What could you do differently to grow your clinic’s financial viability?

It’s a question The Tea Room asks this week. We chat with two former clinic owners who have found how to do business better and with more satisfaction and greater income.

Dr Todd Cameron owned medical practices that became listed on the ASX. He says there are many ways to maximize revenue and lower manage fixed and variable costs but good business nous is essential.

“Sometimes running a medical business can feel like you're running a wedding. You get a special surcharge on top of everything that you've paid for,” Dr Cameron says.

Dr Sachin Patel co-founded the business consultancy Scale My Clinic with Dr Cameron. As a child, his parents owned a small business and he learned very early exactly how much effort it takes to run a business.

“There's always this competition between needing to serve those you love and those that buy from you so that you can put dinner on the table. I've seen people struggle to get the rewards that their time and sacrifices deserve,” Dr Patel says.

According to our guests this week the foundation to better profits is clinical excellence. They then they outline five big ticket items to improve profit including outsourcing, optimizing who does what and deep analysis on why and how much bulk billing really gets done.