It begins.

Opening a new business and private practice was a major decision.    I have decided to enter a new chapter in my life.  That will be the chapter of business owner and solo practitioner.   It was a long road reaching this point.  I had many periods of doubt and confusion.    I never really considered doing this before because I always thought it would be too difficult, too expensive and that people just didn’t go into practice by themselves anymore.  This is what corporate medicine wants you to think!  That way, all doctors are kept employed, restricted and under their thumb.  I am going to make my dream happen.  My dream is opening a new business and private practice!

One day last week, I had an epiphany.  I was meant to do this.  I had been building to this moment all my life.  For guidance, I turned to an individual renowned for starting the “Ideal Medical Clinic” movement.  Her name is Dr. Pamela Wible and is at http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/.  I’ll talk more about her later.  Once I passed the “I can’t do it” barrier, I was able to set in motion the planning and steps that I needed to undertake.  One of my first barriers is/was finding a place to put my office.  I have a couple of promising leads but at the present time, I am homeless!  While that is falling in to place, I began work on several other chores that needed done to make my practice a reality.  These include:

1.  Building this website
2. Coming up with a business plan
3. Acquiring funding
4. Developing a supply list
5. Considering staff
6. Developing a pricing structure.

These are all things that are not taught in medical school.  Medical school teaches you to take care of patients and it teaches you to do that very well.  It does not teach anything about business or how to run your own practice.  I had to look elsewhere for that instruction.  In the past, I never worried about charging patients for my care.  This was one of the benefits of working for someone else and in drawing a salary.  This is a double edged sword. As an employee, I was not allowed input on who to see or how long.  No input on schedules.  I was told to see a patient every 15 minutes and then I was double booked forcing me to spend only 7 minutes with a patient.  This does not provide for needed personal care and in effect, limits me to being an assembly line worker in a great big healthcare factory.  I refuse to be involved with that method of healthcare any longer.  You deserve better!

I am open to advice and suggestions.  If you see something you like, don’t like or think could be implemented better, let me know.  We will work on it together.