The Optometric Minute

Transitioning from Practice Associate to Practice Partner

February 18, 2015

Tina McCarty, OD, FAAO, advises that a fundamental change occurs in moving from being an associate focused entirely on care to becoming a partner with additional ownership responsibilities.

From Associate to Partner
A Practice Partner is a Manager

Tina McCarty, OD, FAAO, of Eye Care Center in the Minneapolis area, advises that major management challenges come with transitioning from practice associate, a role where you focus on delivering excellent care, to practice partner, where you have additional ownership responsibilities.
It is vital to acquire business skills to meet those challenges. Primary among them are knowing how to read a profit & loss statement, and how to acquire new locations and build out those facilities as a practice grows.

In-house, a partner must develop skills at hiring effectively and training new personnel. In her case, as the practice grew to seven ODs and three locations, that required building a hierarchy of managers to supervise a growing staff with many complex functions.
Throughout these management challenges, a practice partner also must continue to focus on seeing patients and generating revenue.

As Dr. McCarty’s practice grew, it was necessary to build a formal management hierarchy to serve growing patient needs and standardize procedures at multiple locations.

The practice owners are the leaders of that organization, followed by two upper managers: a clinic administrator who supervises the clinic, reception and billing; and an optical manager who oversees optical revenues, purchasing and optical employees. Reporting to the upper managers are middle management “leads” who supervise processes and support staff in such areas as clinic, reception, optical and billing.
Dr. McCarty advises that in hiring office managers you need to seek out strengths in business, marketing and HR skills. In some cases, she advises, a national search may produce a strong candidate; in other cases, valued qualities (plus a built-in knowledge of optical) may be found by hiring from within.
While Dr. McCarty says she acquired many business skills on the fly, she notes that more ODs are earning MBA degrees, a useful tool. “You really need to know how to run a business, as well as be a good doctor, if you are going to run a private practice,” she says.

Tina McCarty, OD, is a partner of Eye Care Center in Fridley, Maplewood and Maple Grove, Minn. To contact her: tina.mccarty@eyecarecenters.net

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