Marketing Your Direct Primary Care Practice

how to market your direct primary care practice

Today I got a wonderful email from a 3rd year resident who wants to start a DPC practice right out of residency. This is commendable! and echoes what I did as a doctor starting a DPC right after residency completion.

He took our Startup DPC course on Writing a Business Plan and his big ask was as follows: “I wrote this long piece of content, what do you think?”

Overall, the content he wrote was good! It explained his ethos and the ethos of his clinic. But, I told him that one piece of content doesn’t move the needle. I asked him:

“can you consistently make a new piece of content each week, every week, for 5 years? That's the real question. I usually spend about 1 hour each week creating a piece of content to support my DPC practice. This consistency is what draws new members to our practice. It's nice to have a short video or blog post that explains your ethos, but can you create a new piece of content each week?”

How to consistently create content

The best way to consistently create content is to take photos of the work you do in your clinic and to take photos of the work you do in the community. Family photos and hyperlocal content does well also.

You should always be thinking about content creation and trying to capture the moments that visually explain what you do in your DPC practice and how you do it and what it means for the community. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Now, take those pictures, add a caption and post them to your favorite social media channels. I use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok most often, in that order. If you can create an engaging piece of content every month, you will have great success with your marketing efforts for your Direct Primary Care practice.

Examples from Plum HEalth DPC

Here are some examples from my business, Plum Health DPC, from the last 4 months of 2022: 

6 years in business: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmt81PZL3JB/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paul Thomas MD (@plumhealthdpc)

Influenza A updates: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmXKf6OvMsu/

House call medicine: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClWl_TrvCC3/ 

Passing of a community physician, friend, and mentor: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClHXhYXvSBa/

Volunteering at a health fair: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdM4ytL-g3/ 

Teaching other physicians about DPC: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjYJKr_L3Ka/ 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paul Thomas MD (@plumhealthdpc)

Talking about healthy foods in Detroit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjBfbA0P7qz/ 

Laceration repair: https://www.instagram.com/p/CiA-KN6O7Or/

Here are a few more blog post ideas for your direct primary care practice:

1. The benefits of direct primary care for patients

2. Why you decided to start your direct primary care practice

3. The differences between direct primary care and traditional primary care

4. The role of technology in direct primary care (texting patients, emailing patients, video chats with patients)

5. The importance of preventive care in direct primary care (how you have more time to address preventive medicine issues)

6. Direct primary care and the opioid crisis (how you can help your patients manage pain more effectively with multiple modalities, rather than with a pill)

7. Direct primary care and mental health

8. The impact of direct primary care on healthcare costs

9. The future of direct primary care

10. Success stories from patients in a direct primary care practice

Good luck! and keep writing! It helps to keep your audience engaged and it helps to grow your practice when your community knows about you and your ethos.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Which Domain Name is Best for My Direct Primary Care Practice?

Which Domain name is Best for my Direct Primary Care Practice?

I just presented at the DPC Summit and I got a great question!

My name is ______, and I just graduated from my residency program in [the wester United States]. I attended the DPC Summit this weekend to gather information in prep to open my own clinic (from scratch) end of this year.

Thank you so much for your great tips and general advice on marketing/branding. I am in the process of finalizing my clinic name and was planning on using Direct Primary Care with a shortened URL using DPC (vs Family Med or Family Practice).

However, several attendees advised (in the comments section) being careful about using DPC in the URL, something about having to say "delta papa charlie" when they spell out the name?

I see that you use DPC in your URL and social media handles, so could you provide any quick advice about this?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Here’s my response:

_____, Great question! I would prefer to NOT have “DPC” in my domain name as it can be difficult to say over the phone and confusing for prospective patients. Ultimately, people want a great doctor and an understandable service, and the “DPC” part can be confusing initially.

If you can pick a name and get a domain without the “DPC”, that would be ideal. BUT sometimes all the good domains are taken, as in our case.

Plum Health dot com was taken, but Plum Health DPC dot com was available, so I bought that domain.

One day I'll work up the chutzpah to buy the domain "PlumHealth.com" as that would be the ideal domain name for our business - it is simple and easy to relate over the phone to a prospective patient. It’s also easier to type as fewer characters lead to fewer mistakes.

If you can buy the domain name related to the name you want, WITHOUT the DPC, that's the best case scenario. Sometimes, people buy domains and just sit on them, waiting to make a buck, and that’s frustrating.

You can peruse what’s available by searching on SquareSpace.com or Wix.com or by searching Go Daddy dot com. Here’s the search result for Plum Health on Go Daddy currently.

I hope this helps!

- Paul

Startup DPC Mailbag: Who Can I Get to Design My Logo For My Direct Primary Care Practice?

Today I received a great question on Logo Design for a Direct Primary Care practice. Here’s the question: “Anyone know someone who can do a quick logo? I have the image (drawing).”

Here’s what I said: “Ask the people on your personal Facebook page this question!!! This will accomplish several things - first, it'll build buzz for your practice! Second, it will help you build fans. Years from now, one of your patients will say "Hey doc, remember when you first started and were asking around for a logo design? look at you now!" Third, you may find someone in your community who will do it for you and later become a patient. Start building your brand now by letting your community help shape that brand! Best of luck #StartupDPC”

When you’re starting and growing your direct primary care practice, every step that you take towards creating your practice is an opportunity to build your practice with your community. When you share that you’re starting a DPC practice and looking for a logo designer, this will build buzz and excitement in your community. Your fans - those who follow your progress closely - will rally around your brand or your banner and they’ll want to see you succeed. Let them follow you on this crazy journey as you pursue your passions and build your dream practice.

As you build your practice work collaboratively with your community - perhaps you’ll find the perfect web designer is a few blocks away, or your logo designer is nearby, or your lawyer, or your accountant. Cultivate these relationships by creating win-win scenarios.

For us, we worked with a local person who designed our logo, who later became our patient. It’s a great way to build a brand that is created by your local community and supported by your local community.

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.

Startup DPC - Direct Primary Care Master Class

Because there are no in-person conferences this year, we decided to host an intimate gathering of Direct Primary Care doctors who are looking to start and grow their DPC practices. We did this last year, and it was a rousing success! Join our Direct Primary Care Master Class on May 14th through May 15th, 2021 at our Plum Health DPC office in Detroit, Michigan and kickstart your DPC journey!

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Leveraging Your Personal Brand to Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice

This week was amazing in that I had a post go viral on LinkedIn. I’ve been posting weekly on my social media accounts for the last 3 to 4 years about my work with Direct Primary Care and our practice Plum Health DPC and this is the first time that I’ve had a post go viral.

Here’s the post in full from LinkedIn. If we’re not connected on LinkedIn, please feel free to reach out:

This focus on virality may seem like vanity, but it has important implications for our business at Plum Health and for the broader direct primary care movement. Here’s why going viral is important:

• builds awareness for my personal and professional brands

• gives me credibility as an authority on direct primary care, house calls, and health care in Detroit and beyond

• increases traffic to our website, Plum Health DPC, as that link is at the bottom of the post

• I can now use this post as a peg to engage with journalists, generating more news, more engagement, and getting more attention for my business

• this post has increased new membership/sales for our direct primary care practice, Plum Health DPC

Our viral post about making house calls in Detroit has now reached 1.5 million people via LinkedIn

With that being said, I’m so excited to launch our newest course, Leveraging Your Personal Brand to Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice. I want to teach you everything I know about starting and growing a Direct Primary Care practice, and one of the most important lessons that I can teach you is how to use your personal brand to grow your practice. You can take the course, here.

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

"Great Sales Funnel Course!" and HIPAA Protected Communications

Direct Primary Care Sales Funnel Course Receives Praise

One of Startup DPC docs recently completed the Sales Funnel Course and had this to say about the experience:

Hi Paul, great sales funnel course! I will start implementing what I learned immediately.  When you set up MailChimp for newsletters, how do you share your subscriber’s data and be HIPAA compliant with your patients? MailChimp doesn’t have a BAA for PHI. Any other recommendations?

Thanks for your insight.

First of all, I’m glad people are enjoying and getting a ton of value out of the Sales Funnel Course. I’ve had several docs talk about how helpful it has been in helping them attract new patients for their direct primary care practices.

Using Email Marketing Platforms to Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice

Second, I don't put my patients info into MailChimp unless they enroll themselves. If someone goes to my site, they can sign up for my email blasts by putting in their email address online, via a form submission on our website. I’ve synced my MailChimp account with my Plum Health SquareSpace account. Therefore, if anyone submits their email address on my website, they automatically are asked if they’d like to join the email list. If they agree to MailChimp’s terms and conditions, they are then made a part of my email list.

If set up correctly, this is more or less an automated process. I then send out monthly email blasts to those folks. Here’s the form as it appears on our Plum Health DPC website.

This is the site on my Plum Health DPC website where folks can submit their contact information. If they complete this form and agree to MailChimp’s terms of service, we can send them emails whenever we like. We usually send monthly updates.

For my patients, I send them notes via my EMR. There's a function in ATLAS that allows me to send a group email to all of my patients. 

As a side note, I have all of my patients waive my obligation to their HIPAA rights in the contract, which is roughly 7 pages long. That way, I have some protection for any emails, phone calls, or text messages. 

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Adding a New Skill to Your LinkedIn Profile

How to attract more patients to your direct primary care practice by using LinkedIn

Adding new skills on LinkedIn can help to keep your LinkedIn profile looking fresh. It will communicate with your audience that you're actively engaged in the work that you're doing. If you're a direct primary care doctor, having a fresh and engaging LinkedIn profile is a must for attracting and retaining new patients to your direct primary care practice.

For me, I just took 5 minutes to update my LinkedIn profile. This action will help me reach a broader audience and keep my current audience engaged. I just wrote a book called Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice, so I needed to update the publications section of my LinkedIn profile.

In this video, I show you step by step how I did this. If you spend 5 minutes on LinkedIn every day, you'll see tremendous results for your personal and professional brand. I created an entire course on attracting new patients to your direct primary care practice, and it can be found here.

I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn - you can add me by going to my profile and clicking on the “Connect” button.

Have a wonderful day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas

How This Direct Primary Care Doctor Built a Successful Sales Funnel

How to attract more patients to your direct primary care practice

Direct primary care doctors want to know how to attract more patients to their direct primary care practices. This can be accomplished by using a sales funnel, which may seem like a foreign concept, but let me explain. You see, doctors aren’t taught how to market themselves in medical school. There is no course on branding and marketing in medical school or residency. Further, doctors can feel icky about marketing themselves or selling their services.

However, you shouldn’t feel gross about marketing yourself, and here’s why. The best form of marketing is giving the right people in your community the right information about your service. If you can clearly explain what it is that you do and how you help people, that’s marketing. If you can share interesting stories about yourself and about your direct primary care practice, that’s marketing.

There’s a lot of nuance here and there are some tips and tricks to create the best marketing plan for yourself and for your direct primary care practice, which is why I created the Direct Primary Care Sales Funnel Course on Startup DPC.

How this Direct Primary Care Doctor Built a Successful Sales Funnel

For me, it’s been exciting to watch more and more doctors purchase this course, learn from this course, and start applying this new knowledge to grow their direct primary care practices! Further, I’ve been getting some great reviews for this course material. Here’s what one of our successful students had to say about the Sales Funnel Course:

Paul Thomas through his marketing course explains how a blog will get people to click on your actual website and while there take a look at your services. You can also title the blogs to items frequently searched such as #bestdoctorincharlotte or #howtofindagooddoctor Since I’ve taken what I would’ve normally put in a Facebook post (like info about COVID-19) or that I put in weekly emails, into a “blog article on my website”, I’ve cross posted it in blog format so when they click on it to read-they are at my website. I get quite a few views from Facebook and LinkedIn which I used to never interact with. Google searches have gone up too. In terms of SEO it definitely works to drive traffic to your site (now it’s fun to see how many people have been to my website after a posting). In terms of patients-definitely a couple since I started doing it this way, but like a lot of marketing-it seems to be a long game. Since I’m basically giving out good info for free, it doesn’t feel like “marketing” or trying to be a saleswoman which I like. I do spend about 3-4 hours researching and working on content, so was very hesitant to commit at first. Since I’m still building and have empty slots-I just use that time to work on content. As I get busier, I plan to blog less or as needed when a topic is relevant. Some docs pay a service to write blog articles for them as part of their SEO-you could do this, but it isn’t as personable to you. It does work though-just have to weigh the benefits/ROI of your time.

I responded to her by saying that this made my day, because it sincerely made my day! There are few things that make me happier than seeing doctors succeed in their direct primary care practices. Sincerely thank you Melissa Jones, DO for writing this.

This is the review from Facebook of our Startup DPC Sales Funnel Course.

More About Melissa Jones, DO

To learn more about Melissa Jones, DO, please check out her website, here. Her practice is in Charlotte, North Carolina and her goal is to provide all of her patients with quality care, greater access, and better solutions all of the time. Check her out on Facebook as well!

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 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 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

Startup DPC Show Episode 7: Conversation with a Doctor with 12,100 Instagram Followers

The Startup DPC Show aims to educate doctors who are starting and growing their direct primary care practices. If you want to take a deeper dive into starting and growing your direct primary care practice, check out our courses where we walk you through different skills that you need to be successful in your DPC practice.

Our guest today is a second year family medicine resident physician at UMass in Boston, Dr. Rami Wehbi. Dr. Rami is smart and savvy when it comes to many things, and it's remarkable that he has 12,100 followers on his Instagram channel, @DrRami.DO.

Direct primary care is different from fee-for-service medicine in several ways, and one of the big ways is that doctors have to reach out to their patients directly to get them to sign up for their services.

Family Medicine Resident disheartened by the current state of primary care

Dr. Rami has always been motivated to have a private primary care practice. He wants to take care of his patients on his own terms. He then searched for private practices that were successful. He first found concierge medicine, and then he found direct primary care. He reached out to me a few years ago and we hit it off. Together, we recorded an awesome episode for his Beyond Medicine Podcast, which can be found here. Dr. Wehbi is smart and kind, and he knows how to build a great following, either via podcasting or through his social media channels.

Paul Thomas MD of Plum Health DPC and Rami Wehbi DO a second year resident at UMass Family Medicine Residency Program, talk about challenges and opportunities in the Direct Primary Care space.

Educating Doctors about the Direct Primary Care model and movement

A big part about what drives me as a person is my mission to educate other doctors about the direct primary care model and movement. Further, I want to help doctors create the best direct primary care practices that they can, and that’s a big reason for this Startup DPC website, courses, and content.

Family Medicine Resident inspired by the potential of the direct primary care model

For Dr. Wehbi, it’s inspiring for him to see our successful direct primary care practice and other successful DPC practices across the country. Dr. Wehbi wants to be able to deliver a higher quality of primary care services. The average primary care doctor has 2,400 patients in their panel and they often see 25, 30, or even 35 patients each day. That means that these fee-for-service or insurance-based doctors have to see 3 or 4 patients each hour. These quotas are often written into the doctor’s contract.

For Dr. Wehbi, it’s mind-boggling that doctors would be expected to see 35 patients each day.

For me, it’s mind-boggling that you’d be expected to see 35 patients in a day and expect people to get quality care. It just doesn’t make any sense.

In our direct primary care practice practice, we have 640 patients total as of this blog post and my panel has 460 patients. I usually see 1% to 2% of my panel each day, so around 4 to 10 patients each day. This allows me to have 30 minutes to 1 hour with each patient and to really develop those strong, trusting relationships that can lead to better health.

What happens when patients need to see a specialist in the Direct Primary Care model?

Because we have fewer patients, we have more time to dedicate to our patients. We have more time to think and care and demonstrate compassion. We also have more time to look things up and to read up on a new diagnosis or the updated management of an old diagnosis. Further, we can work with our local specialist colleagues and develop cash-pricing for their specialty services. Finally, we leverage an e-consult platform called Rubicon MD to get specialty consults done in a matter of 4 to 12 hours.

Why would i pay for a membership-based service when I already have Insurance?

Well, you can restructure your insurance coverage to make it a more of a catastrophic coverage plan, meaning that you pay a lower premium and carry a higher deductible. Then, you can pair that low-premium, high-deductible health insurance plan with a direct primary care plan. This could end up saving you money as those insurance premiums can be quite expensive, and you can get better health care services as you have a trusted doctor at your fingertips.

Direct primary care for employer groups

For employer groups who buy insurance through the current fee-for-service insurance-based system, there is a ton of money lost on the middle men, plan benefit designers, and insurance brokers. Direct primary care clinics offer a way to lower the cost of health care for employees and employers by removing these middle men and offering excellent care and service to employees. And, having best-in-class service for employees will be another benefit for large employers looking to attract and retain top talent.

DOES DIRECT PRIMARY CARE MAKE SENSE FOR A PATIENT WITH MULTIPLE CHRONIC MEDICAL CONDITIONS?

Yes, direct primary care is a great system for patients with multiple chronic medical problems. The idea here is that the direct primary care doctor will have more time to fully address all of these multiple medical problems and how they interact with each other. By spending more time with our patients, we definitely prevent several costly and stressful visits to the emergency department or urgent care center each year.

“The urgent care system is a symptom of a failed primary care system. If your doctor had enough time to see you when you cut your finger or had bronchitis, you wouldn’t even have to go to an urgent care.” - Dr. Paul Thomas

For example, we recently had a patient who cut their finger at 5:30 pm on a Monday evening. They called me and I came in to sew up the laceration right away.

View this post on Instagram

I was driving home from the office and I received a phone call from one of our #PlumHealth members - it was 5:23 pm. I quickly turned around and headed back to the office, meeting my patient at 5:30 pm. He was washing dishes when a glass 🥃 broke in his hands and created this V-shaped laceration. We ran it under some warm water 💧 to flush the wound, cleaned it with an antiseptic, and injected 💉 some lidocaine into the wound edges. We pulled back the flap to make sure there wasn’t any more glass sitting in the wound. Then, we used some 5-0 (very thin) suture material to close the wound, keep the skin flap vitalized, and minimize the appearance of the scar. We wrapped up just before 6 pm - that’s 27 minutes from making the phone call to being all sewn up. Best of all, because he’s a member of the #PlumPack, there’s no charge. This procedure would have cost at least $150 at the urgent care and perhaps $1,500 at the emergency 🚨 department. These are some of the many reasons that I love being a #directprimarycare doctor. This is why I do what I do - to deliver affordable, accessible healthcare.

A post shared by Paul Thomas MD (@plumhealthdpc) on Feb 3, 2020 at 4:50pm PST

This model of care allows you to take full ownership of your patients - you can take radical responsibility for your patients.

Where to Find an Excellent Direct Primary Care Doctor?

If you’re looking to find an excellent direct primary care doctor in your neighborhood, check out the Direct Primary Care Mapper, here. If you’re in Detroit or Southeast Michigan, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Plum Health DPC clinic here in Corktown.

How can you start your own direct primary care practice?

Many medical students, medical residents, and doctors are looking for the best way to start and grow their direct primary care practices. Fortunately, Startup DPC has begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog 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!

-Paul Thomas, MD

Managing Your Google Search Console for Direct Primary Care Doctors

Over the last 3 months, we've gained 143 new patients in our Direct Primary Care practice - 42 in November, 57 in December, and 44 in January. One of the big things that helps us get there is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you're not familiar with this skill, and how to use SEO to your advantage, you're missing out on patients who could use your service.

You see, everyday, people are trying to solve their health care challenges. They’re looking for kind, compassionate, caring physicians to help them with their medical problems. They’re looking for affordable care and convenient service.

To find this service, patients turn to Google and use search terms like “affordable doctor near me” or “family doctor accepting patients near me.”

So, one of the biggest and most important ways for patients to find you is through Google and Search Engine Optimization related to this platform. Every month, Google sends me a report for Plum Health DPC showing my performance over the last 1 month and last 3 months.

This last month, we had about 39,200 impressions on Google and 649 web clicks via the Google platform. That’s about 1,300 impressions each day and 21 clicks each day! If you know that it takes about 20 web visitors to create 1 new enrollment, all of this information is encouraging.

Over the last 3 months, we’ve had roughly 40 to 50 new enrollments each month, and a lot of our success comes from managing our Google Search Console effectively and doubling down on Search Engine Optimization.

Essentially, you want to find the Google Search terms that are meaningful for your business in your Google Search Console report and then create content around those search terms.

If you’re struggling with your growth and you haven’t gone “all in” on search engine optimization, let this be a wake-up call regarding the power of this Google search engine platform. I know that these may not be the most comfortable topics for a doctor, but these are the tools that you’ll need to master in order to create a thriving Direct Primary Care practice.

If you want to take a deeper dive on these concepts, check out our Take Action page or take our course on Attracting More Patients to Your Direct Primary Care practice. Thanks for reading and watching! - Dr. Paul Thomas

Over the last 3 months, we’ve had 118,000 impressions on Google and 1,760 clicks through to our Plum Health DPC website. All of this is a part of our strategy to grow our practice. You can learn more about these techniques with our course on Attracting New Patients to Your Direct Primary Care Practice.

Over the last 3 months, we’ve had 118,000 impressions on Google and 1,760 clicks through to our Plum Health DPC website. All of this is a part of our strategy to grow our practice. You can learn more about these techniques with our course on Attracting New Patients to Your Direct Primary Care Practice.

The StartUpDPC Show Episode 3: Neil Batlivala of Sling Health

Hiring a Medical Assistant versus Using a Digital Assistant in your Direct Primary Care Practice

There is definitely a tension point in many Direct Primary Care practices around how you, the doctor, allocates your time. How much time should you be spending doing paperwork and busy work? How much time should you be spending seeing patients? How much time are you spending growing the business.

These are tough questions that are difficult to answer - really there is no perfect answer. But, I would advise you to spend more time working on your business, and less time working in your business. This means that you should be directing the work of others, rather than doing all of the little tasks yourself.

When to Hire a Medical Assistant in your Direct primary Care Practice?

One of my mistakes in starting and growing a Direct Primary Care practice was not hiring a Medical Assistant sooner. A great medical assistant can create a warm and welcoming environment for your practice, give great customer service for your patients, and help you with the little tasks around the office like adding medications to the inventory or putting vital signs into the chart.

When you have a great Medical Assistant, they can build rapport with your patients and help with retention. For example, our Medical Assistant at Plum Health is Chris. He is excellent at drawing blood and giving flu shots, among other things. One of our patients bruises easily, and she said, “I always get a bruise when I have my blood drawn.” Chris responded “not this time.

A bet was made, and a plate of cookies was on the line. Chris drew the blood and our patient didn’t bruise, so delivered a delicious plate of White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, Chris’ favorite kind.

How do you find a great Medical Assistant for your Direct Primary Care practice?

So how do you find a great Medical Assistant? I found Chris while working at an Urgent Care center. Chris was the best MA that I had ever worked with. I told him that when we were working together, and he told me that the feelings were mutual. When I left the Urgent Care, I wrote thank you notes to each of the staff members that I enjoyed working with, especially Chris.

Anyways, I knew that I would one day want to hire Chris or someone like Chris, so when that day came, I made the phone call. Chris answered and said that of course he’d love to work at my practice. Most Doctors have been in a similar situation – they have worked with a trusted and well-respected Nurse or Medical Assistant and they hire this person when they start their DPC practice.

A lesson here: always be kind to everyone that you work with. Your fellow Physicians, Nursing staff, and Medical Assistants may one day work with you, and they will definitely refer patients to you if they admire and respect your work. Make it easy for them to be excited about your practice by being kind to them through every interaction.

Our Conversation with Neil Batlivala of Sling Health

An alternative to hiring a personal Medical Assistant would be to use a tech-enabled solution like Sling Health. From their website:

Sling Health modernizes primary care with tech-enabled clinical support teams. Our software enables our remote team of care coordinators to provide high-touch care to patients, helping them better understand their care plan, navigate the complex healthcare system, and achieve their health goals. Our solutions reduce healthcare costs, improve health outcomes, and empower patients to be active participants in their healthcare plans. Based in San Francisco and founded by experienced healthcare technologists and clinicians, Sling Health aims to empower both patients and clinicians to rethink healthcare access and navigation.

There are a few DPC Doctors who have found this solution helpful, but I do not have any personal experience with this platform. Their pricing structure has recently changed from $5 per patient per month to a more tailored, à la carte payment structure.

Of note, a living wage for a medical assistant is roughly $2,500 to $3,000 monthly, depending on your community. Further, this person that you hire can create a warm environment for your patients and they can advocate for your practice.

Here’s our full conversation: