No, this isn’t a post about self-destructive behavior within medical groups, although that’s a great topic for another day. It is, however, a post about introspection — with a twist.
Despite all the news about the economy and falling physician incomes, many medical groups have difficulty competing for talent. Note that I’m not talking about simply competing for “bodies,” even bodies with medical degrees. I’m talking about highly qualified candidates, both in terms of medical and interpersonal skills.
Similarly, many medical groups are having difficulty competing in respect of attracting and retaining profitable patients as well as, for hospital-based groups, creating highly profitable relationships with facilities.
These may seem like difficult problems, but there are solutions that can be implemented easily.
From my articles and other posts, you know that I firmly believe that a medical group must imagine its own future before it can embark on achieving a transformational result, and that the process starts with honestly assessing where you presently are.
A great tool to use in connection with both imagining your most desirable future and in assessing your present position is to envision what it would be like to compete against yourself. For example: How would your imaginary competitor entice job candidates? What would the competitor do to retain its employees? How would it decimate your relationship with referral sources?
If you put the results of competing against yourself to work, you’ll soon realize that it’s preferable to real competition.
Of course, it won’t make actual competitors go away, but as a first, easy step in the process, it will put your group on the track of lessening the effects of competition. Implementing the rest of the process will help you get to the point that, ultimately, your would-be competitors won’t even understand how you are competing.
