Finding new patients?

[trixter888]

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Hello everyone, I am hoping to start my own private psychiatry practice after residency.

I am wondering how those of you with experience in private practice advertised their practice to attract new patients.

What are the things that you have found to be most effective? Are there things you wished you did early on?

Thank you in advance.

 

[clausewitz2]

Psychology Today has been worth every penny.

The other thing to do is make sure your old attendings know you're going into private practice and what sort of practice you intend to have, as well as what insurances you think you'll be taking. Same goes for residency classmates. Get to be known as the "X gal/guy." You want people to think of you when they think of a certain population so they go "you know who we could refer this person to/who loves working with these folks? trixter888."

 

[Alemo]

Psychology Today has been worth every penny.

The other thing to do is make sure your old attendings know you're going into private practice and what sort of practice you intend to have, as well as what insurances you think you'll be taking. Same goes for residency classmates. Get to be known as the "X gal/guy." You want people to think of you when they think of a certain population so they go "you know who we could refer this person to/who loves working with these folks? trixter888."

“Sure, it’s weird that she goes by trixter888 instead of Dr. Adamson, but she’s as good as they come”

 

[Sushirolls]

1) Psychology today
2) accurate up to date insurance listings
3) Arrange lunch meetings with PCPs, go feed them and introduce yourself
4) Spam mailings out to therapists
5) Maybe google ads
6) miscellaneous

 

[romanticscience]

Get your business registered on google maps

 

[whopper]

If you get an EMR some of them already have referal networks linked to them. If you're on an insurance panel the insurance company can send you some. Psychologytoday can help. Tell local PCPs and mental health providers you can take patients. Become part of an existing practice. Put your office in the same vicinity of a hospital. Tell social workers about your practice and that you're taking new patients.

 

[Candidate2017]

Psychology Today has been worth every penny.

The other thing to do is make sure your old attendings know you're going into private practice and what sort of practice you intend to have, as well as what insurances you think you'll be taking. Same goes for residency classmates. Get to be known as the "X gal/guy." You want people to think of you when they think of a certain population so they go "you know who we could refer this person to/who loves working with these folks? trixter888."

I'll add that the happiest physicians I've met, regardless of specialty, are the ones who exclusively work with a specific patient population they enjoy seeing.

The PP psychiatrists I know who take insurance say their panel filled very quickly. In psychiatry, screening patients is probably more important than finding patients.

 

[singasongofjoy]

Find a clinic that does a fair amount of evals and therapy for whatever your populations of specialty are. Craft a very BRIEF, bullet point email, letter, poster, etc and get it to the office manager and director, and ask them if they'd kindly share with relevant clinicians (include what insurance you take). Maybe the success of that approach may depend on your target patient population, but I have yet to find a psychiatrist in my metro area that is at least reasonably familiar with developmental disabilities, child in general, movement disorders, sleep disorders, gerontology, and/or ADHD that doesn't have a long long long waitlist (except maybe for those that don't take any insurance at all). We have an internal list of people we refer to who specialize in x,y,z as do many of the other psychology clinics I am aware of, and I copy-paste the relevant ones and contact info into my report recommendations and when we get contacted by private practice or other services of various types in the area that seem like they are familiar with the same populations we tend to see, they absolutely get put on a list internally. I've had some private practice providers try to set up real-life or zoom meetings with me or other clinical admin, but that very rarely works; you might be able to set up a brief meeting with resources/referral specialists at clinics if they have them.

 

[TheTravelingShrink]

Completely agree with PsychologyToday to start with and listing your practice on google. But the key is having a strong word of mouth network. Start by informing all of your mentors and colleagues about your practice. Every patient that you have - be responsive and collaborate with their PCP and therapist. Specializing in a patient population is also very helpful.

 

[whopper]

I've seen some psychiatrists sell their practice.
This could be a decent idea. Trust me. If you start your practice you are in for several headaches due to the learning curves you will have to learn. If the psychiatrist selling his/her practice was a good one it could be a goldmine. If they were terrible don't touch it with a 10-foot pole. If you pick up a bad psychiatrist's patients you will have to spend countless hours pointing out the prior mistakes, the patient's uproar when they find out they've been on the wrong med for years, since you took over the practice they will blame you.

The learning curves involve getting billing, connections, the infrastructure of your office, and filling up patients in order. If say someone charged $50K to sell their practice, it will likely be cost-effective if it was a good practice cause you will have several hours with nothing to do while filling up your patient load. The prior physician could also act as a mentor of sorts and will likely want some presence given that he sold his baby to you.

 

[Candidate2017]

I've seen some psychiatrists sell their practice.
This could be a decent idea. Trust me. If you start your practice you are in for several headaches due to the learning curves you will have to learn. If the psychiatrist selling his/her practice was a good one it could be a goldmine. If they were terrible don't touch it with a 10-foot pole. If you pick up a bad psychiatrist's patients you will have to spend countless hours pointing out the prior mistakes, the patient's uproar when they find out they've been on the wrong med for years, since you took over the practice they will blame you.

The learning curves involve getting billing, connections, the infrastructure of your office, and filling up patients in order. If say someone charged $50K to sell their practice, it will likely be cost-effective if it was a good practice cause you will have several hours with nothing to do while filling up your patient load. The prior physician could also act as a mentor of sorts and will likely want some presence given that he sold his baby to you.

Older, retiring psychiatrists have a different style of practice, to put it kindly. Their panel is also usually entrenched in expectations that may not match your style. It isn't like jumping in to continue someone's HTN or DM meds. There is a relationship (unless it's a 15 min pill mill) and strong bond with long term patients that you can't just replicate the minute their psychiatrist leaves. They need to grieve a bit and rebound off their PCP and work out transference issues before they can accept a new psychiatrist.

 

[Jules A]

I get a majority of my referrals, out of network, from therapists in private practices without a prescriber.