Questions about rheumatology practice

[silentreader]

I did my rheumatology clinic with a solo practice rheumatologist. Based on my observation, the average number of patients per day is around 8-10 , it takes about 40 to 60 minutes to finish one new patient and 20-30 minutes for a follow up patient. only one secretary helps making appointment and input the information of patients. He told me it is not easy to run solo practice now and better to join a group practice. But to me, he is busy, no stop from 10am to 3pm.

My question is :

How many patients does a rheumatologist see per day in a group practice? Looks like it is really hard to finish 15 patients in a day

Thanks

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[bronx43]

I did my rheumatology clinic with a solo practice rheumatologist. Based on my observation, the average number of patients per day is around 8-10 , it takes about 40 to 60 minutes to finish one new patient and 20-30 minutes for a follow up patient. only one secretary helps making appointment and input the information of patients. He told me it is not easy to run solo practice now and better to join a group practice. But to me, he is busy, no stop from 10am to 3pm.

My question is :

How many patients does a rheumatologist see per day in a group practice? Looks like it is really hard to finish 15 patients in a day

Thanks

Huh, 8-10 patients? You will barely break even seeing that number of patients. Your overhead is typically 50-55% of your income to run a smooth practice. The only way this guy makes any amount of money is if he owns his building, and if he does his own billing. Honestly sounds like a terribly run business.

 

[silentreader]

Huh, 8-10 patients? You will barely break even seeing that number of patients. Your overhead is typically 50-55% of your income to run a smooth practice. The only way this guy makes any amount of money is if he owns his building, and if he does his own billing. Honestly sounds like a terribly run business.

I see.

 

[Successor12]

8-10 sounds too impractical for a private practice

 

[Ivos]

Is he only seeing patients for five hours? If so, it sounds like 8-10 patients is a lifestyle choice.

 

[drfunktacular]

8-10 patients is light even for an academic clinic with extremely complicated patients. I have 26 scheduled today, and my partners both have around 30. That sounds like a lot (some days it is) but many of those patients are here for OA, stable RA, vasculitis that is in remission and we're just monitoring, osteoporosis, etc. Things are are pretty straightforward at most visits, with a few unexpected complications here and there that we have to deal with.

With the way overhead is in most practices you could maybe pay your overhead but probably not pay yourself much salary at all at 8-10 patients per day. It sounds like the person you're working with at least has a very lean practice (just him a secretary from your description) but he still has to pay for rent, utilities, malpractice, CME, office products, medical supplies, EHR subscription, etc etc. This is why group practices are more feasible for most people nowadays--many of those costs are more or less fixed, or at least don't scale directly with the size of your enterprise. As a result, there are economies in scale in grouping numerous providers together to all utilize shared resources at a lower marginal cost per provider.