Today I’ve got a question from Nurse Practitioner Dwayne.  Dwayne asks the best strategies for marketing a specific type of healthcare model to other practitioners and providers. Dwayne has a diabetes clinic.

Here are a few ideas for you and other NPs that you can do right now.  First thing I would suggest that you do is figure out who exactly are the people that you are serving.  You say diabetics.  Is that Type I, type 2, is it adult, is it children, is it adolescents or is it all of the above?  So, once you have that really narrowed down you’ll also know where these people hang out because you’ll want to get your name in front of them.  So, that will be a good thing to do.

Next thing that you’ll want to is go ahead and let the Emergency Rooms know and the Discharge Planners because often times these people show up in the hospital, and they do not have a provider, and they’ll be able to send them your way.

Then I want you to target the primary-care providers.  I would love it if you were in my area and you were taking diabetic patients because right now those that do have a specialty in diabetes—they are not taking new patients because they are all overloaded.

The next thing you want to do is call those offices.  Call the other endocrinology offices and diabetologists and say hey, you’re opening up and that you have openings and you can see patients because most of them are overbooked and they’d be glad to refer people to you so that you can see those patients.

And then the last thing I would do is make sure that you get online.  You want to go to local.google.com and enter in your practice information because what happens is somebody maybe in San Francisco looking up a diabetic specialist in the San Francisco and your name will pop up in Google, and more patients are doing that.  Be sure and do that.  That’s for everybody in any kind of a practice situation.

So, until next time for the next NPBO Minute, you can visit www.NursePractionerBusinessOwner.com or you can visit www.NPBusiness.org and leave a comment in our blog.

Answering Nurse Practitioner questions about business…

Teresa has asked me what do I think about having a niched practice such as with men’s health, since women have GYNs; and I’ll tell you, I think it’s a great idea.

First of all it does a couple of different things.  It allows you to practice in an area that you have passion for, and I think that is so important.  I mean, let’s face it.  We all work really hard, and we’re working harder every day.  So, why not practice in an area that brings you a lot of pleasure, it brings you a lot of joy, and it allows you to use your expertise in that particular area.

So, one of the things that I would recommend if you are just getting started in your practice is go ahead and have a general practice, build it up, just let everybody know that you have a growing interest, and a growing expertise in men’s health, pain management, bladder health, dermatology, whatever it is.  And then as you get more patients in that particular area, and once you have enough that you can start backing off on the primary care, you’ll be able to just move right into that particular specialty and move forward and enjoy your practice a great deal.

Now this is something that I talked about not too long ago in Progress Notes, which are business tips for nurse practitioner entrepreneurs.  You can access archive by going to www.NursePractitionerBusinessOwner.com and clicking on Progress Note Archives.  If you would like to sign up for the newsletter there you can go ahead and do that there.  And I’ll see you next time for the next NPBO Minute.

Not to long ago, I had an emergency coaching session with a Nurse Practitioner who owns a large, very busy clinic regarding an unhappy employee. This employee was subsequently let go and is now suing for improper firing. While this NP had most of her ducks in a row (and thus the lawsuit will likely be dismissed), it is incredibly stressful, costly and disruptive none-the-less. Here are a few tips so that you can avoid the same fate.

1. Always do background checks on employees. It does not matter who the employee is. You want to do this on your receptionist, medical assistant, biller, bookkeeper as well as your colleagues (NPs, Pas, MDs).
2. If you are unsure of how to do this, there are services you can hire that will do this for you.
3. Always check references and take care to check out who you are getting the references from. Call and ask for the practice manager, not someone by name. You may end up getting someone who is not who they are suppose to be (as happened in this situation).
4. Have clear employee policies and follow them! Each employee should have a copy of the policies, and SIGN that they have received them and read them.
5. You’ll want to have a probationary period. You must do an evaluation at the end of this period, no matter how busy you are! And you’ll need to document the results.
6. When you see problems, address them immediately. Come up with some corrective strategies this employee can implement and give a “check back” date…and then follow through. Again, document this.
7. Your employee polices should include a section with causes for immediate dismissal. Don’t make excuses…follow your policies.
8. If you don’t have a human resources expert at your disposal, there are consultants you can hire to look over your policies and consult when you have problems. This may save you in legal fees in the future.

While some practices can operate with just the owner, most of us need some sort of office/clinic support – and thus employees are inevitable. By putting these polices into place early on, you can avoid many of these problems. Fortunately, problem employee are not the rule, rather they are the exception.

If you are an NPBO™ member, make sure you check out the download library where you will find an entire packed of employee related materials including an employee manual that you can customize to your own business.

© 2009-2010 Barbara C. Phillips, NP

Nurse Practitioner Business Owner, hosted “Getting Started in your OWN Practice” teleseminar on Sunday April 25, 2010. There were RECORD numbers of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants in attendance.  The questions sent in before and during the event were fantastic. I did not get a chance to answer all the questions, but watch this blog for updates and answers to questions.

If you missed it, you can listen to it here:  www.nursepractitionerbusinessowner.com/startupsystem-replay.html

On this teleseminar, we introduced the NPBO™ Practice Startup System Program which starts Wednesday May 5th. I’m so excited to be actually teaching this course – I’ve had so many requests for something like this, and I believe it will make a huge difference for the NPs that are already participating! You’re invited to check it out, but you’ll want to do so before May 1st at 12 midnight Pacific (hint: the special pricing ends then).

Hope you’ll join us on May 5, 2010!

Thank you to Dr. Susan Apold, NP! Wonderful interview.

Thank you Stephen @ http://npview.blogspot.com for posting this on YouTube

No doubt that you have been reading, hearing and watching the news about Nurse Practitioners and the move to remove barrier to our practice.

While some reports are fairly accurate, others show the ignorance of the reporter (I’m thinking of a certain Fox interview recently where it was clear the folks interviewing Dee Swanson, president of AANP, really didn’t understand the role, depth and breadth of our practice). And of course, some reports seem to be just plain hysterics.

The two most balanced pieces I’ve read are Maggie Mahar’s, The Battle for Nurse Practitioners Providing Primary Care and Dr. Bernadine Healy’s piece on “The New Doctors in the House“.  Both articles put forth faces and evidence and are well worth the read.

Of course, as a Nurse Practitioner, I am biased in this whole debate. But what I don’t understand is this…don’t people realize that there is not a provider in the world (and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration), who practices in isolation. Health care providers (including Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants and Physicians) get consults, both formally and informally (in the hall, on the phone, via email and text) when they are unsure of something.  Everyone wants to provide excellent care and have good patient outcomes.

The bottom line is this. People need access to health care. There are providers who are educated to give excellent health care. Removal of the barriers to practice, allowing providers to do what they do best can only be good for everyone…patient and provider alike.

Visit http://www.nursepractitionerbusinessowner.com/gettingstartedinpracticecall.htm

A Nurse Practitioner recently asked how location could be important when looking at creating a clinic for people with low income. I think it makes a huge difference.

When you are creating services for people, regardless of their socio-economic, culture, language status or ability, you will want to make sure you were addressing their particular needs. Thus location can be vital. You’ll want to ask yourself the following questions.

1. Will your intended clients have access to the clinic? If they are likely to use public transportation, is it located near a bus or light rail stop?
2. Is the clinic located in their neighborhood? Does it feel familiar and safe?
3. Is this in a location where your intended clients hang out?
4. If they are driving to the clinic, does it have adequate parking for able bodied as well as disabled people? Is it well lit and safe?
5. While not location dependent, consider as well cultural and language differences. Most often this will come into consideration when looking at neighborhoods, but may extend beyond those bounds as well.

A clinic that is in an area that is hard to reach, and unfamiliar neighborhood, or is inconvenient will less likely draw in the intended population. When you wish to be in service to a particular population of people, you must be considerate of their needs and desires.

Thus, location and can, and does make all the difference in the world. Regardless of the population you are serving.

Have you every wondered what it takes to have your very own, independent Nurse Practitioner practice?

Since 2006, I have received questions from Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants on this very topic. For example:  How do I start my own practice? How do I get patients into my practice? How do I find a collaborating physician? How do I get paid? These are just a few of the many questions that I receive in my in-box, voice mail or snail mail box on a weekly basis – and it’s impossible to answer each and every one of them individually.

So on Sunday April 25th, I’m going to attempt to answer as many questions as I possibly can on this topic while I take you step by step on what you need to do in order to start your own practice.  We’ll talk about doing an analysis, credentialing, getting paid, marketing, operations and more!

Want to know more about this no-charge teleseminar? Watch the video and then sign up.

My first job as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner was in a long term care facility, otherwise known as a nursing home. Back then, it was not as an independent provider, but as an employee. In those days, there were few NPs working independently.

Fast forward to 2003 when Elizabeth Smith, NP began her business contracting to long term care facilities. She has expanded it from there to create a wonderful business for herself and providing much needed services to her patients, their families and the faclities that serve them.

On Sunday April 11th at 5pm Pacific (check www.time.gov for your time zone), you are invited our conversation with Elizabeth and explore the possibility to doing this for yourself.  If you already receive notifications for these interviews, just check your email. If you’d like to get signed up, do it today at NP Interviews.  I’ll look for you on the call!