Five facets of running a medical Private Practice

I've been running a private practice medical office for about 3-4 years now, along with my wife, Dr. Tammy Wu, Plastic Surgeon. I've come to realize that there are five main categories of the jobs that we take on as physician/business owners. They are:

The five facets of running a medical private practice:

1. Clinical
2. Customer Interfacing
3. Maintenance
4. Efficiency Improvement
5. Marketing


Expanding on the above:

Clinical includes:
a) surgeries
b) consultations
c) writing prescriptions
d) checking lab results
e) patient education
f) sales of medical products to the patients
g) exploring new fields and ideas in medicine
h) continuing medical education


Customer interfacing includes:
a) Front desk duties with the patients as they walk in.
b) Reminders of appointments for the patients
c) Scheduling the patients
d) Rebooking patients for appointments if necessary


Maintenance includes
a) Finances (such as going to the bank, paying taxes)
b) Cleaning of physical space
c) Cleaning of medical equipment
d) plant care
e) Inventory of medical supplies
f) Inventory of products for sale
g) Replenishing office supplies (paper, towels, paper plates)
h) Laundry
i) Hiring replacement employees
j) getting rid of spider webs
k) getting rid of old magazines, and getting new ones
l) renewing repair contracts
m) updating software
n) paying bills


Efficiency Improvement includes
a) updating patient forms
b) keeping up with latest trends
c) speeding up all other processes in the office by working smarter, not necessarily harder.
d) updating equipment (faster printers, faster scanners)
e) training employees, testing employees
f) hiring additional new employees with new roles


Marketing includes
a) website
b) newspaper advertising
c) email newsletter
d) open houses
e) community service
f) giving lectures
g) patient referral programs
h) meeting with reps from companies
i) internal marketing
j) Surgery Tracker
k) Coupons, specials


Running this practice requires that we wear many different hats. Sometimes we are working "in" the business and sometimes we're working "on" the business. The business is the Private Practice of Surgical Artistry - Our practice in Modesto, California specializing in Veins, Acupuncture, and Plastic Surgery.

I consider the "in the business" tasks to be:
- Clinical
- Maintenance
- Customer Interfacing


I consider the "on the business" tasks to be:
- Efficiency Improvement
- Marketing

The listing above has also helped me think about what's different about having a private practice from what it would be like to work at a larger corporation such as Kaiser. I would not spend as much time as an employee of a group like Kaiser on:

- Maintenance
- Customer Interfacing
- Marketing

Those three tasks would be somewhat missing in a large group. Although there would of course be some involvement in all those three items as a doctor working anywhere, but it wouldn't be as much as if one were running their own private practice.

Above are just some thoughts that I had, as I try to organize my daily activities.... I felt compelled to put this in writing - I think this categorization may be worth something to me in the future.

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Disclaimer: This website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. There is no specific targeted medical advice here. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer also applies to our other websites with generalized information: Plastic Surgery Modesto CA, Plastic Surgery Modesto, Cosmetic Surgery, Modesto Plastic Surgeon, Acupuncture Modesto, Surgical Artistry Modesto Vein Center, How to Choose a Plastic Surgeon, Breast Augmentation Modesto, Breast Augmentation FAQ, Tummy Tuck FAQ, Calvin Lee, Modesto, Botox in Modesto

Search engine races - what percentage does Google have?

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10354394-75.html

I saw an article form September 2009 about Bing - the Microsoft search engine - which is relatively new.

They report that Bing has grabbed 10% of the search market.

Here's their analysis of the search engines:

Google 64.6%
Yahoo 16.0%
Bing 10.7%
Aol 3.1%

Google remains on top of the search engine world for now. I think Bing has a long way to go. We'll see what happens in the future.

Canonical Link Element for duplicated web content - useful for SEO

This is something that Yahoo and Google have agreed to to do to help sort out duplicated content including websites with www or without the "www" - this may be spackle that helps to fix the cracks in the web wall, but I think it is a step in the right direction... you can here it directly from Matt Cutts of Google:



My side hobby is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - this is exciting! Site maps are also covered briefly in this video about "breaking ties" - or giving Google hints.


Note: This posting and website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer applies to our other websites as well – feel free to visit: Plastic Surgery Modesto, Modesto Plastic Surgery, Modesto Plastic Surgeon, Surgical Artistry Modesto Vein Center, Acupuncture in Modesto, Plastic Surgery Stockton, Calvin Lee, Cosmetic Surgery Modesto,

I'm going to start Obagi - nu derm skin care

Time to take the plunge. I did my Visia skin care analysis today at my office. And I'm going to start my OBAGI skin care regimen today. I'm going to use 0.1% tretinoin - I think... I better as our plastic surgeon for a little advice. I need major help with my skin.

Wish me luck!

Disclaimer: This website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. There is no specific targeted medical advice here. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer also applies to our other websites with generalized information: Plastic Surgery Modesto CA, Plastic Surgery Modesto, Cosmetic Surgery, Modesto Plastic Surgeon, Acupuncture Modesto, Surgical Artistry Modesto Vein Center, How to Choose a Plastic Surgeon, Breast Augmentation Modesto, Breast Augmentation FAQ, Tummy Tuck FAQ, Calvin Lee, Modesto, Botox in Modesto

Cirque Du Soleil Facts - For ZAIA

I saw the Cirque Du Soleil in Macua, China. It's the Zaia show. I saw it in August, 2009 while I was there playing a violin solo with the Macau Youth Symphony. Here are some facts about this performance that I found in the brochure:

• The Venetian is the only theater in the world where you can see ZAIA
• It took 3 years and US $150 million to build.
• 25 feet diameter sphere moves on 3 axes and weights 4000 lbs.
• Every performance takes 115 technicians and 75 performers from 17 nationalities to stage.
• Artists do their own makeup.
• Most songs are sung in an imaginary language inspired by Hindi phonemes
• To produce the effect of a choir, the two live singers are digitally mixed during the performance to sound like a chorus of over sixty voices
• The troupe includes dancers from the United States, Argentina, Canada, China, Romania, France, Hungary and Germany.
• The backdrop of the theater, the "star drop", uses 3,000 fiber optic stars to recreate the night sky of Macau.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/zaia/en/intro/intro.asp

----Disclaimer: This website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. There is no specific targeted medical advice here. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer also applies to our other websites with generalized information: Plastic Surgery Modesto CA, Plastic Surgery Modesto, Cosmetic Surgery, Plastic Surgery California, Acupuncture Modesto, Surgical Artistry Modesto Vein Center, How to Choose a Plastic Surgeon, Breast Augmentation Modesto, Breast Augmentation FAQ, Tummy Tuck FAQ, Calvin Lee, Modesto, Botox in Modesto

How long does it take to fly from Taiwan to America?

I flew EVA airlines from Taipei (Tauyuan international airport), Taiwan to San Francisco, USA (United States). It took about 11:00 hours or perhaps it was 11:30 hours. Regardless this should give you an idea of how long it takes to fly from Taiwan to the USA. You have to add additional flight time if you are transfering or flying across the US.

Hope this helps.

----Disclaimer: This website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. There is no specific targeted medical advice here. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer also applies to our other websites with generalized information: Plastic Surgery Modesto CA, Plastic Surgery Modesto, Cosmetic Surgery, Plastic Surgery California, Acupuncture Modesto, Surgical Artistry Modesto Vein Center, How to Choose a Plastic Surgeon, Breast Augmentation Modesto, Breast Augmentation FAQ, Tummy Tuck FAQ, Calvin Lee, Modesto, Botox in Modesto

EVA Airlines back to America

I'm back. Flew EVA Airlines, flew directly to San Francsico, USA. Took about 11 - 12 hours. I had an Aisle seat and there was no one next to me! The video/TV was broken, so I moved my seat next to someone else - it was important that I watch a few movies on the way back! Then we fought traffice from San Francisco to Modesto took about 2 hours. And now I'm here at my computer typing away.

I purposely left my camera behind in Taiwan. Hopefully we might see more pictures of Taiwan from that camera.

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Disclaimer: This website is not intended to create a physician patient relationship. There is no specific targeted medical advice here. Please see your physician in person. This disclaimer also applies to our other websites with generalized information: Plastic Surgery Modesto CA, Plastic Surgery Modesto, Cosmetic Surgery, Plastic Surgery California, Plastic Surgery in Modesto, Acupuncture Modesto, Veins Modesto, How to Choose a Plastic Surgeon, Breast Augmentation Modesto, Breast Augmentation FAQ, Tummy Tuck FAQ, Calvin Lee, Modesto, Botox in Modesto