Back to All ResourcesDear Doctor: Here Are Three Reasons Why Private Practice Is Needed
Private practices are on the decline and large healthcare systems are only expanding their control into every aspect of patient care. This trend is not good for patients nor medical professionals. Studies have shown that patients receive higher quality care at a lower medical cost when the care is delivered by independent practices. Private practices are needed more than ever in the current medical environment. Not only do they provide a better experience for patients, but they also provide a better and more rewarding experience for the physicians that run them.
Better Patient Care
Private practices can provide a higher quality of care to patients than larger healthcare systems. There are several reasons that private practices can provide a high level of care, all of which cannot be replicated by larger health systems. One main reason that private practices often provide a higher level of care is because doctors, in this case, have full autonomy and their decisions are not impacted by constraints of the system they are employed in. As a result, physicians within private practice typically can provide better patient advocacy, and essentially a high level of treatment and care driven by their clinical judgement. The autonomy that is integral to independent practice better allows for a 1 on 1 relationship with the patient, allowing exclusion of any third-party influence and thus enabling a more efficient and effective decision making and a better understanding between the two parties. Whether it comes down to a split-second decision or continual improvements to patient care, doctors in private practice are more unencumbered by external factors and can made the right decision for patients.
Lower Patient Costs
Private practices are also able to offer lower costs to their patients. For example, private practices don’t charge a hospital or facility fee and they also provide lower per-beneficiary costs. Recent studies have shown that the cost of certain surgical procedures can cost significantly higher when received from a private practice instead of a hospital due mostly to the lack of price transparency that exists in today’s healthcare.
This is a huge cost savings that can be passed onto your patients, and with today’s costly medical environment, these savings make a huge difference. Providing a lower cost to your patients will increase trust with the patient, and provide you with increased satisfaction, all while still keeping the profits from your operations in the local community. Say goodbye to incentivized hospital rebate plans and remember what it feels like to fully align with your personal mission through your career.
**Flexible Employment Options for Medical Practitioners **
At first glance, flexible employment options for medical practitioners may seem to only benefit doctors, but once you take a second look, you’ll realize they are also beneficial to patients. Medical practitioners are known for working long-hours and being constantly overworked. In nearly any profession this results in a reduced quality of work, and the same holds true in the medical field. Medical professionals are experiencing burnout which inevitably can result in mistakes. These mistakes not only can result in harm to patients which is never the intended outcome, but their very possibility and occurrence take a severe physical and mental toll on the physicians that are faced with difficult decisions on daily basis.
Medical practitioners should feel comfortable with the number of hours they’re working and should not be pushed so hard that their quality of work declines. Unfortunately, this is a rarity in the hospital setting, and is often an after-thought for understaffed hospitals. Hold yourself (and others) to a higher standard by running your own private medical practice and providing the highest level of care possible for your patients.
Conclusion
From better patient care, reduced patient costs, and a better experience for practitioners, private medical practices provide many benefits that traditional hospital systems can’t match. It may seem difficult to start your own private practice, but there are many resources available to help you with the transition. Taking advantage of a medical co-working or independent practice collaborative models can ease the burden of opening a practice and help you fulfill your dreams of providing the highest possible level of patient care. Some of the models even allow for larger scope of benefits that will go further in establishing physician’s independence. Please do your research into the available models.
Sources for Increased Costs:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5400228/
- https://www.healthcostinstitute.org/images/easyblog_articles/276/HCCI-2017-Health-Care-Cost-and-Utilization-Report-02.12.19.pdf
Sources for Overworked/Burnout:
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