HOW PROFITABLE IS A HEALTH CARE PRIVATE PRACTICE?

The mainstay of the American economy is not the Fortune 500 – it is small businesses. There are more than 30 million small businesses in the US and less than 20,000 companies with more than 500 employees.

One small business field that has been in the spotlight recently is healthcare private practices. The fear is that large health care groups are on a buying spree, which will eliminate an important healthcare delivery system in the community. But the news is not all bad – this “doctor-buying” spree seems to be slowing down. One reason is that private practice owners are finding ways to boost the profitability of their practice.

The best way to do this is to embrace the idea of being an entrepreneur. Private practice owners are obviously good at their specialty, but nine times out of ten they’ve not had business training. So concentrating on the business side of the practice pays off. Patrick Green has done just that.

“By learning how to run the practice as a business it has grown from 1400 square feet with only one therapist, a PTA and my wife at the front desk to 6000 square feet of space in a premier medical suite,” says Green. “We now employ over 20 staff members, including 4 PT’s and 3 OT’s.”