Handbook of Concierge Medical Practice Design

53

Chapter 5

What Sets You Apart from

Other Concierge Physicians?

Many concierge physicians consider themselves primary care physicians.

They practice a great deal of family medicine and internal medicine for

adults. They treat individuals, families, and couples. Yet what sets one physi-

cian apart from the others are the special professional interests they enjoy as

well as their unique knowledge and training in certain clinical areas.

Many of the concierge physicians I’ve been hired to advise are very open

to learning new things, adding new procedures, and making new services

available to their patients. Several have expanded traditional primary care

service lines to include aesthetics and anti- aging, nutrition, stem cell thera-

pies, and plasma- rich platelet (PRP) therapies, while others have affiliated

with a part- time therapist to provide addiction counseling, family therapy,

executive coaching and stress management, and travel medicine and immu-

nizations, especially where the only other alternative is the pharmacy on the

corner or the health department. Still others have added acupuncture and

alternative and complementary medicine services such as massage, personal

training, and more.

For example, my concierge physician does a better job at trigger point

injections than any orthopedic surgeon or physiatrist I’ve ever met. I was

really nervous the first time, but I figured, “I am a big girl, my knee hurts,

I can take it.” I. He was less expensive and it was easier to get an appoint-

ment, and I was able to proceed with my duties as a speaker and make my

rounds on hospital inspections in three countries on my impending whirl-

wind tour around Greece, Turkey, and the Ukraine.

54 ◾ Handbook of Concierge Medical Practice Design

But primary care physicians are not the only ones that enter concierge

medicine. In recent months, the concierge medicine business model has

piqued the curiosity of many specialists. Specialists are also among the fear-

ful and frustrated, and for some patients with complex chronic diseases,

concierge specialty care may be the most effective treatment approach.

Regardless of your ilk and training, you need to view yourself as a spe-

cialist of something. The advantage you have with a medical license is that

you can design a practice in a concierge business model that can last for

decades without getting bored. You can evolve your practice into a niche

within a specialty without having to change careers. Your specialty interests

can parallel your own interests, social trends and needs, and areas of medi-

cine that touch you personally.

As you develop expertise in a specialty, you become really adroit in your

niche and you can design your practice to capture the essential elements

to brand your niche in medicine, if only in your town or region. With this

liberation and permission to choose, you will rediscover the delight in the

practice of medicine, do it well,and attract more patients who see the pas-

sion, and more referrals from your colleagues who can discern your engage-

ment and enthusiasm to do your best for their patients. They in turn will

send you more referrals because the experience for the patient and the refer-

ring physician will be mutually beneficial. When they refer a patient to you

and the patient is happy with the encounter, it is an excellent reflection on

the referring physician.

You will also be in an excellent position to reach out to those referring

physicians and inform them about your special interests and educate them

about the value of concierge medicine as a business model.

How to Describe Your New Business Model

The public needs to understand what you do and how you can help them.

Telling people that you are a physician with a concierge medicine practice

is so nonspecific that it doesn’t tell them what you do and how they might

benefit from joining your practice. If someone is sitting next to you, and

asks what you do, you might try some of these explanations:

I am a primary care physician with a private practice. I specialize

in […] and I have a special interest in […].