Commentary
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Dr Robert Sidbury: Understanding What Makes a Dermatology Practice Successful
Author(s):
Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, FAAD, division head of dermatology at Seattle Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, discusses what makes a dermatology practice successful and the challenges that come with running a practice.
This content was produced independently by The American Journal of Managed Care® and is not endorsed by the American Academy of Dermatology.
Making sure your entire team is taken care of and that their work is enjoyable is part of ensuring a sustainable and successful practice, says Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, FAAD, division head of dermatology at Seattle Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Transcript
What do you believe are some of the most important factors to consider to have a successful dermatology practice, and what are some of the biggest challenges?
It's a good question and an important one, of course, and I'll speak specifically through a pediatric lens since I work at a children's hospital and see just pediatric patients, but I think most of the lessons are generalizable. I think making sure that your entire team is well taken care of, first of all, because that's how you make sure that their work is enjoyable and therefore sustainable. And so, you can have continuity with your staff and your team, and that's gonna lead to better patient care.
You also want to, of course, make sure that you are listening to your patients and hearing the sorts of feedback that you get from them, whether it's family experience surveys, like our hospital gives, or any of those sort of mechanisms that allow you to hear what patients need.
There was a New York Times article a few years ago where a provider was building a new practice and actually decided to crowdsource information about his practice. And it wasn't a dermatology practice, but [it] basically asked his long-standing patients, "Hey, I'm developing a new office, what should I do to make this better for you?" And [he] was overwhelmed with 3000-plus responses, with things like gowns for all patient body types, not having doom scrolling TVs talking about bad news in the waiting room, letting patients maybe get dressed before you talk about things rather than having them persist in an uncomfortable state that all of us as providers and patients too, at times experience. So, just things like that. They seem like little things, but they can go a long way in terms of making practices more effective and sustainable.
