Growing one’s practice by adding another doctor is an important and exciting step in practice ownership, but it can be challenging to figure out when to do it and how to find the right fit. As a result, here, in part 1 of this 2-part series, I review these items.
When to Do It
I have found that the main driving factor for this timing revolves around the clinic schedule with 2 main scenarios serving as triggers.
Scenario 1: Appointment Wait Times
On average, are you booking out further than 2 weeks? While each practice may have a different definition of “too long,” approximately 2 weeks has historically been used as a good benchmark for when patients are prone to look for care elsewhere. Thus, when you begin seeing a consistent trend greater than the 2-week timing, I suggest beginning to look for an associate.
A caveat: every practice has peak and slow times, so base your decision on the overall picture of your wait time for a comprehensive exam. I recommend monitoring this trend over at least 1 quarter to ensure booking out is a pattern and not a fluke.
Scenario 2: Doctor’s Preferred Schedule Fills Up
Has your preferred schedule filled up? If you answered, “Yes,” any continued growth will necessitate that you add days or appointment slots to prevent booking out too far. While these action steps solve the problem of wait times, they can lead to burnout for you. To prevent this, I recommend beginning to think about adding another practitioner to share the patient load. Hiring an associate to see patients on the days you want off or to bring your schedule back to a comfortable pace will help both you and practice thrive and prevent you from becoming overwhelmed.
How to Find the Right Fit
The right fit for an associate understands your practice’s brand, wants to help you grow the practice in moving forward, and will be available for and desire the days you’ll need to fill.
I have found that 3 main ways have proven effective in an associate hunt. The first is networking. Specifically, consider going to conferences, receptions, state meetings, and local optometric events to make your opening known. While there, you’ll want to inform your colleagues and sales reps of the job opening, as both often know of doctors who may be looking for the role. The second is to contact optometry schools and residency directors. I have found that representatives of the optometry schools are typically happy to inform students of job opportunities, and residency directors often send out job openings as the residency year progresses. Third, I would use professional job listing sites. These include listing on optometry-specific job sites and on general sites. As these contain numerous job applicants, you can filter based upon certain criteria or even sign up for recruitment tools and services to help you find your perfect fit. OM
If you feel like it’s time for you to grow your office, check back soon for part 2 where I’ll detail finding a new associate.
