I Was Burned Out, in Debt, and Ready to Quit.

In the summer of 2018, I hit rock bottom for the world of private practice. I was burned out, in debt, and ready to quit. I had lost a 10-year associate on very negative terms. I had constant employee disarray. Constant drama at the office. My office manager at the time frequently made us lose staff. I felt like my “sandbox” had fallen apart.

Additionally, I was always behind on charts, invoices, job reviews and pretty much any other paperwork needed. I personally also found myself always trying to do too much.

In early August of 2018, I received information about the Top Practices Summit. I had been aware of Top Practices since its inception in 2007 but never gave it much consideration because I thought I knew what I was doing. Boy was that a HUGE mistake!

Because of my (awful) “mindset” at that time (Summer of 2018). I was very interested in attending the Summit because I knew I needed something to help me. I looked at it as a weekend to myself and a retreat because I needed a “reset”. I made the arrangements to attend and went with an open mind.

On the opening evening, Peter Wishnie was the first speaker. He began his initial lecture discussing Key Performance Indicators and their importance. I sat there and started to sweat a little because I didn’t even really know what they were and therefore I knew I was in trouble. But, it was then and there I found that this is exactly what I needed. I needed Top Practices.

How did I get to rock bottom?

I opened up my own private practice in 1997 and it was a very part-time practice – only several half days a week. However, it grew and grew and by the year 2000 I was totally focused on just that practice. I thought to myself then, “Hey, I’m a doctor, I’m good at what I do, the money will come”… lol…Little did I know how wrong I was.

As we got bigger and busier, I lost focus and I figured “we made it”. The money will come and “Hey, after all, I’m a doctor and I have a Joint Commission accredited O.R.” Marketing? What marketing? KPIs? What are KPIs? I just knew there was money in the bank.

Well, during the next few years I would run into nothing but more problems with staff, finances, and daily problems at the office. Every day I was running as fast as I could to see as many patients as I could to generate as much money as I could without stopping to look at the big picture and really understand what was collectively going wrong. After all, “I’m a doctor”, the money will be there. 

And, during that time I always had this little voice in my head screaming at me about how wrong the scheduling was and how annoyed I was at the lack of staff being present or understanding what they needed to do when they were assisting me.