You are currently viewing How to Build Skills and become a Docto-preneur?

How to Build Skills and become a Docto-preneur?

Got a passion for saving lives and earning profit too? You are basically trying to blend two very different streams into a bowl and trying to use its result for your own benefit. The question now arises, is it really possible to be a doctor as well as an entrepreneur?

Of course, it is! Many people would think that you are taking a shot in the dark but those beliefs are no longer sustainable.

Doctors have a great potential to become entrepreneurs. The conventional thinking within the medical profession about a doctor’s role and capabilities are being challenged by several innovative minds who are trying to merge their medical as well as business skills to serve the society with an effective and new approach.

Becoming a docto-preneur can sound like an attractive opportunity for many physicians – but it isn’t without its drawbacks. One of the biggest mistakes a new docto – preneur can make is working too hard trying to become a Doctor – Entrepreneur without truly learning how to become an Entrepreneur.

There are a lot of reasons why you should be a docto -preneur, but there’s one question you should always ask yourself: “Am I ready to take on the challenges of being an entrepreneur?”

In India, family-owned hospitals form a major component of the healthcare delivery mechanism and cannot be underestimated due to their impact on the overall healthcare delivery system and well-being of people.

Increasing expectations of patients, increasing competition from different healthcare players, changing perceptions of stakeholders, and development of new technologies have created an urgent need to implement corporate governance in family-run hospitals. One of the major moral dilemmas faced by the family-owned hospitals is the need to establish a profitable business while maintaining their social responsibility to the general public health.

Most family-run hospitals eventually close down or are taken over by Corporates. In most cases, family-run hospitals are supposed to be managed by the fourth or fifth generation, who do not want to take the responsibility due to their own career plans in other fields.

Corporate governance is required in family-run hospitals to bring transparency, focus on sound patient care, accountability, team and leadership building, cost control, latest technology implementation, and adoption of best practices. These can be achieved, keeping in mind the expenses and investment guidelines of the organizations.

The following crucial questions need to be asked to the hospital’s key decision makers:

 

  • Has the Board understood its changing role in the context of corporate transformation?
  • How well is the organization positioned to go ahead with the right skills, competition, various committees, and decision-making team structure?
  • Are there changes to be made within the organization and in liaison with other healthcare providers to achieve more efficiencies and organizational growth?
  • What can the organization do to further support the payers, stakeholders, employees, and service providers within the community to ensure all are committing best practices?
  • What will the entire transformation mean to the community, employees, stakeholders, etc, and what will be the engagement process implemented for external and internal customers?
  • How confident is the organization? Are the clinicians performing the right procedures in line with evidence-based best practices (both existing and emerging)?
  • Is there a strong mechanism in place to ensure exchange of ideas, viewpoints, and have insightful discussions with the management, stakeholders, clinicians, employees, patients, etc?
  • Are the patients’ needs and clinical outcomes top priority across the organization? Does the organization have a strong mechanism to track all quality indicators?
The Potential Pitfalls of Docto – preneurship

There are many potential pitfalls when it comes to Docto – preneurship. The major one is uncertainty. You need to be prepared for the fact that you will have a lot of sleepless nights and difficult decisions to make. You will also need to be prepared for the fact that you might not succeed. In addition, you will need to be prepared for the fact that a lot of people around you may not support your decision. You should also have some savings put away in case things go wrong.

Like any other entrepreneur, a Docto – preneur faces many problems in establishing the brand– be it financial and investment hurdles, rampant bureaucracy, abiding by corporate and government regulations, competition in the form of giant multinational corporations, and other challenges. There are certain factors to be kept in mind in order to maintain a successful foothold in Docto – preneurship.

1. Assessment of requirements through market research:

Before venturing out, Docto – preneurs need to first understand what the market needs in order to tap into them. Healthcare is a vast field and it is through extensive and continuous research that medical entrepreneurs can choose the right Market demography. The local demand for a variety of health products and services has to be continuously analysed so that Docto – preneurs can carve a niche in an untapped market or even maintain good, profitable standards in a competitive market.

2. Choosing the right investors:

The right investor can make a big difference to your business. In the healthcare sector, it is an added advantage to find an investor with first-hand knowledge of that particular healthcare field. Even if medical proficiency is not guaranteed, someone with an insight into the current health economy is required for definite long-term growth and survival of the business. Moreover, a big-name investor can help the physician for clinical validation and promote the brand. It is also very important to find someone who shares the vision, both for profitability and advancement in medical science. A friction with the investor in terms of goals and values might lead to major challenges in the long run.

3. Balancing social responsibility and profitability:

One of the major moral dilemmas faced by the medical entrepreneur is the need to establish a profitable business while maintaining their social responsibility to general public health.

4. Playing to your strengths:

Ambition is what makes a successful entrepreneur. Every Docto – preneur must set certain goals for themselves and the health industry and work towards achieving them by playing to their strengths. These could range from research and development in chronic diseases to enhanced customer service to a digital revolution in medicine.

To be a successful Docto – preneur, you need to find out where the gap lies in health services and then work towards filling in those gaps, thus connecting better with patients.

However, linking entrepreneurship & clinical goals needs identifying and adapting KPIs to measure specific targets for each goal, health service excellence, business progress, and professional management accomplishments.

A healthcare KPI, or metric, is a type of performance indicator that helps you understand how your healthcare institution or department is performing. A good healthcare KPI should be well defined, quantifiable, thoroughly reported, and crucial to achieving your strategic goals.

Now that we have defined what a healthcare KPI is and why it is important, let’s discuss what it takes to choose the most effective metrics in the next blog.

Leave a Reply