How to Start a Direct Primary Care Practice Straight Out of Residency
Many doctors want to start a direct primary care practice straight out of residency. This is a difficult task, so many doctors become intimidated by the amount of work involved and subsequently settle for a job as an employed physician with a large hospital system.
But, it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a step-by-step approach available to doctors who want to start their own direct primary care practices. First, you need to write a business plan for your direct primary care practice. This is crucial so that you understand the numbers involved, like how much it’ll cost to get set up, how much it will cost each month to run your business, how many patients you’ll need, and the average amount of money each patient needs to spend for your business to be sustainable.
Once you have your business plan in hand, you can create a timeline for that business. You will start by laying out a 12-month or 9-month or 6-month road map where you execute all of the tasks that you’ll need to complete to have a successful and thriving direct primary care practice. The great news is that you can complete many of these steps while in residency.
As a resident you can:
write a business plan
start building relationships with specialists
learn as many new skills as you can that will help you deliver excellent medical care for your future patients
design a website or work with a web designer
design a logo or work with a logo designer
come up with your mission, vision, and values for your new clinic
start developing relationships with vendors like lab vendors, whole-sale medication vendors, and imaging services vendors
start looking for locations for your new clinic
Simply put, residency is a great time to plan and dream big for your future direct primary care practice because you can start working on it now. I write about this process extensively in my book, Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice. In the book, I dedicate an entire chapter to what to do in Residency and how to do it, so you’re primed for success in the direct primary care model after graduation.
One of the biggest things you can do during residency is to set up your own elective rotation in direct primary care. I created a Direct Primary Care Elective Rotation Curriculum and I am happy to share it with you here - just drop me an email and I will send you my direct primary care elective rotation curriculum. Please include “Send me the Direct Primary Care Curriculum” in the message for the fastest response possible.
I also dedicate an entire chapter of the book to a detailed timeline of what to do over a 6 month to 12 month period, and how to leverage that time to build up to a successful and thriving direct primary care practice.
I’m writing about this today because I was recently featured on the Health Solutions podcast with Shawn Needham. It was a great conversation and we touch on these subjects in the interview!
HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?
If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our book and our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog, in our book, and in our courses.
The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.
Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!
-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC