Office Rotations

Office Rotations

When you are building your office (you should always be building), it is critical that you have a specific plan in mind.  An example of a specific plan is using other providers to build your office volume.  Keep in mind it wasn’t until 1986 that the American Medical Association (AMA) removed its stance on medicine and chiropractic working together.  Prior to 1986, the AMA took the stance that it was unethical for medical doctors to associate with doctors of chiropractic.  That is important specifically when you are talking to medical doctors.  MDs that were trained before 1986 are often difficult to deal with or to get referrals from.  That is a generalization of course, but keep that in the back of your head when meeting with them. 

With that being said, there is another approach to building your practice with those MDs and that is the INDIRECT APPROACH.  I have built a relationship with an orthopedic surgeon.  His office is about 25 minutes from my suburban office.  He is located in the city.  With my plan in mind, I thought it would be easier to interact with some of the area MDs that were in school up to 1986 by promoting the orthopedic surgeon.  We have discussed rotating his physician assistant through my office for three reasons.  First and most importantly, it would increase compliance with my patients.  Many suburban patients make excuses as to why they can’t get into the city.  Secondly, it would increase the quality of patient care since I would be able to discuss patient care directly when the patient is in my office.  Thirdly, it would give me the opportunity to set up lunch meetings with those MDs in my office promoting the orthopedic surgeon having a “suburban” location.  If I build the orthopedic surgeon’s practice, I can help him with the conservative care patients.  Many patients require conservative care and I provide that service. 

Building this sort of relationship helps reduce your overhead as you will need an “official rental agreement” based on the fair market value of the space being used as well as the office equipment such as staff, fax, phone, etc.  Contact a HEALTHCARE attorney in your area to get that set up.  Call me if you want to know how to get this started, whether you have relationships or not.  This can work with virtually any provider.  I also have a nurse practitioner renting space.  In New York State, he/she can own and operate his/her own practice.