Medical practice 10 years from now - what will yours look like?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 01:03PM 
The turgid healthcare debate has thrust into the limelight the inadequacies of the traditional practice model with its dependence for survival on high-overhead offices, health insurance and fee-for-service reimbursements.
In order to prevail financially, medical practices are going to need to take stock of their business models and look to alternatives.
The good news: there are now many profitable, creative, alternative viable practice models in operation, and we are wallowing in an abundance of the kinds of low-cost web-based technology that can support re-engineered care delivery and medical practice operations.
The bad: it is unusual for physicians to receive the kind of formal residency-based education and training that would teach them the ins and outs of running a practice as an exercise in business. It's even less common that they are taught to think out of the box about their medical practice business model options. It will take a fresh mindset coupled with renewed energy to rethink the future. That's hard to come by when you are drowning in paperwork, unpaid claims and incomplete patient charts!
Okay then, here's the tough question: Where is your practice headed?
Will you work for a large multispecialty group? Or a hospital chain?
Or will you have a lean employee-free IMP (Innovative Medical Practice)?
Will you deliver care via a boutique-style concierge/retainer practice model or emulate Qliance and even the retail/convenience clinics, with low-cost retainers or transparent menus of cash-only services?
Will you provide care in your office, or at the homes and in the workplaces of your patients with your mobile practice?
Will you offer care one-on-one, or in groups? In person, or over the phone and Internet with your smartphone, webcam and remote sensor monitoring?
Will you be a part of a patient-centered medical home and, if so, how will yours compete with the one down the road?
Will you offer wellness coaching, routine care by physician extenders, or in-house dispensing? Or will you go the integrative medicine route with a cadre of complementary providers adding value to the patient experience?
Will you take all comers to your practice or will you decide on a niche that you passionately want to serve and consciously build and market a medical practice that attracts those ideal patients in droves?
What does your crystal ball show you about the next 10 years in your medical practice?
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~ Susan