Physicians: Stop Dreaming and Start Doing at Your Medical Practice

Often in life, we hold ourselves back from making progress. Usually this is due to either fear of failing or fear of succeeding. But either way that fear exists and limits your potential.

Running a busy medical practice is wrought with all kinds of stress, administrative hassles, and lots of time and energy spent on things we don’t necessarily want to be focused on (insurance claims, this form, that form, lots and lots of forms....)

I truly believe that if you sat down and asked most doctors who work in the private-practice, outpatient setting, most would tell you that they are not spending their days as they wish they could be. They would say something to the effect of: “This is just the way it is now.”

Yes, there are aspects of every job that we abhor. Time and energy spent on places and people and things that we wish we did not have to do. But, why is it that we seem to be placing more and more of our emphasis on these types of things these days?

I think for better and for worse, we are holding ourselves back, not allowing ourselves to truly reach for what we desire with our practices. For some reason, we, as physicians, have completely become tacit with where we are in this modern medical world we practice in. As such, most of us are not really spending our days creating the practices of our dreams.

That’s right, I chose the word create because that is exactly what this is all about.

Everything about your practice is a choice and until you see it this way, you will continue to hold yourself back.

This includes:
• The waiting room furniture, ambiance, and even the magazines
• The tone and dialogue your staff uses when they greet patients and talk to them on the phone
• The manner in which you bring patients back to the exam rooms
• How you decorate each exam room
• How you decide to enter the exam room
• Do you bring your computer with you?
• What options you provide each patient
• How long you spend with each patient in the exam room
• How many patients you see each day
• How you end each visit
• How you choose to follow up with each patient
• How you choose to bill for your time and services

I can go on and on. The point I am trying to make here is that every single aspect about your day is a choice.

And more often than not, we hold ourselves back because we see our days filled with obligations instead of choices.

Just like it is completely up to you what route you take to get to your office, so it is your choice about how you are going to spend every moment in your office.

Yes, medical school and residency and the past 10 years of your practice have consistently told you that there is only one way to do things.

But, the reality is this: Every moment of your day is just that. We tend to hold ourselves back from having exceptional days because we feel that our day is composed of different cards we have been dealt.

A better and healthier perspective is to truly embrace each day of your practice and decide how you want to play your hand.

Because when you are fully engaged and the one in the driver seat, the one who is creating the moments of your day, then you can fully see and appreciate that your practice is what you make it. There will be no holding you back then.

So take the pressure off yourself and make one decision today: Do you really like that waiting room chair?

Find out more about Craig Koniver and our other Practice Notes bloggers.