There's no doubt that medicine, especially when you run a private practice, can be overwhelming. Podiatrists burn out all the time, growing exhausted and frustrated with the profession they once loved. This happens for many different reasons, but usually, it's many issues building up over time—cash-flow and financial problems, needing to work nights and weekends to keep up, trouble bringing in patients, organizational challenges leading to errors and missed opportunities, low staff morale, etc. At Top Practices, we know you don't have to live this way. With the right changes, you can completely transform your practice and enjoy podiatry again. But you don't have to just take our word for it. You can ask podiatrists like Dr. Leland Gilmore of Capital Podiatry Associates in Alexandria, VA.
Dr. Gilmore has been in private podiatry practice for 31 years, so he's seen plenty of changes to the medical profession and private practice over his career. He joined Top Practices about a year and a half ago when he reached a low point and knew something needed to change: “When we first began working with Rem, we had reached the depression component that's involved with podiatry. Where you don't want to do it anymore, you're looking for other alternatives, you're looking to get out of podiatry, considering selling the practice. So, we were at pretty much a low point...”
He'd actually heard Rem speak at an AAPPM meeting in Tampa the year before but had spent some time learning more about Top Practices from other physicians and practice managers who were already members. He heard about the successes they were seeing in their own practices—and then, at the next year's AAPPM meeting in Tampa, had the chance to talk with Rem in person for a quick consultation. After that, he took the plunge and didn't look back.
“I was very impressed with Rem and some of the insights he had just in the short period of time talking to me. […] I think some of the first things that Top Practices brought to us was a positive mental attitude about the profession, and how we could actually improve financially, which was our biggest issue at the period of time when we went with Top Practices. […] The things that Top Practices offered to us that helped us make a change was, number one, the coaching calls.... Number two, the mastermind component of Top Practices helped us by learning what other practitioners were doing. They helped us to actually turn the ship around, if you will.”
With Rem's help and learning from other physicians in the Mastermind group, Dr. Gilmore and his team identified their biggest challenges and what needed to change moving forward. They opted to make the big change from two smaller offices in separate locations to a single, much larger and better equipped facility. They also learned how to more effectively market themselves and their services to both attract new patients and bring back current ones.
The net effect has been incredible. “We're now able to offer five times the amount of the things for patients than we did before. Our quality of life is 110% improved. We're not working as hard as we were before and we're making a lot more money. And our bottom line has improved significantly because our expenses have decreased. So, it's a happier life; it's a better financial situation. I can tell you right now the stress is so much less.”
With all the changes and improvements, Dr. Gilmore and his team have been able to do so much more than they had expected. Through their efforts, they lost very few patients in their move to a single office in a new location. Now their regular appointments are booking out six to eight weeks in advance. They have gone on to open a very popular spa service that has had to hire a second nail technician to meet demand. They've even made the move to bring on an associate doctor to help with the demand much sooner in their business plan than they'd ever dreamed was possible.
“We've gone from a practice that was making, from a gross income where we were struggling with two offices...about $500,000 a year. With the help of Top Practices now, we—with one practitioner, that's just me right now—we are now just a little above 1.3 million. And that's been within a year and a half.” Dr. Gilmore and his team are on-track to do even better financially by the end of 2018. More than that, though, Dr. Gilmore has gone from having to go in early and work a full day to just get by, to choosing to go in early to invest in the business side of the practice and getting to leave early at the end of the day.
“It's really been a turn the ship around thing for us.”
We love stories like Dr. Leland Gilmore's because they show what incredible heights are possible when you decide to make the right changes for your practice. His incredible success is not a fluke—it's a direct result of using strategies and techniques that work. If you're a podiatrist in that “low point” like Dr. Gilmore was, know that you don't have to stay there. You can change your life and your practice for the better! Contact Top Practices today for more information or to get started. You can reach us by calling 717-725-2679 or emailing [email protected].
