Content provided in partnership with

Health Care Industry

Have dream … will prevail

Physician Executive, Nov-Dec, 2006 by Philippa Kennealy

Susan Reynolds, MD, PhD, a skilled and well-trained emergency and critical care physician had been in practice only a year when, in 1982, she realized that she had to become an entrepreneur.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

While she loved medicine and caring for patients, her professional life lacked passion--"a real commitment to doing something that ignited my life that provided an extra creative input, in order for me to feel satisfied," as she puts it.

Her idea was to open a freestanding emergency room in Malibu, Calif., a beach community in Los Angeles County that was, and still is, surprisingly under-served by hospitals.

Most Popular Articles in Health: Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...; Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions; Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...; The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use; The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...; More »

She was well prepared for her role. She was good at working with others and had experience in building a team. She was also blessed with sufficient self-awareness to recognize how much she enjoyed leadership, as well as the "people politics" that accompanied much of medical staff committee work. These insights gave her the energy to overcome any inner resistance and fear she felt.

A recent poll of over 2,000 physicians revealed that many desire to develop a clinical or non-clinical business, learn business skills or bring a new product or service to market. However, less than a quarter felt highly confident that they had a good working knowledge of how to start up and operate a business or bring a new product or service to market.

Like the poll respondents, Reynolds harbored the desire to become a business owner. However, she felt clueless. Very little in her education had prepared her for business. Very little that is, except for a favorite course that was offered in her residency at UCLA by an accounting firm, on "How to set up your own office."

She dug up her old notes on how to create a financial proforma, bought a book on starting a business, hired a business advisor, an attorney, an accountant, a banker and an insurance broker and got to work.

Open for business

The Malibu Emergency Room began life in the summer of 1982 as two beds on the back porch of a family physician's office, with a wooden bench for a waiting room, and it rapidly filled up with sick or injured locals and beach-going tourists.

As independent professionals, many of us are accustomed to joining or starting medical practices with a view toward working for ourselves as physicians. As Michael Gerber writes in The E-Myth Physician: Why Most Medical Practices Don't Work and What to Do About It, we are, in effect, creating jobs for ourselves that enable us to ply our hard-earned skills.

However, very few of us are taught how to relate to the business of medicine, or any other clinical or non-clinical business we choose to engage in. According to Gerber, most physicians in private practice are suffering from an "entrepreneurial seizure."

This was potentially true for Reynolds. She loved being able to practice medicine in a business of her own creation. But despite its early success, the Malibu Emergency Room's viability was threatened by a projected annual shortfall as the summer hordes departed, leaving behind a smaller community of local residents.

Reynolds crunched numbers with her business advisor and had her first taste of real fear when she faced the risky decision of forging ahead instead of abandoning her dream. She needed financial support to keep the Malibu Emergency Room's doors open. Fortunately, the town needed her.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In a creative partnership, the town leaders stepped in to help find the necessary funding. At their instigation, Reynolds formed a non-profit entity with a sole function of supporting the annual administrative shortfall of the emergency room. She and the town collaborated to raise the funds hosting celebrity rock concerts and other charity events--to the tune of over $100,000 annually!

Too often, we are deterred from germinating our "dream" entrepreneurial business or seeing it to fruition because of fear and uncertainty, insufficient funding and lack of exposure to sound business principles and practices. Upon reflection, Reynolds attributes the early success of her first business to:

* Recognizing her strengths, as well as knowing which complementary skills and traits she needed to seek from other sources for her business

* Having a truthful sounding board of key professionals she chose to surround herself with

* Following her passion to provide a service that was valued by others who were willing to help her fund her venture when she hit a barrier

* Being able to continue working as a clinician while she "wet her feet" as a entrepreneur, which was important to her at the time

Like many entrepreneurial tales, her story takes a twist after 11 successful years in business. Malibu proved to be a town hit by natural disasters on a regular basis and within 12 months in her twelfth year, the Malibu Emergency Room experienced substantial physical and economic losses from flooding, fire, mudslides, and a major earthquake.

Health Care Industry

Have dream … will prevail

Physician Executive, Nov-Dec, 2006 by Philippa Kennealy

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Autos

Most Popular Articles in Health

Most Popular Publications in Health