How to Simplify Private Practice: 3 Structures to Automate Your Clinic

Simple Business Structures to Automate Your Clinic

If you’re a private practice owner, we know that many of you are struggling to keep up with all of the demands of running a business and you’re probably wondering how to simplify things by creating the right structures to automate your clinic.

Sometimes, you probably wonder if you should just work for someone else because many of you would earn more, have less stress, enjoy more holidays and get incredible fulfilment from your role…

…but if your pride is too big, or, you actually are a great business operator then you want to thrive amongst the sacrifice and risk you take on, not just survive.

Let’s be clear, this is NOT about being a “Million Dollar” Health Professional…

Yes, there is a commercial reality to being in business, however, if money is your driving force, you’ll always be looking for a quick fix and miss your opportunity to properly structure your business and create an asset that works with out you.

As health professionals ourselves, and as part of the Clinic Mastery Business Academy, we work exclusively with clinic owners to create the best structures to automate your clinic. 

Why You Need Systems and Structure

What I’ve found is that everyone is different, but, the one thing that connects us all is the desire that your business will give you the ability to have ‘choice’.

You want to have choice over your options. The choice of how and where you get to spend your time. That’s what business should afford us…

I’ve found most health professionals love to mentor and train their team so that they can deliver amazing client experiences. You need structures to do this!

Ultimately, it helps reduce the reliance on you the owner… meaning, the business doesn’t rise and fall on you.

What this affords you, is the ‘choice’ over how much consulting you do, how much team mentoring you do, how much income you generate and how much family time you have.

One of the best ways to broaden your options is to create the structure that supports each team member in their role, so that every client receives the best health and care.

3 Structures to Automate Your Clinic

Very simply we have a structure that consists of, the Team, the Task List and the Hub.

When you implement these 3 structures you will be able to automate and grow your clinic.

The Team – 1 of 3

• Everyone must know exactly what their role is.

• Everyone must know what everyone else’s role is.

• Everyone must know the impact that their work has on everyone’s role.

The Task List – 2 of 3

• The task list is all about ‘what’ needs to be done.

• Every task or operation within the business needs to be recorded in one central place.

• You need a ‘trigger’ or prompt for each task to be completed, something like Asana will help you implement these structures to automate your clinic!

The Hub – 3 of 3

• The hub is all about the ‘how’ you should do everything on the task list

• A central hub like Google Sites (below) can host all of your written and video systems e.g:

  • Team member induction programs for Practitioners and Admin

  • Team Communication

  • Ongoing Professional Development Training

  • Monitoring important figures (measuring Clinic Excellence Indicators)

The Big Benefit of these 3 Simple Clinic Structures

As a clinic owner you want to know that every process works.

You want to know that the systems are able to be followed and that there is consistency with the results.

When you set up these 3 structures to automate your clinic, you’ll be able to have the ‘choice’ over your time. You’ll be able to reduce the reliance on you as the owner.

This will allow you to have the choice over how you spend your time inside and outside of the clinic.

How Good is Your Clinic Structure Right Now?

The question to ‘stress test’ your clinic structure and autonomy is this…

How long could you leave your clinic for? (and return to a smooth, up to date clinic)

• One day?

• One week?

• One month?

• One year?

Your answer really shows us how reliant the clinic is on you… and really, how many options you have to choose how you invest your time, how you lead your team and how you live your life.

How Do You Implement these 3 Structures

1. Support your team in being able to do those things the right way every time. Write a procedure

2. Create sound systems and tracking metrics to ensure quality and consistency. Create feedback channels.

Step 1: Understand the Functional areas within the business:

1. Write a list of every task  that needs to be done in the business, separated into the following 3 categories:

   1. Support  (admin etc)

   2. Operations (actually treating patients etc)

   3. Management (leadership, partnerships, marketing and vision etc)

2. Write down who currently does each task (the business owner’s’ name might be on a lot of things!)

3. Start by creating systems for ‘Support’ (admin) and operation roles first so that other people can do those tasks.

4. Do everything you can as the business owner to get into and stay in the Management zone.

5. Use this process to create the Task List (the what)

   1. We love to use Asana for this (below).

Step 2: Engage your team in the culture and vision for your clinic

1. Have regular team meetings, speak to the vision and direction, higher purpose

2. Train them on understanding Functional Areas – what needs to be done and who’s responsible

3. Review position descriptions, expectations, contracts, Clinic Excellence Indicator benchmarks, salaries etc with a focus on reward for effort and alignment with your vision, mission and values.

4. Ensure communication channels between your team are easy and used multiple times per day.

   1. Here are some great great Apps and Online Tools to help you here.

      1. Slack

      2. Voxer

      3. Bonusly

      4. Deputy

Step 3: Build out your systems around induction, training, and procedures for key activities in your clinic.

1. Work on your hub (centralised folders/intranet where all systems live), and refer to it often

2. Make sure all key activities / processes are being monitored and reported on frequently amongst the team.

3. We love to use Google Sites for a central online hub

If you do all of that and have a good personal dentist, you’ll be able to smile just like our awesome members 🙂

Conclusion

Ideally you want to be able to trust that everything in your clinic is being done right every time.

Your team need the structure, you need the confidence and most importantly your clients need the care, consistently.

Systems are the backbone for automating your clinic and being able to have anyone jump into the driver’s seat of your business and know how to produce the same or better results that you do. It’s called a Turnkey business.

We believe, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel!

If you believe that you’d benefit from more practical training on private practice growth, please join us for our free online masterclass. Until next time, remember to:

Until next time, remember to…
Live with Passion, because Everyday is an Opportunity for you to Make Your difference!