everyone should know their role. People without purpose lack passion. Your staff needs to know what their role is and how they’re valuable to the company. Make sure to communicate that to them regularly and clearly.

2. Each team member needs to feel appreciated. This might include public recognition of good work, an “employee of the month” program, small monetary bonuses for extraordinary quality work, or other incentive programs.

3. Pay them well. Nothing says “I don’t care about you” like paying someone less than market value for their work.

4. Encourage open dialogue. Encourage, even require, that people speak up when they see ways to change or improve things about the clinic.

5. Communicate effectively. Clearly articulate your vision for the company often. Have a mission statement and insist people memorize it. All of your company’s efforts should be aligned with the mission statement.

6. Culture events. People should enjoy working together. Have periodic staff wellness events, retreats, potlucks, or other small events (during or after hours) for your team. These don’t have to be expensive, but they should promote camaraderie and togetherness. Let people enjoy just being in each others’ company.

7. Morale/culture officer. Appoint someone to lead the way on organizing the recognition/appreciation programs and staff culture events. This should be someone gifted in the areas of planning and organizing, with an eye towards inclusive fun.

Get more free resources

I designed this exercise to help you take concrete steps towards making your clinic the best it can be. This isn’t wishful thinking, this stuff really works!

It’s never easy, but these are some very simple things you can do to help make the most of your existing clinic space and staff. I hope this guide has helped you!

The Scope of Practice is a place where you can gain the knowledge you need to run your business successfully and master your personal finances.

I have a lot of free resources available to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to email me at editor@thescopeofpractice.com and tell me how I can serve you better.

If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of the other great resources I have for you at www.TheScopeOfPractice.com.

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The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

- Dr. Seuss

When was the last time you set aside time to read a book that would be good for your life or career that wasn’t a textbook? If you’re like most busy healthcare professionals, it has probably been a few years.

There are so many books to choose from that maybe you don’t know where to start.

Thankfully, I’ve taken the work out of it for you. This reading list will give you a master’s course in business and personal finance mastery. If you’re not sure where to start, focus on the editor’s choice books.

Take 3 simple steps to improve your career and finances:

1. Review the books in this guide. If you’re overwhelmed, focus on the editor’s choice books.

2. Buy the books.

3. Start reading!

Brent W. Lacey, M.D. Founder of The Scope of Practice editor@TheScopeofPractice.com

Personal finance

The Millionaire Next Door

Thomas J. Stanley

A classic of the personal ﬁnance world, Stanley reviews the surprising habits of millionaires and discovers just how simple it is to get to millionaire status. The secrets of the rich aren’t so secret!

The Total Money Makeover

Dave Ramsey

Ramsey is a global expert on personal ﬁnance. This book walks you through his Seven Baby Steps. It’s a great book for anyone interested in eliminating debt and building wealth.

Everyday Millionaires

Chris Hogan

Editor’s Choice

This book is the product of the largest study ever done on millionaires. Hogan covers many surprising statistics about millionaire behaviors, habits, philosophy, and investing tactics.

Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth

Nick Murray

Murray argues that if you start early and are disciplined, building inevitable. His thesis is compelling, but also highly practical with easy action steps to follow.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Robert Kiyosake

Do you believe the lie that you need a big income to become rich? Kiyosake explodes that myth and other falsehoods about becoming wealthy.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

- Edmund Burke

Personal finance - physicians

The White Coat Investor

James Dahle

Editor’s Choice

This seminal work is a must-read for all physicians who want to nancial independence. Dahle covers student loans, investing, insurance, and all the critical details of physician ﬁnance.

The Physician Philosopher’s Guide to Personal Finance

James Turner

This has been called a “2 million dollar book.” Turner expertly unpacks critical details of student loan repayment, debt elimination, savings, investing, and the philosophy behind ﬁnancial independence.

The Four Pillars of Investing

William J. Bernstein

Dr. Bernstein is a physician, widely respected in the ﬁnancial and medical industries. This book is dense and somewhat diﬃcult to digest for novice investors, but it’s worth the read.

The Doctor’s Guide to Eliminating Debt

Cory Fawcett

Does it matter if you pay oﬀ your student loans quickly? Are car loans really a big deal? How do I get a mortgage? Dr. Fawcett will help you destroy debt so you can be ﬁnancially independent.

The Physician’s Guide to Personal Finance

Steiner

This is a shorter, more digestible book, but its impact is just as big. It has a lot of high-yield information. It’s geared especially for young physicians and early career professionals.

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

- Benjamin Franklin

Investing

The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing

Taylor Larimore

Editor’s Choice

A timeless classic written by investing industry experts. This is simple enough for the novice investor but sophisticated enough for veterans. This book should be part of your library!

The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need

Andrew Tobias

This book is highly practical. You’ll save thousands of dollars by following the simple and actionable items in this guide. This book will help you regardless of your income level.

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

John Bogle

Are you still trying to time the market and own a portfolio full of individual stocks? The founder of Vanguard will convince you why a strategy of mutual fund investing makes sense for you.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Burton Malkiel

Market timing is a fool’s errand. Malkiel will guide you through dollar cost averaging, disciplined investing, and will help you avoid gimmicks of the investing industry to achieve success.

Retire Inspired

Chris Hogan

Too many investing books focus solely on nuts-and-bolts strategies for retirement planning. Hogan covers that too, but infuses hope and inspiration throughout as well. Patience

and diligence, like faith, can move mountains.

- Mark Twain

Leadership

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

John Maxwell

Editor’s Choice

Every John Maxwell book should be in this guide, but there are too many of them to list. This one is probably his best known. Read one chapter a day, and in 3 weeks you’ll be a leadership expert.

How to Lead When You’re Not In Charge

Clay Scroggins

How do you leverage inﬂuence when you’re not the boss? Is it important? Is it even possible? Scroggins answers these questions and more with style and clarity. Lead from below!

Ender’s Game

Orson Scott Card

Editor’s Choice

Not technically a leadership book, but in this sci-ﬁ fantasy, Card weaves leadership, tactics, strategy, and communication lessons throughout. If you want to lead a team, read this book.

Leaders Made Here

Mark Miller

As a Chick-ﬁl-A executive, Miller knows how to build people into world-class leaders. Go inside the Chick-ﬁl-A playbook on how to become the leader your team members are eager to follow.

Entreleadership

Dave Ramsey

Leadership and entrepreneurship should go together. Ramsey covers employee compensation structure, hiring/ﬁring, and building a positive culture while building a proﬁtable business.

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one who gets people to do the greatest things.

- Ronald Reagan

marketing/branding

Building a Storybrand

Donald Miller

Editor’s Choice

“If you confuse, you’ll lose.” Miller argues that clarity is the key to successful marketing. He uses the concept of story in a powerful 7-part framework to help you transform your marketing messages.

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Gary Vaynerchuk

Are you using social media to successfully promote your brand and successfully sell products? If not, Gary V. will teach you the strategies you need to leverage social media to your advantage.

How to Win Friends and Inﬂuence People

Dale Carnegie

A timeless classic of inﬂuence and communication! Carnegie’s coaching has led thousands of business leaders to build successful relationships and proﬁtable businesses.

How the World Sees You

Sally Hogshead

This isn’t “just another personality test.” This book helps you see how you are already perceived by others and how you can leverage those traits to your advantage.

This is Marketing

Seth Godin

Marketing should solve your customer’s problems. That’s the only way to grow your business. Godin will help you establish authority in the marketplace and position you as an expert.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Business management

Good to Great

Jim Collins

Editor’s Choice

This is a top ﬁve book for all leaders and business owners. Collins works through critical management concepts to help you build a business that will stand out from your competitors.

The Ideal Team Player

Patrick Lencione

Editor’s Choice

Teamwork makes the dream work, but only if you have the right team members. Lencione argues that ideal team members need three traits. Learn what they are and how to cultivate them here.

Built to Last Jim Collins

What keeps a company thriving for years or decades when most tend to falter after a few years? Collins breaks that down in this book. If you want your business to last a long time, read this!

Culture Wins

William Vanderbloemen

Companies are learning that culture matters, especially to younger generations of employees. Learn what creates a positive vibe and how to cultivate that culture in your business.

A CEO’s Secret Weapon

Frumi Rachel Barr

Too many physicians are bogged down by administrative tasks that drain your time and keep you from seeing patients. Learn how an administrative assistant can make you more productive.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

- Steve Jobs

Getting started

The Doctor’s Guide to Starting Your Practice Right

Cory Fawcett

Many physicians get out of training and suddenly don’t know what to do to succeed in practice. Dr. Fawcett unpacks the critical errors young physicians makes and oﬀers strategies to avoid them.

Start with WHY

Simon Sinek

Editor’s Choice

If your company has lost its drive or if your team members seem unmotivated, you may need to relearn the “WHY” of your business. Sinek helps you do that in this book.

The Seven Habits of Highly Eﬀective People

Steven R. Covey

This is a classic for anyone who wants to be maximally productive at work. If you want to jumpstart your eﬃciency, you nitely need to read this.

Boundaries

Henry Cloud

Is it hard for you to say “no”? Do you feel like people walk all over you? It’s hard to set boundaries, but it’s important to do so! Learn how to do this eﬀectively with Dr. Cloud’s classic.

John Miller

When someone asks you a question, what do they actually want to know? This is a short book that helps you discern the “question behind the question,” and cut to the core of any issue.

I have dreams and I have nightmares. I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.

- Jonas Salk

editor’s choice picks

James Dahle

Taylor Larimore

John Maxwell

Leaders are readers. If you want to increase your influence in your business, make your business more profitable, or just improve your personal finances, then start reading!

The Scope of Practice is a place where you can gain the knowledge you need to run your business successfully and master your personal finances.

I have a lot of free resources available to help you reach your goals. Please feel free to email me at editor@TheScopeofPractice.com and tell me how I can serve you better.

If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out some of the other great resources I have for you at www.TheScopeofPractice.com.

The