Setting up a private medical practice should be an uplifting experience, but the reality can often feel somewhat overwhelming.
The most important specialist advice we can offer you is to embrace the concept that starting a new private practice is launching a new business. This will require you to involve yourself in all business aspects, including finance, marketing, and operations. Most private doctors are new to these basics of business management, having received little guidance at medical school and limited practical experience. Still, it is possible to gain the knowledge needed with an investment of time and seeking the right expertise and practical advice from advisors with a proven track record in private practice management.
Our structured process will guide you through the steps to setting up a private practice.
- Business Strategy
- Company formation
- Marketing
- Choose your clinic location
- Financial Operations
- Medico-legal considerations, including CQC
- Review and develop
1. Business Strategy
Developing your Business Strategy for your new private practice
Writing down your business strategy helps to formalise your thoughts into a structured approach, setting out your goals and objectives with a realistic timeline for launch and beyond. Producing a solid business plan at the outset pays dividends at every step as it clarifies what needs to be achieved. It builds the foundation of your practice.
What should be included: –
- Clarify your objectives
- State your vision and mission
- Describe your patient offering – your niche
- Articulate your target audience, including patients and referrers
- Financial modelling to set effective pricing
- Financial plan for first three years
Once your business strategy is complete you can create your short-term detailed action plans, including timescales: –
- Short-term plan – three months
- Medium-term plan – one year
2. Company formation
Before setting up a private practice, you must decide on your company’s legal structure. Will you operate as a sole trader, a partnership, or a limited company?
It would be wise to make this decision with the support of an accountant who specialises in the private healthcare sector and healthcare accounting. Specialist medical accountants can advise on the most tax-efficient solution for you. For a limited company, you will need to register with Companies House.
You should also research the best business bank account to suit your business and open an account. Keeping your business transactions separate from your personal transactions from day one is wise.
3. Marketing
Your marketing strategy sets out how the outside world will see you and how you will communicate your message effectively. Most importantly, it articulates how you will achieve your business objectives.
Your medical marketing strategy ensures you understand who your patients and referrers are and that you create messaging that they will relate to.
You need to investigate their behaviours and scope how to communicate with them to raise awareness of your new practice. Healthcare Marketing expertise is essential to deliver an effective strategy and to avoid costly mistakes – particularly for private practitioners starting out.
Some particular areas to focus on are: –
- Branding – Creating a professional, recognisable and memorable brand is imperative for the success of your medical business, and this can be developed with the support of a specialist in healthcare branding.
- Patient journey – A full understanding of your patient journey is vital to developing your marketing plan, especially your website. Will your patients book online? Will they also pay online for appointments? Your patient journey will map out every interaction your patient has with your practice and will identify any gaps in your processes.
- Website – Your website is your opportunity to share your new practice’s capabilities and attract private patients. Your chosen healthcare branding will ensure your website looks professional and conveys the right impression to your prospective patients and referrers. You should aim to include testimonials, images, and videos to maximise the potential of your website.
- Digital marketing for healthcare – Use social media to attract potential patients to visit your website. It takes time to build up an organic following and you may invest in paid advertising, especially during the early months, as you build your reputation. You can also employ Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure your website is easily found by patients.
4. Choose your clinic location
For many practitioners, choosing a clinic location that provides a five-star patient experience is very important, or alternatively, you can look to obtain practising privileges at a chosen facility which can be more cost-effective.
There are also other practical business considerations such as how far is it from your home so you don’t spend long periods of time commuting, access to public transport and parking, access to other medical facilities e.g. diagnosis, testing etc.
5. Operations
Delivering the highest level of patient experience must be at the heart of your practice. The first person your patient will likely interact with is your Medical PA, so choosing an experienced medical secretary dedicated to delivering excellent patient care is essential.
You can choose from engaging a remote medical secretary via a medical support service or employing a private medical secretary directly. Ideally, you need to find a company that specialises in private practice management and has a strong track record in delivering healthcare business solutions.
You will also need a team to manage the financial aspects of your new private practice.
The invoicing for your patients will need to be accurate and invoices must be raised in a timely manner. You must focus intensely on credit control to ensure payments are received promptly and avoid aged debt. Several companies offer medical billing services and patient billing services, and you might choose to outsource your invoicing to one of these medical billing specialists.
A medical bookkeeper will save you money in the longer term by ensuring all expenditure is recorded for tax purposes. Engaging a virtual bookkeeper using a cloud-based system such as Xero is cost-effective.
Your accountant should play a key role at year-end and throughout the year, keeping you abreast of the financial performance of your new practice with a close eye on cash flow, especially in the early months.
6. Medico-legal considerations including CQC
For good reason there are several responsibilities from a medico-legal perspective when starting a new private practice.
For consultants setting up their clinic within a CQC-approved facility, such as those operated by Nuffield Health, Spire Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, etc., there will be no need for CQC registration. But for clinicians setting up a new clinic or service outside these facilities, CQC registration is a legal requirement.
There are CQC consultants who help with the registration process, and you would be well advised to seek expert guidance to ensure a successful registration in a timely manner. The process will take at least three months from the date of application, and it takes most clinicians several weeks to complete the application paperwork, so build this into your project plan.
Other responsibilities include data protection, medical indemnity and business insurance, registration with PHIN and medical insurance company recognition.
Professional associations often provide the necessary support and information to help you stay updated on medico-legal considerations.
7. Review and develop
Once your new practice is up and running, you will have increased pressure on your time, but you must make time to review and evaluate how your practice is performing. A monthly check-in and a deeper quarterly review are advisable. You can assess financial performance and the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. You will learn what works well and can adapt your plans to build on this.
Here at Designated Medical, we aim to help independent doctors succeed in private practice, and we are committed to sharing our expertise and experience with the broader medical community. In this article, we have shared the experience we have gained setting up private practices over the last twenty years, and we hope you find it helpful. Please get in touch with us if we can provide you with any additional support.
For further information, please refer to the more detailed chapters in our guide to Setting up a private practice.
In these chapters we will cover:
- Chapter 1 – How to produce your Business Strategy for your new medical practice
- Chapter 2 – How to set up your new medical practice as a company
- Chapter 3 – How to create your Marketing strategy for your medical practice
- Chapter 4 – How to choose your Clinic Location
- Chapter 5 – How to invoice your patients in your private practice
- Chapter 6 – How to handle your Medico-legal responsibilities in your private practice
Writing down your medical practice strategy helps to formalise your thoughts into a structured approach, setting out your goals and objectives for setting up a private practice with a realistic timeline for launch and beyond.
An essential factor is how much time you can commit to setting up your new private practice. Establishing any new business demands the investment of a considerable chunk of time and energy in the earliest stages to launch it successfully. It is also good advice to set clear parameters about how much private work you want to do in the short and long term. If you plan to balance your NHS commitments with your new private practice, without clear boundaries, it is very easy to be overwhelmed.
The first part of your medical practice strategy will describe your ambitions for your practice, including your Vision and Mission statements. Articulating your objectives very clearly and setting timescales for each one is essential. You may choose to set out your five-year plan or feel this is too long-term, but we recommend at least a three-year plan including a financial plan.
Once you set your three-year objectives, you can work back to your one-year objectives and, finally, your three-month implementation plan, which will need to be very detailed, describing the tasks and activities that need to be undertaken. You may have set an unrealistic launch date for your practice once you articulate how much needs to be achieved before then.
The planning stage of your medical practice strategy
The planning stage of your medical practice strategy also provides an opportunity to identify the expertise and support that you will need. There may be areas where you need professional expertise, for example, from an accountant.
Other tasks may need to be delegated as you do not have the time to complete them. Starting to build a support team at this early stage will enable you to increase your business knowledge and help you to avoid problems down the line.
Your medical practice strategy must also detail the costs associated with setting up your private practice including the costs to launch successfully and the ongoing operational costs. Most consultants we meet plan to launch their new practice with minimal expenditure, but some real costs need to be understood and a budget assigned.
Many aspects of marketing, including the production of business cards and your website, will require a real financial investment. You may also need to commit a budget to clinic rooms that are not 100% utilised in the first few months as your practice builds up. Predicting these costs at the earliest stage will ensure you have the budget set aside and avoid unexpected invoices.
Attention to detail
Detailing your offering to patients is the most critical part of your medical practice strategy, as it will describe precisely who your patients are and what treatments you will offer them. Many doctors attempt to appeal to a vast audience of patients, offering a range of treatments.
Still, experience has taught us that identifying and focusing on a niche is often more successful, especially in the short and medium term. Your marketing advisors will wisely talk about your Unique Selling Point (USP), and this is much easier to define when targeting a niche group of patients with a specific set of treatments.
Once you have described your offering, developing your marketing plan will be much easier, but more on that to follow in later chapters.
There are numerous systems, tools, and templates available on the internet, to help you formulate your business strategy and plan, and it is important to choose a structure that you feel comfortable with.
If you want more information about how Designated Medical helps our clients develop their medical practice strategy and guides them in setting up their private practice contact us
info@designatedmedical.com 020 7952 1008
Read the next chapter >
Chapter Two – How to set up your new medical practice as a company
Your greatest concern when choosing a clinic location will be to ensure that it delivers a five-star experience for your patients. Patients will need to feel that your clinic location is safe and clean and that the supporting services are of the highest quality. The location should be easily accessible by car or public transport and parking should be readily available.
From a practical perspective, a good clinic location should also be convenient for you, ideally easy to reach from your home and your NHS practice so that you can avoid spending too greater a proportion of your valuable time travelling.
Most consultants are clear about where they want to treat their private patients from the outset. This might be a private unit at their NHS hospital or a private hospital that they know well. The model of working that is most commonly used nowadays is to gain practising privileges at the chosen facility and to use consulting rooms on a sessional basis. This is cost-effective, and more clinic sessions can be included as patient demand increases.
If your objective is to create your own facility, then location will be a more complex decision. You will need to allow plenty of time for assessing the ideal location and then considering specific buildings in the proximity of the chosen location, ensuring they have the necessary consent for medical use.
For more guidance on obtaining practising privileges at your chosen location
How to gain practising privileges for your private medical practice
How to gain Insurance Company Recognition for your private practice
In private practice, you are likely to treat patients who are self-pay, insured and those sponsored by an embassy or another similar organisation. You can choose to treat only self-pay if that is your preference and in doing so you have more flexibility with your fee schedule as you can set your fees at a level you are comfortable with, of course ensuring that the fees are acceptable to your patients.
If you plan to treat insured patients, you will need to register with the insurance companies and follow the fee schedule you agree with them. Fortunately, a system for doing this centrally saves you from dealing with each insurance company separately. Healthcode provides a service called The Private Practice Register (PPR) which enables you to upload your documentation and apply for registration with most of the major insurance companies. Once your registration is approved you can also benefit from electronic billing via the Healthcode service.
Many doctors are concerned about working with embassies and it is fair to say that receiving payment promptly can be challenging with some embassies but not all. Generally speaking, it is possible to work well with embassies if you keep very tight control over approvals and payments. Before seeing a patient, you must get a Letter of Guarantee (LOG) in which the embassy gives you a guarantee that they will make payment for the services you provide. Once you submit your invoice to the embassy you may need to chase regularly to ensure payment is made. In our experience embassies will generally take longer to settle invoices than insurance companies so you need to be prepared for a delay.
How to invoice patients for your private practice
How to manage the administration of your private medical practice
Business operations is a term used to describe all the activities an organisation does each day, to keep running successfully. In healthcare, we tend to refer to operations as administration which possibly understates the importance and value of the activities involved. In your private practice, your operations will largely be centred around caring for your patients and delivering a high-quality patient experience. To achieve this you will need systems, processes, and a strong team.
Creating a solid plan for the administration of your practice from day one will ensure that you create strong foundations for the future as your practice grows. There are some key activities to consider: –
Telephones and call answering – Your patients need to be able to reach your practice. One of the biggest frustrations for patients is not being able to get through to speak to someone on the phone. You will need someone to reliably answer your calls for you and this is typically done by your Medical PA, whom you may wish to employ, or you may choose to use a Medical PA service. An important piece of advice is to ensure that you have a telephone number that belongs to you. Technically it should be possible to “port” your number to be answered wherever you choose but you must make sure that the number is registered to you from day one. Changing your telephone number part-way through your private practice career is painful and costly.
How to employ a Medical PA for your private practice
Practice Management System (PMS) – Many consultants start their practice without a PMS, usually to reduce costs, but if you are serious about your private practice then this is an investment that you should make. A good PMS will pay dividends in the efficiencies it brings to your practice and will help to ensure your patient records remain secure and that you are GDPR compliant. There are several PMS systems available and each one has pros and cons. For a deeper look at how to choose a PMS system please read the following article.
How to choose a Practice Management System for your private practice
How to work with a Medical PA in your private practice
In most private practices, a Medical PA is responsible for the day-to-day operations/ administration of the practice, and we would strongly argue that your Medical PA will have an enormous impact on the success of your practice. Your Medical PA will be the first point of contact for your new patients and will talk to your patients more often than you do. The relationship that a good Medical PA develops with your patients will make a big impact on your patient’s views of how good your practice is and will affect your reputation.
The role of your Medical PA is to manage the administration of your practice, including answering patients’ telephone calls and emails, and booking appointments and surgeries if relevant. Doing this well require great attention to detail and good communication skills with patients, hospitals, and other colleagues with whom you work.
For more detail on the role of the Medical PA read here
The role of a Medical PA in your private practice
At launch, the prospect of employing a Medical PA to support you may seem too costly. You may prefer to consider a Medical PA service where a company such as Designated Medical, provides you with an experienced Medical PA to support you and your patients. Our service provides you with a specific PA to work with you on an ongoing basis and is based on a virtual model of working. You choose a “package” of hours that meets your needs on day one with the ability to increase over time as your practice gets busier. For more details on our Medical PA service ….
A guide to the Medical PA service from Designated Medical
If you do decide to employ a Medical PA directly, and the cost is justified, then you will need to start your recruitment drive. Allow plenty of time, as it can take time to find the right person, and any applicants who are currently employed will typically need to give their current employer at least one month’s notice.
How to recruit a Medical PA for your private practice
When recruiting your Medical PA, a major consideration will be offering a salary that attracts a good calibre of candidates. For guidance on salaries for Medical PAs
Salary guide for Medical PAs in private practice
Need help setting up your private medical practice…
Get in touch and start your conversation today
info@designatedmedical.com 020 7952 1008
Useful article
How to gain practising privileges for your private medical practice
How to invoice patients for your private practice
How to employ a Medical PA for your private practice
How to choose a Practice Management System for your private practice
The role of a Medical PA in your private practice
A guide to the Medical PA service from Designated Medical
How to recruit a Medical PA for your private practice
Salary guide for Medical PAs in private practice
Read the next chapter >
Chapter Five – How to invoice your patients in your private practice
Like marketing, invoicing is an area that most doctors feel uncomfortable with when they enter private practice as it is an area that they are not familiar with. Most doctors dislike talking to patients about money and understandably so as their objective is to deliver great care.
But to succeed in private practice your patient invoicing needs to be managed well. On day one some doctors plan to manage their own invoicing or ask a family member to assist them. This seems like a good solution to keep costs at a minimum but as this is such a specialist activity there is a strong argument that paying for expert help pays dividends in the longer term. The first realisation for this usually occurs when a doctor realises how much bad debt they accumulated.
If you are looking for a sustainable solution to invoicing, you can employ a Medical PA who has experience in managing invoicing or engage a professional medical billing company. Whichever option you choose you need to ensure a thorough understanding of working with insurance companies and embassies and a strong focus on collecting payments.
There are several specialist medical billing companies to choose from and you should explore their credentials in detail before making your decision on whom to work with. Ask for references from other clients, check out what management reports you will receive each month and of course the fee structure. Most companies charge a percentage of the monies received. Check that the percentage is based on monies received and not monies invoiced. You do not want to be paying for invoices that are raised but not paid! If you have built up a degree of bad debt that needs collecting, you may pay a premium for this.
How to invoice your patients and ensure you get paid
How to manage the finances of your medical practice
You will have chosen the legal structure of your practice which has a direct impact on your financial responsibilities. For a sole trader or partnership, your responsibilities are relatively minimal, but they are far greater for a limited company with the need to submit annual accounts. Of course, your accountant will advise you, but you can do much to reduce your annual accountancy bill if you manage your finances wisely throughout the year.
Whichever structure you are using, your main concerns will be income and expenditure and you will need to keep accurate records of both. Initially, you may choose to do this using excel spreadsheets, but you should consider using a professional finance system such as Xero early in the development of your practice if not from day one. A good finance system will automatically link with your bank account and your practice management system reducing the time spent manually updating your records and so far less time-consuming and fewer errors. You should also check that your chosen accountant uses a good finance system to avoid costly manual bookkeeping.
How to choose an accountant for your medical practice
You may have chosen for your Medical PA or a professional billing company to manage your patient invoicing on your behalf. Whichever method you choose you should be able to download accurate reports from your practice management system (PMS) into excel or if you are using Xero, you can set up a direct link from most PMS systems.
Accounting and bookkeeping for your private practice
You must keep track of your expenses throughout the year. Many doctors spend money within their practice that they do not include in their expenses, and this costs them dearly in taxes. Your Medical PA or a bookkeeper can track your expenses for you and ideally you would review your expenses each month to ensure everything is being reported.
If you are an employer, you have additional responsibilities for payroll, national insurance, PAYE and pensions. Your accountant will advise you on this.
Need help with finances for your private medical practice…
Get in touch and start your conversation today
info@designatedmedical.com 020 7952 1008
Useful article
How to invoice your patients and ensure you get paid
How to choose an accountant for your medical practice
Accounting and bookkeeping for your private practice
Read the next chapter >
Chapter Six – How to handle your Medico-legal responsibilities in your private practice
Setting up any business requires taking on several responsibilities including legal and regulatory, and the private healthcare industry understandably requires more than most.
All businesses must ensure they are registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and adhere to the UK data protection regulations, following correct procedures to ensure data is held and managed securely.
Businesses within the private healthcare sector also have a responsibility to adhere to the measures introduced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which are particularly concerned about the availability of information to patients on consultant fees and the performance of consultants and private hospitals. The CMA has mandated that the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) publish performance and fee information about private consultants and hospitals and as a consultant, you will be required to provide this data to PHIN.
Did you know PHIN can help your practice meet legal requirements?
All doctors, working in private practice, are required to have medical indemnity insurance. There are numerous specialist providers offering appropriate policies but it is wise to check the small print thoroughly as this is a purchase decision where the cheapest may not be the best option.
You must also check if you need to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The CQC state some regulated activities and if you are undertaking one or more of these activities you may need to register. If you have practising privileges at a private hospital that is registered with the CQC for regulated activities and is a designated body, you may be exempt.
If you do need to register with the CQC, be prepared for an involved process that can take several weeks to complete. The first stage is your CQC countersigned DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service), which may take eight weeks to arrive, but you cannot start your application until you have received this. Armed with your DBS, you can complete the application form, but this can take a full working day, so set plenty of time aside. The application process aims to check that the individuals involved are fit to provide the regulated activities and that the locations used are fit for the purpose.
All doctors in the NHS and in private practice must be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). Revalidation is an ongoing process enabling the GMC to ensure doctors are fit to continue to practice. Revalidation follows a five-year cycle, but doctors must complete an annual appraisal and collate evidence on an ongoing basis to demonstrate they meet the necessary standards.
Navigating the world of social media can at first seem quite alien, but those once personal platforms have turned into a space where anyone and everything can co-exist. If the past few years have taught us anything, it is that healthcare and social media are a powerful combination. At its core, social media allows you to communicate with patients both locally and globally. By July 2022, social media users worldwide reached more than 4.7 billion, and the number is growing daily.
That’s a lot of likes and shares! But what does that mean for you and your healthcare business? What are the real benefits of spending time and money on your own online presence?
- Raising awareness of your private practice or healthcare business.
- Driving traffic to your website.
- Building a community around your business or brand.
- Attracting new patients or customers.
- Sharing positive feedback and patient reviews.
- Responding to healthcare questions and concerns.
- Communication during a healthcare crisis.
- Opposing health misinformation. (The World Health Organisation have shared the following tips for identifiying misinformation.)
- Raising awareness of illnesses and sharing informative, factual resources.
So, let’s start on the right foot. Social media is not free. It is quick and (relatively) easy to set up profiles, and of course, there is no cost attached to this. However, as you begin to develop your social media strategy, you will need to start thinking about putting a small budget aside, to support your efforts. Otherwise, your hard work will be lost in a sea of noise. (Remember those 4 billion-plus accounts.)
1. Choosing and setting up your platform
But let’s get back to basics. There are now a whole host of social media platforms available, with users flocking toward them, to achieve different things. The following research by ‘Hootsuite’ and ‘We Are Social’ gives an overview of some of the top channels. You can see that Facebook for example is popular with people looking to post their own content, and share their updates with friends and family, whereas those on TIK TOK are there primarily to browse entertainment, being less inclined to create their own content and post.
At Designated Medical, our clients are looking to achieve different things, so we won’t tell you which ones you should join without knowing your specific situation, but this is the first step, figuring out which platform your audience favour, and how that aligns with your business and the type of posts you are willing to share on social media.
Once you have chosen your social media platforms, it is useful to get one live before trying to set up multiple accounts at the same time. Especially if social media is still quite new to you. You will need to make sure you have your business logo, cover banners, straplines, and marketing copy all saved in one place so that you easily access them to upload to your profiles.
2. Defining your audience
Developing a clear understanding of your social media target audience is one of the most important things to do before starting your marketing strategy. Your target audience informs all elements of your social media strategy going forward.
Before we get into the details, here’s a little tip: your target audience is not everyone! But there is plenty you can do to start defining and understanding your audience and we can also help with the rest.
Audience research will help you craft relevant content, messaging, and ads, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
But defining a target audience can be one of the most challenging aspects of marketing. But once you have a clear idea of who they are, your marketing will be more relevant and have better returns.
Read more about defining your social media audience
3. Content planning
Now is a good time to start thinking about how you will create and share content, will you be using a marketing agency or do you or someone on your team have the design skills to create an image or video content for your platforms? It is worth considering how often you would like to post. Different platforms have different recommendations. For example:
Facebook – once per day
Twitter – 1 – 2 times per day
LinkedIn – Once per day
However, although social media platforms would love you to be posting daily, this much to your audience can turn them off, unless you have a rich source of content. Quality is better than quantity.
We strongly recommend creating a monthly content calendar, to plan in advance what you are going to post and when. This will give you a holistic view of your social media content and give you an overview of whether you need to be posting more or less of a particular topic.
Designated Medical clients are diverse and so each likes to focus on niche topics, however, here are some popular themes to get you started:
- Tell the story of you and your practice – tell your audience a little bit about you, how you got started, and the story of how your practice or healthcare business came to be where it is today. This could be in a video format, a live video if you’re feeling confident or even an image post with the post copy detailing the information.
- Introduce your team – People like to know who they’re talking to, create posts that get to know the people on your team, who they are, what they do and the impact they make. Your team are also likely to feel valued seeing this public recognition of their abilities and input.
- Patient reviews – Another content pillar that should be a monthly or even weekly staple in your content planning. Patient reviews and testimonials. You need to gather these and also get the right permissions from your patients to share them online. People looking to buy a product or use a service will head to social media or the internet first to find out what others are saying. With lives busier than ever, people are looking to get it right the first time by using the experience of others as a foundation for their decision-making.
- Healthcare awareness days – this is a big one, and something many of our clients like to get behind. If you share factual information around relative healthcare and disease issues that are related to your practice, you are sharing content that is relative to you, and useful to your audience. This gives your audience a reason to keep following and engaging with your content. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t receive a ton of engagement from this, but it means that those who have seen it know that you are someone they can come back to in the future, should they have symptoms or concerns.
- Curated content – don’t think you have to create every post yourself, there is a world of content that has already been created out there, feel free to share anything you feel may be useful to your audience, and that is important, coming from a reputable source.
4 – Paid advertising
Now that you have set up your accounts and built your content strategy, you will be looking to start reaching specific groups of people. We mentioned earlier that social media is not free. Organic social can only get you so far. Targeted advertising is different. You can make sure people of a certain gender, age-range and location receive your marketing message. This doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but it is important to have paid social experts to help with this element of your social strategy to ensure you are not wasting money in the wrong places.
Each social media platform will have its own advertising account section, each one looking and working differently. You will need to input credit card or banking information into the account, and you can choose whether you want automated ads running continuously in the background or whether you want to have only targeted campaigns running for a set amount of time such as a few weeks or months.
At Designated Medical, we work with a range of clients on their paid advertising needs, if you’re looking to take your social media marketing strategy to the next level we can help. If you’re feeling really adventurous, we can also introduce social listening platforms which help you reach directly people who are asking for help online or talking about particular health complaints.
Social media is not an overnight win, however, done correctly, and with consistent effort, you can promote yourself and your business to a community that knows where to go should they need help in a particular area of healthcare. While there are many private healthcare providers out there with social media accounts, so many of them have still not tapped into the full potential that social media can bring.
5. Ready to take the next step?
It can be difficult at first to judge whether what you’re sharing is professional enough, funny enough or even sensitive enough. That’s why if you’re posting yourself, it’s always good to get a few opinions from people you work with.
Here at Designated, we manage the marketing and branding for dozens of private practitioners and healthcare companies, we take the responsibility of creating content that’s on-brand, suitably toned and helping to promote our clients to new audiences.
If you would like help managing Instagram or any of your other social media channels, please feel free to reach out to our Marketing Director Michelle michelle@designatedgroup.com
Do you have an MBA? Perhaps a Diploma in Business Management?
If not, you’re in the same boat as the vast majority of doctors who decide to start their own private medical practice, which is, in fact, a complex business like any other.
Managing complaints, business development, systems and processes are all important aspects of practice management, but the two areas you absolutely must get right at the very start are: planning and people. So here is what you should start doing:
Strategic planning
Being clear on goals and ambitions for your practice will help you achieve them. Allowing regular time in the calendar to step back and look at the bigger picture will keep your business on the right track.
There are four steps to successful strategic planning:
- Manage performance
- Determine your position
- Develop a strategy
- Build your plan.
1. Manage performance
Taking this approach means you won’t miss any gaps. Ideally, garner input from anyone who contributes to the success of the practice and ensure that all your stakeholders are aware of your plan.
2. Determine your position
Like any other business, the leader of a medical practice needs business intelligence to survive. As the one in charge, it’s critical that you have access to executive information which shows analytics, forecasting tools and reports.
I suggest that you create a dashboard which shows the ‘big view’ of your business and allocate time to setting this up so that you will easily be able to access trends.
For example, you should be able to see at a glance the split between self-pay patients and those with insurance over the last six months and how it compares to the previous six months.
You should also look at what changes are coming in business or medicine. If your practice is dependent on international patients, is there a downwards drift for certain countries?
The more insight into strategic issues you can gather, the better your planning will be. Combine all the data you’ve pulled together and document it.
There are many business planning methods and tools that you can use, and each has its pros and cons. The format is that important; the key is to have a short statement that you can refer to and change over time.
3. Develop a strategy
This is something you probably did when you first set up your practice, but you need to keep repeating the process to ensure your practice continues to grow in the direction you want it to grow.
We are often asked to have a five-year plan, and while it is difficult to have clearly defined goals for five years, it is possible and valuable to have goals and objectives for the coming two years.
When thinking about the longer term, a business mentor advised me to think of ‘the view from the beach’. Imagine yourself in five years’ time relaxing on the beach and envisage what you would like to have achieved by that point.
How will your practice look? How will the finances look? This becomes your longer-term goals and allows you to focus very clearly on the next two years and what you need to do now to ensure your reach ‘that view from the beach’.
You may already have a long- term plan, but when did you last review it? Does it need amending?
Can you distil your practice ambitions into four to six long- term objectives? Is your financial forecast still accurate? Try to add as much clarity as possible so your goals and priorities are accurate.
4. Build your plan
This is the nitty-gritty – an operational plan that ensures your practice achieves what you want it to. It’s important that you work with your team to come up with achievable goals and that they have an opportunity to feedback on plans.
Depending on the size of your practice, you might choose to allocate goals to specific areas; for example, the administration team answers 85% of calls each week. What does success mean? An increase in patients or a decrease in patient complaints?
No matter the goal(s), make it as easy as possible to measure progress and keep on track by defining what success looks like and sharing it with the team.
Top Tips
Write down your plan including clear objectives. You might only need one piece of paper but record your plan and then book time in your diary to review it regularly, perhaps every three months.
Share the vision
Have you shared your long-term goals with the rest of your team? if they don’t know what you’re working towards, they can’t help you get there.
Consider your long-term vision: Take a quiet moment over a cup of coffee to contemplate your ‘view from the beach’.
Create a dashboard
Can you make use of the systems you already have in place to put together a dashboard? Excel combined with data from your practice management software might be more than enough.
Avoid jargon
No ‘key performance indicators’! You don’t have to use business language if it doesn’t fit with your practice. Reword internal documents and patient information if a more relaxed approach suits – e.g. ‘We will know we’re successful when…’
Look it up
The BMA provides a wealth of free information to support those working in private practice.
Attend events
That will remind you to take a broader look at your practice and your longer-term goals.
Make a date
Put dates in the calendar to review progress so you keep on track.
Your Medical PA (personal assistant) will have an enormous impact on the success of your private practice. The Medical PA role is considered an admin role, i.e. administrators and receptionists, but I strongly argue that it is much more than that, and I would encourage you to consider your Medical PA as the owner of patient experience for your practice with responsibility for the quality of patient service.
Your Medical PA will work in partnership with you, caring for your patients, ensuring they feel safe and receive a good overall experience from your practice. We talk about enhancing the “patient experience” and your Medical PA makes a significant contribution to this, and it impacts your reputation as a physician.
Your medical PA acts as an ambassador for your practice.
There are of course functional skills that your Medical PA needs to show competency in, for example, the experience of working with a practice management system (PMS), but the most significant impact your Medical PA will make is ensuring your patients are looked after and cared for.
The ability to deliver this can be enhanced through appropriate qualifications, training and development, but it is largely dependent on a strong desire to deliver an exceptional patient experience.
It is imperative that your Medical PA is fully engaged with your vision for your practice, which is your definition of where you want your practice to be. He or she should also understand your goals and objectives and be clear about how they contribute to achieving them.
Patient Experience
We can break down your patient’s treatment journey into three distinct parts and consider the role of your Medical PA within each stage.
- Before treatment
- During treatment
- After treatment
Before Treatment
Your Medical PA will handle your patient’s initial enquiry, responding to questions about your practice and starting to build a relationship with a new patient who is often anxious and needs reassurance. This relationship building is key and can determine whether your patient decides to book or not.
Booking an appointment by phone will often be the first human interaction with your practice, although with the increasing popularity of online booking, this step will become more automated.
Once your patient has booked their initial appointment, your Medical PA will follow up with booking details including the provision of pricing information to ensure your practice meets its regulatory obligations. You may also have forms regarding medical history that your patient needs to fill in prior to their appointment and your Medical PA will ensure these are completed.
For every interaction you have with a patient, either during a consultation or planned surgery, your Medical PA may have more than 6 interactions by phone and by email.
Communication is key throughout the patient journey, but in this initial stage there are opportunities for your Medical PA to provide valuable information such as patient information leaflets and of course provide clarity about costs. If your patient has private medical insurance, your Medical PA will provide your patient with their expert advice on how to submit their request for cover.
Your Medical PA will contact your patient prior to their appointment to reconfirm the date, time and location. With most practice management systems these reminders can be automated which reduces time spent on simple admin tasks and allows your Medical PA to focus their efforts on patient care.
When your patient comes to see you face to face, the physical environment in which you meet will also impact the patient experience. To enhance this, it is important that your PA reconfirms the appointment the day before and ensures the patient has accurate details regarding your location, how to find you and other considerations such as parking.
The aim of this communication is to ensure your patient is fully briefed, has clear expectations of what to expect and importantly, from your perspective, is more likely to arrive on time.
Role during treatment
Following your initial consultation, you will have a list of follow up actions, which we refer to as “outcomes” and follow up communications to deliver. It is your Medical PAs role to ensure all the outcomes and communications are handled on your behalf in an accurate, secure, and timely manner. This requires enormous attention to detail and the creation of robust processes and systems to ensure mistakes are eliminated.
For example, for every test your patient has, your Medical PA needs to ensure that results are received and communicated to you so you can dictate a letter to your patient articulating these results clearly. The dictation needs to be transcribed and sent in a secure manner to the patient and/ or GP. One missing result letter can be disastrous.
Your medical PA will handle the management of the outcomes, ensuring your patient is booked for the various tests that you have requested, follow up appointments or surgery, liaising with other clinics and hospitals as needed. Prescriptions must be completed and referrals to other health care professionals managed.
Whatever the treatment plan involves for the patient, each step of the process needs to be managed in a way that ensures your patient feels well informed, in control and well cared for. Good communication is key.
Your patients will also need to be billed for the treatment they receive. Some Medical PAs manage billing and credit control, but it is more commonly managed by a billing manager or bookkeeper. In my experience, doctors are better served by using a professional billing manager to fulfil this role for two reasons. Firstly, billing is a complex process requiring excellent knowledge of insurance company codes.
It also requires a different skillset to that of a Medical PA. Managing credit control is a skill and chasing patients and insurance companies for overdue invoices and shortfalls is both challenging and time consuming. In my opinion the Medical PA role is to provide your patients with a service such that they feel safe and secure in your care.
It is very difficult for your Medical PA to maintain that relationship when they need to have discussions with patients about overdue invoices, insurance company shortfalls, etc. These discussions are best handled by your billing manager.
Depending on the location of your practice you may also need to order your own medical supplies and your Medical PA will handle this. All your suppliers will need to be paid in a timely manner and your Medical PA can organise this.
Your Medical PA will keep track of expenses and receipts, ready for submission to the accountant, but you may be wise to engage a professional bookkeeper. Good bookkeeping ensures you have a robust handle on your finances throughout the year. Your bookkeeper will be able to provide you with monthly management accounts so you can assess the performance of your practice.
Most Practice Management Systems integrate with Xero which is a brilliant finance management system and well worth considering. Managing your bookkeeping well throughout the year will also ensure that the production of your accounts at year end is relatively easy and quick and should also save you money on your annual bill from your accountant.
After treatment support
In most cases, patients will attend a follow up appointment with you which is normally face to face. Your Medical PA will ensure that all follow up appointments are booked in a timely manner. After the follow up appointment, your patient may be discharged from your personal care or you may require a longer term follow up, for example an annual check-up.
Your Medical PA will set a “recall” task for your patient which will notify your Medical PA, at the right time, to contact your patient and arrange that check-up. This may also be the time when your Medical PA encourages your patient to leave a review on the platform of your choice, for example Google Reviews or Doctify.
I encourage all doctors to view all patients as long-term patients as they may need further treatment in the future, or they may have friends and family who have a need for your services. For these reasons I would encourage you to consider your patient experience to be long term and to look for opportunities for continued care.
You may choose to send a regular newsletter to keep your patients informed on the services you provide and potentially new treatments that are available. You might also include articles regarding preventative health. In your patient’s mind you are already a trusted expert and so your continued communication is likely to be welcomed. Your Medical PA can assist with this but may need help from a marketing specialist too.
Summary
In summary, I recommend choosing your Medical PA with great care, recognising that your Medical PA will represent your practice and have a significant impact on your reputation as an experienced doctor.
If you need any advice or support helping to find the right Medical PA for your practice, please do get in touch with our team at Designated Medical.
Choosing a good Practice Management System (PMS) is a major decision for all doctors, clinics and hospitals working in the private healthcare sector, and a well-chosen PMS enhances patient care by streamlining administrative processes and ensuring efficient communication.
In this article, I share my advice and guidance for anyone embarking on such a decision. I have worked in private healthcare for over 20 years and so my suggestions are based on my experience as a user of such systems, rather than technical knowledge, but I am guessing that is what you are interested in too.
Features and Functionality
You will be most concerned about the functionality that a PMS offers you and the most important functions to explore thoroughly are those that you will use regularly. On a daily basis, you will be checking your clinic lists and patient correspondence. Good practice management software makes this quick and easy with minimal “clicks”. During your clinics, you will want to move quickly from one letter or set of results to the next and also from one patient to another.
To check that the PMS you are considering has the practice management features you need and is fit for your purpose, you should involve your medical PA/ secretary, typist and billing manager in the decision-making process.
Speed
Speed is especially important as you will be using your chosen software during your clinic. Obviously, the speed of the internet is important but there are problems with speed when your provider needs to invest in their own servers. When you are choosing software, you should ask for statistics on speed and reliability including the percentage of “uptime”.
Dictation
Another important aspect for all medical practices is the ability to dictate letters and results and ensure these can be securely delivered to your medical PA/ secretary or typist ready for transcription. Once the letters are typed you want to use a process, managed by your PMS to allow you to check new letters, approve them and flag back to your secretary that they are ready to be sent to the patient or clinician. The PMS should also allow for the letters to be sent easily, quickly, and cheaply by secure email.
Invoicing and credit control
When working in private practice obviously the ability to invoice patients easily and accurately is fundamental. Your PMS should allow you to take payment in advance, for example when a patient books online, or immediately after an appointment by credit card.
Electronic billing is essential, and a good practice management system will be integrated with the Healthcode system to allow immediate, electronic communication of invoices to the main Insurance companies.
The management of credit control is also key, and a good PMS will be set up to ensure that this is simple. You should look for functionality that allows you to pull off reports relating to invoicing, including aged debt.
To help you manage credit control your PMS should allow you to set up a system of reminders to send to patients to chase unpaid bills or shortfalls. You have a choice to manage invoicing and credit control in-house or outsource to a specialist. If your preference is to manage this in-house, then it is more important for your PMS to have very strong functionality in this respect.
Lab tests
Most private practitioners will regularly perform lab tests and most good practice management systems allow for tests to be requested via the PMS and for the results to be automatically received into the PMS and stored in the patient notes. This functionality saves time but also helps to ensure that all lab tests are received in a timely manner and that nothing is missed.
Video consultations
Many doctors are offering video consultations to patients and most practice management system have the capability for this built in. If this is important to you and your patients, then you may wish to explore this further.
Mobile App
A good PMS will also offer users the option to use a mobile app on their Smartphone and this can be incredibly powerful. An app allows you to access your PMS easily from your phone or tablet and can be a lifesaver on a busy day or when the internet fails, and mobile data becomes your backup. An app should ideally allow you to access your clinic list, patient contact details and patient correspondence.
Online booking
Online booking is already well established and popular across many industry sectors, and we have every reason to believe that it will also be welcomed by patients booking private medical appointments. Most PMS systems already offer online booking but if they don’t currently, I would expect them to have it on their roadmap. Not being able to offer online booking could prove to be a significant disadvantage.
Supplier relationship and support
I have covered the technical features of a PMS, but we must also consider the relationship with the supplier of the PMS software. You will want to ensure that you have good support for your PMS both for yourself and your team members. When you are choosing software, you will be dealing with the sales team, but once you sign the contract you will be introduced to the support team, and the quality of their service will have a big impact across your entire practice, either good or bad.
I would encourage you to investigate the support offered prior to signing on the dotted line. If you are already established in private practice, then you may well have data to transfer from an existing system onto your new PMS. You will need to understand how this data transfer will take place and the costs associated with it. Some providers will do this free of charge, but others will charge a fee.
And finally, regarding your choice of supplier, it is important to be certain that the company has stability and a strong financial situation. You are making a long-term decision and need to feel reassured that your supplier has a long-term future.
Training
Equally important is training for you and your team members. A good PMS will be designed in a manner that means its tools are fairly intuitive to use, but there will be functionality that you will not benefit from if you are not given adequate training at the start.
It would also be good to know that additional training on specific functionality is available later too as you develop your practice. It is natural that once you are familiar with the basics you will want to explore additional functionality.
Data Protection
The issue of data protection and security is a great concern and with data attacks becoming more commonplace there is a need for software to become more sophisticated to ensure that the data held is secure. Any personal data being sent from one party to another is a potential risk and currently, we use secure email to limit this.
A better solution for data security will come from the provision of a “Patient portal”. In this model, the patient will login into their own private portal to access letters and results, therefore, eliminating the need to transmit personal data. I would expect all good PMS providers to have this within their roadmap.
Development Path
I would also encourage you to explore future plans for your PMS. A good provider will be able to articulate its roadmap for developments in the coming 12 months. There are a few things I would expect to see on that roadmap.
Independent Advice
It is well worth investing considerable time and effort into choosing the right PMS system for your requirements. Once you are using a PMS, the thought of moving all of your data to a new system will feel incredibly daunting and you will want to avoid doing so. You will need to explore each PMS and measure its suitability against what is important to you, so it is a personal decision, but you can also get some valuable insight from others who have made similar decisions.
Ideally, you would talk to other doctors, clinic and practice managers, who have recently made a choice of PMS, so they are well-informed regarding what is currently available on the market. Be careful when talking to doctors who made their choice a few years ago as they may be missing some of the newer developments such as online booking.
I would also encourage you to talk to other users such as Medical PA’s. They are using the systems day in day out and will have very strong opinions on the various systems available.
Each PMS supplier will have glowing testimonials and case studies on their website which are useful, but I would also ask to speak to current users directly for each PMS.
You can search for reviews of each PMS via Google, and I encourage you to do so. As I write this article there is not much to be seen, although I do expect this will change as software review websites are becoming more and more popular by the day so it’s definitely worth checking.
Also, ask your potential supplier about User groups and forums. If these are well established, then there is a strong suggestion that this is a company that listens to their customers and takes on board their suggestions, so a particularly good sign.
Free trial
Finally, I would suggest that you ask for a free trial before you sign up. A free trial will be limited as you will not want to spend a lot of time entering data, but it would be worth entering a few clinics lists, patient letters and using the software in different locations to check speed, etc.
Data transfer costs
I touched on the issue of data transfer in regard to setting up your new PMS. You may have data that you need to upload, and you need to be clear on the process, timescales and costs associated. My next point may sound rather negative, but it is always wise to be prepared for every eventuality.
If you choose a PMS and decide after six months that its not right for you, what would your options be? Do you have to sign for a full year or is it a rolling monthly contract? Would your provider make your data available in a format that is easy to upload to a new PMS system? How long would they take to do this and how much would they charge for doing so? At the very least this will give you peace of mind.
Cloud-Based
A cloud-based software program is any program that runs on the internet. Cloud-based software can be accessed from anywhere that has the internet, so can be used in different hospitals, clinics, working from home, and whilst travelling.
The alternative to cloud-based is server based. There are pros and cons to each approach but my experience in the private medical sector would suggest that most doctors and clinics should use a cloud-based PMS solution. The only exception I would envisage would be a large healthcare company with its own in-house IT department that would be able to cope admirably with the demands of running a server-based solution.
Scalability
Scalability comes in two different respects. Firstly, we need to ensure the PMS software allows enough storage to maintain patient records, notes and correspondence for a growing number of patients. This might be especially important in a speciality where lots of images need to be stored. As far as I am aware all of the major software systems allow for large volumes of data, but it is definitely worth checking.
The other way a clinic may wish to scale is in terms of the number of consultants working within that clinic. Some software is better suited to this type of environment than others so this would be an important factor to consider if you are choosing software for a growing clinic.
Pricing
Some PMS systems providers charge a large one-off fee for purchasing their software and a smaller ongoing support fee. Other providers charge a monthly subscription fee for the software.
Some PMS systems allow multiple users as part of the subscription or licence fee, but others will charge per user. This is a key consideration as the cost of multiple users can become significant. A consultant will need access to their PMS and will potentially also need to grant access to their Medical PA, typist and billing company. If you are being charged on a per-user basis, this can become quite significant over the course of a year.
Integration with other software
Some PMS systems have a lot of functionality built-in, but others prefer integrations with other software and each approach has its pros and cons. Built-in functionality is simple and easy. Integrations require more management and potentially cost, but this means you are able to choose the best-in-class software for your needs.
I mentioned earlier that dictation and transcription are important aspects of a PMS solution. Some systems have inbuilt functionality for dictation, transcription, and secure email but others require the use of integrated software. It is important to understand the way a PMS works to ensure that the functionality you need is inbuilt but if not that the integrations with leading software are well established.
One area that is worth exploring to ensure it meets your requirements is finance in terms of reporting and financial management. Most PMS systems offer a level of reporting that allows you to review your financial data and your practice’s financial performance. Clearly, your income data will be very detailed as all of the invoicing information will be available.
Some PMS systems offer the option to track practice outgoings and perform bank reconciliations. If this is the case, then you may have the option to pull off useful reports such as your profit and loss. Most PMS systems will integrate with well-known finance software packages such as Xero, and this may prove to be a better option for you, particularly as it may make the process for your bookkeeper and accountant more efficient.
Summary
In summary, practice management systems streamline workflows, improve efficiency and ensure that patient documents and information are accurately recorded and accessible – so choosing a PMS is a crucial decision that will affect the long-term development of your practice. It is a decision that is unique to you, but you can learn a great deal from others working in a similar environment and by doing thorough due diligence.
If you have any specific questions that you would like to discuss directly with me, please do get in touch. I would be happy to help.
A good accountant can be your most powerful supporter. Like a co-pilot, your accountant can help you drive your practice forward by assessing your plans when you start your practice and reviewing your ongoing performance.
A business plan is essential for outlining your practice’s goals, strategies, auditing needs, and financial forecasting. A knowledgeable accountant can provide valuable insights to ensure your financial plans align with your business objectives and prepare accurate forecasts for future growth and stability.
Much too often we speak to doctors who only speak to their accountant at year-end which is such a missed opportunity.
So how do you choose the right accountant and gain the maximum from this important partnership?
The right accountant will have specialist knowledge of the private medical sector
Your accountant’s accreditation, knowledge and experience must extend to your particular area of business. Ideally, a prospective accountant will have dealt with many different industries to gain a broad base of knowledge before specialising in the private medical sector. This enables them to hit the ground running without researching the sector and draw on their experience to assist you, offering valuable recommendations from the start.
Location
Now that so many people are working remotely, location isn’t so much of an issue, meaning you can work with the most talented people, wherever they are located. Location is no longer a barrier so don’t pay premium prices to engage an accountant with expensive city offices!
Using the best technology
You need to be certain that your accountant uses the best technology available and has a deep understanding of how to gain maximum benefit from the technology. Systems such as Xero, a leading online accounting software, eliminate most manual work, reducing errors and saving time and therefore reducing your bookkeeping and accountancy costs, which is the perfect finance solution for most small businesses, including those in private healthcare, providing a fully integrated suite of services.
Designated is a Xero partner and members of our finance team are all Xero certified advisors, trained by Xero, to deliver you the best financial support in the most efficient way. Xero is the perfect finance solution for most businesses, including those in private healthcare, providing a fully integrated suite of services. Xero integrates with most bank accounts reducing manual uploading of transactions and also with most modern practice management systems.
Clear separation of bookkeeping and accounting
Bookkeeping and accounting are different and the rate you pay for bookkeeping should be significantly lower than the accountancy rate. Bookkeepers and accountants share common goals, but they support your business in different stages of the financial cycle.
Bookkeeping is more administrative with the main focus being on recording financial transactions. Accounting is more subjective, giving you insights into your business’s financial health based on the information provided by bookkeepers.
Check that your accountant has a bookkeeping team to handle the more administrative aspects. If your accountant does the bookkeeping themselves, check you are charged lower rates for this aspect of the work, especially for small companies. This is definitely an activity where you can save money significantly – and ask questions whenever necessary.
Highly Organised
Accountants have a very busy role, with several important deadlines throughout the year, and they need to be totally on top of these key dates. Any data or information must be collected in good time to avoid any last-minute scrambles. Make sure your accountant is organised, punctual and has a good support team. From your side don’t leave your responsibilities for submitting financial information until the last minute.
Attention to detail
Your accountant should be analytical, paying close attention to detail with the ability to spot anomalies quickly and efficiently, and they should present you with various options to enhance your practice’s financial health. Your accountant should have the skills and knowledge to be able to review and identify inconsistencies in information. Attention to detail is necessary to ensure consistency and accuracy in financial reporting. The information your accountant provides will be used to help make crucial financial decisions, so it must be correct.
Trustworthy and flexible
Your accountant needs to have a strong sense of ethics and integrity must be a valued characteristic. Your accountant must know right from wrong and always display integrity in their accounting and bookkeeping work. You need to be able to trust your accountant as your clients trust you (ideally from the first meeting). You also need to know that if something goes wrong, or if they make an error, they will be confident and honest enough to discuss this with you so that the mistake can be rectified.
Your accountant may be analytical and structured, but it is also important that they have a sense of flexibility in their work. Not everything will go to plan and the information they need may be delayed or imperfect at times. A high level of agility is also necessary for a quick response to regulatory changes in the industry.
Up to date with ongoing training and business certifications
Your accountant must maintain the proper certifications and continue their training and development within their specialist sector. As well as keeping up to date with accountancy practices, your accountant should keep up to date with developments in digital systems. Systems are changing all the time, and their capabilities are being enhanced. Your accountant should ensure you are using the available systems to improve efficiency and reduce your costs.
And possibly most importantly, your accountant must be up to date with tax regulations and advise you on your obligations. Your accountant should be able to predict your tax payments well in advance to avoid any surprises.
Your accountant should also be proficient in handling tax advice, ensuring that they provide accurate guidance tailored to your practice’s business needs. They should excel in tax returns, meticulously organising financial data to optimise tax efficiency. Moreover, your accountant must maintain stringent tax compliance standards, ensuring your practice meets all regulatory requirements.
Their expertise in profit and loss analysis is crucial for strategic decision-making, providing insights that enhance profitability and financial stability.
Collaboration and Communication
Our first point was that a good accountant can be your greatest supporter and co-pilot. To do this effectively they need to collaborate closely with you, regularly reviewing the performance of your practice and discussing your business strategy with you.
They should be able to advise you on the correct activities to focus your energies to increase patient income and how to maximise the profitability of your practice.
To collaborate effectively, your accountant needs to possess excellent communication skills.
They must be able to inform you of updates and changes in clear and easy to understand language. Accountants can impact critical business decision making, so they must offer advice that is heard and understood. They may also need to collaborate with your employees, who may have little financial experience, so the ability to explain things in a way that will be understood is vital.
Being able to offer a wide range of skills can only come with many years of experience. Your new accountant should be able to offer a selection of testimonials and references backing up their work.
At Designated, we believe that a good accountant is needed throughout the year and not just at year-end to prepare your annual accounts and self-assessment. Your dedicated Designated accountant will do this and so much more.
- Bookkeeping, managed by specialist bookkeepers
- Accountancy, managed by experienced accountants with the right qualifications
- Patient invoicing, managed by our invoicing team
- Xero-based practices integrating with your PMS
- Strategic financial support
- Monthly/ quarterly management reports
- Monthly/ quarterly review meetings
- Payroll