RadOnc Private Practice for Dummies?

[UrbanAmish]

hi guys

what are some good ways to build business savvy to prep for radonc private practice? of course there are general principles that apply across all specialties, but how do we navigate the specialty-specific challenges such as:

1. the dependency that radonc has on med-onc referrals?
2. breaking into established markets already dominated by big players with the big toys?

also, is it a good idea to shadow private radoncs while still a med student? i have heard from some residents that finding time to explore private practice is pretty limited during their residency and they wish they had seen more privates as a med stu.

thank you

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[Gfunk6]

what are some good ways to build business savvy to prep for radonc private practice?

Complete a Rad Onc residency. Seriously . . .

There is nothing you can do now to prepare yourself. I mean other than making a list of ways to spend your future income!

 

[Brim]

hi guys

what are some good ways to build business savvy to prep for radonc private practice? of course there are general principles that apply across all specialties, but how do we navigate the specialty-specific challenges such as:

Are you going to be the practice owner or join a group? If you're joining a group, you probably don't need a whole lot of business savvy per se, as a lot of the more difficult things like billing and financing should have already been taken care of. Your involvement in that kind of stuff will likely be minimal, and you don't need to have an MBA or know the difference between profit margin and operating ratio.

An oft quoted aphorism for what's needed in private practice is "availability, affability, and ability" (and specifically in that order!). That's a little bit tongue-in-cheek but it largely rings true.

Rad oncs in private practice or academics are 99.5% dependent on referrals, as it's a very rare patient who walks into our door asking for radiation on their own volition. So it's important to keep the referring docs happy. ("Don't bite the hand that feeds you.") This is true for both private practice and academics, but in academics there's less of a free market atmosphere with most in-house referral patterns being protected (it's naive to think this is 100% true) vs in private practice where docs are free to refer their pts wherever they'd like.

Communicate well, be compassionate. It helps a lot when the patient goes back to the referring med onc and has a lot of nice things to say about you and your staff. Involve your referring doc in the follow up plan and subsequent management of the patient.

If, on the other hand, you're gunning to open up a brand new free-standing center in an already saturated market, you probably should have an MBA and a damn good business and marketing plan, as well as a smart lawyer.

 

[stephew]

acro wil be having a talk about academic and private practice; and danilel flynn has an astro talk every year about PP.

 

[hawk126]

I may get flamed for even asking, but what's the general difference in pay between a radiation oncologist in academia vs. one in a private setting?

 

[Gfunk6]

I may get flamed for even asking . . .

You MAY get flamed but probably not for the reasons that you were thinking.

This topic has been discussed ad nauseum. By typing "salary" into the search engine and looking only in the RadOnc forum, I obtained the following threads for you:

1. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=260010
2. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=188332
3. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=147694
4. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=101322
5. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=71196

Folks, you know that I love to perform this service but please, please, please spend an extra few seconds out of your life to do a search as I described above. You don't need a PhD in Data Analysis and you will be gratified quickly w/o being called out by insolent posters (like moi).

 

[hawk126]

Apologies. I'm a bit of noob. Thanks!!!