After many years of hard work, you’ve graduated from medical school. Congratulations! Now it’s time to answer the age-old question.
Do you want to start a medical practice of your own or apply to one of the many clinics in your area? There are merits of going either route.
Most people find more happiness going with the former option, however. There’s better job security, you’ll learn a lot of transferable business skills, you get to be in charge, and you’ll have the chance to set your own schedule.
These are only a few benefits of getting your own practice up and going. Keep reading for an entire list of reasons why you should open a clinic.
1. Schedule Control
When you work at a hospital, those in charge will establish your schedule for you. You may get called in on holidays, and there’s always the chance that your vacation time won’t get approved.
As you can imagine, it doesn’t exactly create a good work/life balance. When starting a medical practice of your own, you set your own schedule. If you want to shut the clinic down for the afternoon to go to your kid’s ball game, you have that freedom providing that you don’t have any patients scheduled.
You can plan to always be there to enjoy a nice dinner with your family, and when you want to go on vacation, you can pencil that in for yourself.
2. You’re the Boss
As we established above, being a doctor in your own clinic makes you the boss. You get to decide how many patients you see during the day. If you want to leave some wiggle room in your schedule to account for walk-ins, you can do that.
You’re in charge of hiring the staff. If someone rubs you the wrong way during the interview, you push their resume off to the side. You’ll get to decide on the entire atmosphere of your clinic.
You’ll order all the equipment and pick the systems that your practice uses. If you want a particular answering service for doctors, you can pay for it.
3. Owning Your Own Practice Prevents Burnout
Becoming a doctor means that you enjoy caring for people to some degree. Still, even with how rewarding healthcare careers are, burnout always seems to creep in.
When you’re always on call and overbooked with patients, you’re going to be stressed out. Being able to choose your own hours and how many people you see every day does wonders for your mental health because you won’t be spreading yourself quite as thin.
Since you own the clinic and know how to run everything, you can allow your employees to have some flexibility with their schedules. It makes for happier and more productive workers.
4. More Control Over Patient Care
When you work in a hospital setting, it’s difficult to give personalized care. You have someone above you breathing down your neck and telling you what to do. You’re working in a system that you can’t detour from.
When you’re in charge of things, the only people involved with the patient’s care are yourself and the person themselves. It makes it easier for you to make certain judgment calls.
5. You Set the Costs
One of the major reasons why people don’t make doctor’s appointments until it’s completely necessary is the cost. They can’t afford a huge medical bill on top of all their other expenses.
The great thing about owning a clinic is you set the prices. It can be super rewarding to provide quality care for low-income individuals, and it’s not like you’re going to lose anything from it.
By keeping your costs low, more people will be willing to come see you to save money. More patients means a more prosperous clinic.
6. You’ll Have Better Job Security
When you work at a hospital or a general practice in your area, your boss can fire you whenever they want. In most cases, you’re on a contract that won’t get renewed when it expires.
There’s a certain level of job security that comes with being the boss of your own place. You can literally work there until you decide to step down and sell the practice.
The only exception is if you have partners. If they don’t feel like you’re fit to be in charge, they can cast a vote to force you to leave.
7. There’s Financial Gain
It’s no lie that owning your own business (any kind of business) comes with its fair share of financial drain. You’ve got to pay to rent the office space, hire your staff, buy equipment, and handle your taxes.
You’ll find that the overall revenue your clinic brings in will take some of the money stress off of you, however. Again, there’s a good chance that you’ll bring in a lot of low-income families in your area if you keep your costs low.
When you’re ready to stop working, you’ll have the power to put the office space up for sale. If you play your cards right, the amount you get could fund your retirement by itself.
8. You’ll Grow as a Person
The last benefit of running a private practice is that you’ll grow as a person. You see, you won’t only be building onto your medical knowledge with every patient you see. You’ll also soak in a lot of business know-how.
If you want to branch out and learn more about the specialty services you can offer patients, you’ll have the time and energy to take classes and attend seminars.
Start a Medical Practice in Your Area Today
There are a lot of reasons why doctors start a medical practice instead of working at a hospital. There’s more freedom involved with it.
You set your schedule. You get to decide on how many patients you see during the day. If you want to take vacation time, you can pencil it in whenever you want.
Talk about work/life balance! There’s still some stress involved with being a doctor (even if you’re running your own practice). Visit the Business section of our blog for tips that will take the pressure off.
