Knowing how to grow a medical practice comes down to attracting new patients and retaining existing ones. Effective growth involves expanding services, implementing a patient-centric approach, managing the business efficiently, recruiting and retaining skilled staff, and marketing the practice well.
In 2018, 45.9% of US physicians owned their practices, according to a survey in the American Medical Association's Policy Research Perspective series. Privately owned practices need to continuously attract new patients to support their growth and retain existing patients for sustainable success.
Read on for the trends shaping medical practices, the areas of practice management that drive growth, and six strategies to grow a medical practice.
Article Highlights
Growing a medical practice depends on attracting new patients and retaining existing ones through expanded services, a patient-centric approach, efficient business management, skilled staff, and marketing.
- More than 100 million Americans lack routine access to a primary care physician, and the average wait for a new patient appointment was approximately 26 days in 2022.
- The World Health Organization estimates a global healthcare worker shortage of almost 14 million by 2030, which makes hiring and retention critical to growth.
- Six strategies: extend your reach with telehealth, expand your services, encourage online reviews, automate follow-ups and scheduling, invest in staff professional development, and engage the local community.
What trends are shaping medical practice growth?
Standards of care and patient expectations are changing with the growing use of telehealth. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented boom in telehealth services. By April 2020, telehealth had become the go-to method for office visits and outpatient care, with usage reaching 78 times pre-pandemic levels, according to a report by McKinsey. Usage later settled at around 38 times pre-pandemic levels, according to the same report.
The number of people in the United States who do not have a primary care physician is significant. More than 100 million Americans don't have routine access to a primary care physician, which has nearly doubled since 2014, according to research on primary care access.
Telehealth is one solution that can potentially help close this gap, by reducing the physical barriers to healthcare access and connecting a greater number of people with primary care physicians virtually.
Another factor that represents an opportunity for telemedicine is clinic wait times. In 2022, the average wait to schedule a new patient appointment with a physician was approximately 26 days, according to a survey reported by the Washington State Hospital Association.
With telehealth, patients can potentially reduce their amount of time spent traveling to appointments, and clinics can streamline administration by conducting particular actions (like having patients fill out forms) remotely between or before virtual visits.
Telehealth, also called virtual care or telemedicine, presents a wealth of opportunities for a medical practice, enabling practitioners to:
- Extend their services to remote and inaccessible communities
- Offer greater flexibility for consultation times
- Improve clinic accessibility and patient satisfaction
- Increase capacity to see a greater volume of patients
- Reduce patient costs
- Increase revenue through seeing higher patient volume or reimbursement
- Improve operational efficiency
- Improve patient care
As technology continues to evolve, the significance of virtual care and telemedicine in the healthcare industry is poised to grow even further.
Which areas drive medical practice growth?
To grow a medical practice, providing excellent medical care to patients is a requirement. But that’s not all that goes into it. An all-encompassing approach that considers the business of running a practice is critical.
Some key areas to focus on include:
- Business management
- Hiring
- Marketing
- Patient care
All of these factors play pivotal roles in the practice’s overall growth. Implementing a patient-centric approach, which prioritizes delivering an optimal patient experience, minimizes turnover and enhances retention rates.
Business management and workflows
In any healthcare practice, efficient business management is the backbone of success. The business of healthcare requires thought and action in the following areas:
- Strategic planning: Set goals for the practice, perform competitive analysis to differentiate your services, determine a growth strategy.
- Financial management: Effectively budget and forecast finances, manage salary and other expenses.
- Legal and regulatory compliance: Ensure the practice is compliant with federal and state level regulations.
- Operations management: Streamline workflows, automate scheduling and communications, and manage inventory of medical supplies.
- Technology implementation: Use technology that helps automate tasks, ease administrative burden, allow for the most up-to-date medical procedures, and enable telemedicine, as needed.
- Community and stakeholder relationships: Build relationships with patients, community organizations, and other healthcare professionals to establish a reputation and manage referrals.
Other elements include encouraging patient engagement, collecting patient feedback, providing a high-quality patient experience, and efficiently handling finances, human resources, patient care coordination, and administrative functions.
Thanks to software and tools such as electronic health records (EHRs) for digital patient information management, the business management of healthcare services has been greatly simplified. Automation tools can streamline processes such as:
- Accounting
- Medical billing
- Claims processing
- Outpatient management
- Inventory management
- Bed management
Determine the right medical hardware and software for your practice. Read more: Telemedicine Equipment: 30 Essential Telehealth Tools.
Hiring and retention
The right staff, including medical professionals and support staff, are crucial for any medical practice. With a global healthcare worker shortage estimated by the World Health Organization to reach almost 14 million by 2030, hiring and retention are critical to consider when growing a medical practice.
What are some of the skills to seek out? In addition to the hard skills of relevant medical experience, staff should possess exceptional people skills and specialized training, particularly in phone etiquette, to professionally engage with patients. Capable, amiable, and empathetic staff members contribute to patient satisfaction and also aid in retaining current patients.
Human resources management in a healthcare practice involves:
- Staff recruitment, hiring, and onboarding
- Training and development
- Performance reviews
- Employee regulatory compliance
- Retention
Several factors contribute to a practice’s ability to retain staff. Stress and burnout, compensation, adequate staffing, and a sense of autonomy, purpose, and growth can all shape a worker’s career. One study summarized the key factors that contribute to healthcare employee retention as:
- Personal characteristics
- Job demands
- Employment services
- Working conditions
- Work relationships
- Organizational culture
Marketing and communication
Marketing is crucial for attracting potential patients and building trust. Marketing and communications involve many moving parts, such as:
- Branding and positioning: Differentiating the practice, identifying a target audience, communicating what patients can expect from their experience, outlining services.
- Marketing strategy and outreach: Deciding what channels to use in order to reach the right audience (e.g., social media, email) and what content to share.
- Patient engagement: Communicating with existing patients about appointment times, clinic news and announcements, testing results, scheduling follow ups.
- Partnerships: Community engagement through events, fundraising, referral processes.
As one review found, 12.5% of healthcare organizations successfully attracted new patients through social media. Examples for how to use social media can include:
- Presenting the practice’s work in visually engaging ways
- Encouraging the development of user-generated content, perceived as genuine and credible, as social evidence for prospective patients
- Promoting community events
With a robust referral network and distinctive strengths, medical practices can effectively promote their brand and distinguish themselves from competitors.
Services and patient care
Offering various services can help a medical practice stand out from the competition. Consider offering new services or improving existing ones, such as implementing research-backed technologies or preventive care. These options can bring in new patients, ensure patient loyalty, and drive revenue growth.
By improving your patients' experiences by greeting them upon arrival, minimizing wait times, conducting follow-ups after appointments, and updating communication methods, a medical practice can distinguish itself from its competitors and foster patient confidence.
For example, by creating exceptional patient experiences, Yukon Neurology was able to:
- Reduce time to administer neuropsychological testing down to 2 hours
- Achieve a 99 percent testing completion rate
- Gain patient referrals for extended services for ADHD, depression, and anxiety testing
Learn how by reading Quicker Comprehensive Neuropsych Testing: Creyos and Yukon Neurology
6 ways to grow your medical practice
There are numerous creative ways to connect with more patients and grow your medical practice. Consider the following six strategies:
- Extend your reach with telehealth
- Expand your services
- Encourage online reviews
- Automate follow-ups and scheduling
- Invest in staff professional development
- Engage the local community
Apply these strategies with your particular practice and patient base in mind to identify the methods most likely to support growth.
Extend your reach with telehealth
With the advent of telehealth, medical practices can now reach more patients, especially when in-person visits are limited or challenging. Telehealth enhances continuity of care by extending access beyond regular clinic hours and mitigates the effects of physician shortages in underserved populations and rural areas.
Telemedicine provides compelling benefits, including quickly available and accessible treatment plans, which can reassure patients of the quality of their care. Particularly in mental health treatment, telemedicine proves highly beneficial by eliminating barriers to accessing essential care, according to research on trends in telemedicine.
McKinsey projected that the telehealth market will grow to $250 billion, presenting a significant economic opportunity for providers.
Expand your services
Adding new services can attract a wider patient base by catering to diverse healthcare needs. It not only fosters patient loyalty but also opens up new revenue streams, contributing to the practice's overall growth.
Computerized cognitive assessments
Cognitive assessments, whether facilitated through telehealth or in-clinic, encompass a variety of tests designed to evaluate crucial brain functions such as memory, attention, language skills, and problem-solving abilities. These assessments are instrumental for clinicians in diagnosing conditions like dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and a range of other neurological disorders.
Nearly one in three individuals over the age of 70 live with either mild cognitive impairment or dementia, according to one study. Computerized cognitive assessments can be administered remotely and conducted from the comfort of one’s home, allowing for a more comprehensive assessment.
Creyos Health provides a suite of tasks assessing cognition that help clinicians who need to measure cognitive decline, as well as those treating mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, which may have cognitive symptoms that require careful monitoring.
Adding services such as computerized cognitive assessments can lead to improved clinical outcomes and patient retention by providing timely and personalized care.
Patient satisfaction and mental health questionnaires
Consider administering surveys to acquire patient feedback on the ease of use and accessibility of telehealth technology. Such questionnaires are a vital tool to measure and obtain input, which can lead to enhanced patient satisfaction and growth. Patients are generally more gratified when they receive comprehensive care that caters to their diverse neurological health needs. Therefore, patient satisfaction surveys are crucial.
Psychological and mental health questionnaires are another way to expand services. They offer a structured and simplified way to capture information on a patient’s mental wellbeing and track significant changes over time. They can be an invaluable resource to signal when referrals are needed, such as for more in-depth psychotherapy, or to measure how effective medicinal or therapeutic interventions have been on mental health.
Encourage online reviews
Online reviews can be critical for patients when choosing a healthcare provider, making it essential to encourage satisfied patients to share their experiences online. A positive online reputation can help attract new patients and improve a medical practice’s reputation.
However, managing negative reviews is equally important. Handle negative reviews by acknowledging negative feedback and providing solutions.
Automate follow-ups and scheduling
Streamlining processes such as follow-ups and scheduling can significantly improve patient satisfaction and contribute to the medical practice's growth. Automating tasks can enhance healthcare staff productivity, optimize the scheduling process, reduce administrative duties, and enable staff to concentrate on more crucial, patient-centered responsibilities.
This contributes to an overall improvement in the patient care experience by:
- Ensuring a more efficient care delivery
- Facilitating timely communication
- Encouraging adherence to treatment plans through regular automated follow-ups
Invest in staff professional development
Investing in your staff can elevate the quality of patient care and increase patient satisfaction. Ensuring every team member is trained with the latest knowledge and skills can significantly enhance the quality of care. The General Medical Council recommends that providers regularly update and continue their professional development.
Research from the Health Foundation suggests that clinicians can benefit from gaining knowledge in professional development as a strategy to improve healthcare quality. Furthermore, a satisfied team who feels valued and invested in the practice’s growth is more likely to deliver exceptional patient care, increasing patient satisfaction and retention. This, in turn, can positively impact the reputation and growth of your medical practice.
Engage the local community
Participating in community events or sponsoring local activities can help your medical practice become a familiar name in your area. This not only fosters trust but also brings in new patients. According to research in Health Affairs, engaging with patients and residents as authentic stakeholders can build trust and create more success for a medical practice.
Furthermore, being known in your local community can also lead to a greater understanding of the specific healthcare needs and concerns of the population you serve. This knowledge can then be used to tailor your services more effectively, ensuring you're providing the most relevant and beneficial care to your patients. Therefore, community engagement boosts your practice's visibility and enhances the quality and relevance of the care you provide.
Key takeaways for growing a medical practice
Effective growth of a medical practice involves expanding services, implementing a patient-centric approach, efficient business management, skilled staff recruitment, and robust marketing strategies.
Another strategy is adopting telehealth and automation technologies, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and scheduling tools, which extend healthcare access and increase patient satisfaction. Consider promoting your practice through social media and by encouraging online reviews, as well as proven methods for attracting new patients and improving patient retention.
Implementing the strategies outlined can help medical practices broaden their patient base and effectively enhance patient satisfaction.
Reviewed by Sydni Paleczny, Staff Scientist at Creyos
Sydni earned her MSc in Neurosciences at Western University under Dr. Adrian Owen. Her research explores neuropsychological outcomes after cardiac surgery, with interests in cognitive neuroscience, critical care, and brain health. At Creyos, she supports scientific validity, health technology, and ongoing research.