How To Grow Your Medical Practice

Growth isn't about getting busier. It's about building business health. Every system is perfectly designed to get the result it gets, so if you want different outcomes, you need to tweak the system.

Your medical practice foundation

Your team is the foundation of your practice. Before focusing on external growth strategies, examine your foundation. Your team is like the foundation of a house. You can't build something bigger and stronger without a solid base. Ask yourself:

1. Would you enthusiastically rehire every person on your team today?
2. Do your employees know what success looks like in their role?
3. Are there clear behavioral standards everyone understands?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, your foundation needs work before investing in growing your practice will lead to a return. 

Setting up your practice for growth

Often, the primary barrier between medical practices and growth are underlying constraints that are consuming your team's time, energy, and passion for your business. 

We have created a simple framework to define standards and expectations that drive momentum towards your goals. 

The DCM Framework for growth:

1. Define: Make everything definite and clear
   
   • What does success look like for each role?
   • What are your practice's behavioral standards?
   • What's the ultimate goal of your organization?
2. Communicate: Share these definitions clearly
   
   • Eliminate vague terms like "better," "faster," "more"
   • Use specific, measurable language
   • Regular check-ins to ensure alignment
3. Measure: Track what matters
   
   • Focus on leading indicators, not just revenue
   • Understand the time lag between patient contact and payment
   • Measure what creates future outcomes, not just past results

The DCM framework helps medical practice leaders make open ended and vague statements like “We need more patients” turn into “Unfilled capacity costs the business $3500 a week. We need 95% of appointment slots filled to protect ourselves from this cost.” 

Imagine the difference in action your team would take when the second statement is made, and how much easier it would be to hold them accountable to making the impact you need them to.

Implement the DCM Framework to help your practice meet growth goals 

To ensure your medical practice is set up for success, download the DCM Framework worksheet below to help bring these ideas into your practice.