When I first heard that Dr Nneka Unachukwu, or Dr Una- as she is endearingly known- had written another book AND that it was about private practice- I knew I had to get my hands on it right away! 24 hours later, Amazon had dutifully delivered it to my doorstep.
I could barely wait for the weekend to get there to get my nose into it. And it did not disappoint.
Right from the dedication, at the beginning of the book:
“To the brave unicorn physicians who are still building private practices in the midst of unprecedented challenges.
You are exactly what healthcare needs!
Thank you for staying in the fight.”
So beautifully put. And so apt. Ok, I might be a tad biased here, being a private practice doc myself- but she’s spot on. Times are harder than they’ve ever been- from the standpoint of medical practice economics- so it’s a fight alright. After this, I couldn’t wait to go on!
If you know Dr Una at all, you know that she’s an optimist. And she dives right in with that signature hope and buoyancy to remind us that we’re physicians. We can do hard things. Our day jobs, she reminds us, call for us to do some hard things, like “intubating babies and replacing hearts”. So the entrepreneurship thing should be pretty doable.
Dr Una starts the first chapter with that most important of things: mindset. Many of us in medicine are weirded out by anything to do with money. But the reality is that as private practice owners, we are business owners and entrepreneurs. We gotta own that.
Unless we do that, we cannot keep our lights on and do the good work we set out to do when we opened our doors.
Through the rest of the book, she walks us through some of the commonest ways we are leaving money behind, in our practices- right from the front desk not collecting what it is supposed to, to lack of due process with revenue cycle management and everything in between.
She gives us simple, actionable solutions to fix these common issues. But she also does what Dr Una does best.
Inspire us without letting us feel defeated about the state of affairs.
Remind us to take ownership of our practices (“I am the boss. I am the boss”) while not getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of things on our plates.
The author reminds us that we’re playing the long game here- that our income from the practice is only the tip of the iceberg and that we can use those funds to set ourselves and even our children up for success for years or decades to come by investing them right.
Throughout the book, she weaves in success stories from the physicians in the EntreMD business school: Dr Una’s primary venture with the mission of helping physician entrepreneurs.
All in all, a must-read for private practice owners or anyone even thinking of opening one. Pick it up on Amazon, it’s been a bestseller since Day 1.
[PS: The link above is an affiliate link, which means it get us a few pennies at no extra cost to you, if you purchase through this link.]