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Lean Private Practice is a way of practicing medicine that brings the focus squarely back to the patient’s wellbeing, while sustaining our private practices profitably.

It is the only way to practice medicine in this day and age when reimbursement for care and the cost of doing business are going in opposite directions.

Lean Private Practice is going to be the game changer that puts physicians back at the helm at a time when most feel they have lost their voice in the din that is healthcare in this country today.

Lean Private Practice is a mindset shift, for us physicians as well as our patients, and society at large.

Times are changing, as they always have. But now spurred on by crisis, some of our making and some not- innovation is changing the face of the world at a feverish pace. And things will never return to how they used to be, they never do.

Change we must, whether we like it or not. And medicine, as we know well, is not fond of change. So, we must lead it. Each one of us, in our own little spheres of influence. Our practices, in towns big and small, across the nation.

What is Lean Private Practice?

I define Lean Private Practice as running a practice that is laser-focused on patient care, the way Amazon is consumer obsessed, while cutting out the waste that makes running a practice in this day and age untenable.

Its execution means different things for different people.

For a solo practice, it may mean being a micropractice, instead of hiring staff from the very beginning. As time goes on, it may mean starting off with a virtual assistant rather than an in-person hire.

It may mean not renting out a bunch of space in the beginning when you’re mostly waiting for patients to trickle in.

It may mean automating your processes as much as possible to make workflow smoother and your staff’s wasted time minimized.

It may mean some, or all of the above. It may mean thinking outside the box, borrowing innovation from other industries and being unafraid to try something new.

Medicine is very algorithmic- and I don’t mean that clinically. Possibly because regulations are onerous and hard to keep up with, private practice physicians have followed the herd. And it’s worked out well thus far. I doubt that is the case for the future.

Especially if you want any say in how you want to live your life and have an iota of control over your work hours and your quality of life.

What Lean Private Practice is Not

Please do not get me wrong- I am not talking of cutting corners- doing anything that impacts the patient experience or, worse, affects the quality of care they receive.

So many industries around us adapted to the pandemic in so many ways. Our interactions with restaurants and hotels are nothing like they used to be. Not better or worse, just different. And we, as consumers, get it (or are forced to).

Similarly, our patients, and society at large, will have to get used to the changed healthcare system. They will have to be aware how insurance payments are going down in an age of steep inflation and hiring shortage.

And how that looks from where they stand.

Whether they realize it or not, they’re already impacted by the downhill reimbursement slide. Maybe it looks like an assembly line. A practice where patients go in and out and see the doctor for no more than 3 minutes. Why did it get to that? Because the doc saw his income decline- so he just had to squeeze in more patients to make up for it.

Who is wrong in this scenario? The insurer who cut payments despite increasing premiums every year or the physician trying to keep the lights on in their practice? Depends who you ask, right?

The bottomline is a lose-lose for everyone involved. Patients, who get shortchanged on care. And their physicians who burn out from not being to give the kind of care they would like.

Who is Lean Private Practice Right for?

If you ask me, I think it’s right for everyone! I am proof that it can be done. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Are you a trainee trying to decide on the ideal kind of job for yourself once you graduate in a year or two? Are you an employee in a large healthcare system feeling like a cog in the wheel? Like you’re dispensable – like if you left tomorrow, they would just replace you with the next warm body that showed up and move along?

Maybe you’re a private practice doc wondering where the good ole’ days went. Well, I have news for you…. wherever they went, they’re not coming back.

We either march forward or go the way of the dinosaurs.

#LeanPrivatePractice #NoBetterTime