Failure

Some thoughts at failing at DPC:

  1. It is unknown about the risk of failed DPC practices and how that could slow/reverse the progress we’ve made. Are we growing fast enough to dilute out the news of the failed practices? 10:1 win:loss?
  2. A rising tide floats all boats but the reverse may be true as well. We need all DPC practices to thrive and therefore need to continue to share ideas and help each other
  3. Someone should keep track on the failed practices and we need to start adding this as a topic at conferences
  4. I don’t think a simple failure will be enough to cause a black eye. However, some of these folks are doing things so cavalier that I predict somebody will end up doing something downright illegal and it will blow up. Particularly when working with employers (like taking pre-tax dollars from an employer)
  5. Success takes basic business acumen. And risk tolerance. And PLANNING. I think the planning part needs more emphasis/education.
  6. I never claim there is only 1 perfect DPC model — that’s the beauty of it in fact! However, I hate to see people doing things that will almost certainly fail. In private conversations, I have flat told doctors their business plan is crummy. They are generally offended, of course
  7. YOU CANNOT FAIL. You have burned the boats. Pushed away the ladders. There is not turning back for any of us.
  8. “Top Gun” school was created b/c the Navy was losing 1 pilot for every enemy pilot they shot down — clearly not working. Once a pilot survived 20 flights/combats, they were statistically unlikely to be ever shot down. The navy took those ‘best of the best pilots’ and made them the teachers at the top gun school. They trained new crops of pilots to be the best — but in the process they got better themselves with each rotation — thus making better students/graduates. The graduates went to combat zones and they trained others. Basically creating a system that continually made better and better pilots, faster and faster. The end result was the US Navy had air superiority by the end of the war.  The goal is for proven successful dpc docs to help the next classes of opening/exploring dpc docs to make sure they are successful. In the process, we’ll get better at identifying good business practices etc, but so will the other docs who can then be successful –> which helps spread the model of DPC faster.
  9. A think a big under-rated factor in success is personality of the physician. There is no way to really capture this on a survey, but I suppose that is very subjective anyway.
  10. No offense to the noobs, but a big problem I see on DPC Docs board is that many people are giving advice who haven’t even opened a DPC practice yet! (or at least having been open for more than a few months). I am almost to my 5 year anniversary and feel like I’m spit-balling half the time!
  11. How to succeed? You need to be a capable physician in good standing in your community. Have a three year business plan, make sure you cover your own income, plan to work your ass off, keep things as simple as cost-effective as possible, and don’t plan for your business to succeed until the end of the third year. And be bright enough to not do stupid stuff like have a Hotmail address, design your own spiky looking black blue and white logo, have a dirty clinic etc.