In over a decade of practicing medicine, I have learned the best way to improve healthcare in America is to make it easier for qualified professionals to provide the best care they can. Many doctors are overworked, and many potential doctors are put off by the amount of time and resources they must put into becoming a doctor. But we can give patients better care with the qualified professionals we already have.
At the start of my career, I worked alongside many brilliant nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), and I would not be the doctor I am today without their wisdom and guidance. Fortunate enough to count an NP as a mentor, I saw firsthand the barriers that these professionals faced in providing the care they are more than qualified to give. Although many would love to set up their own practice, enabling them to best use their gifts to deliver quality care to patients, the barriers to entry are high.
To improve healthcare for Americans, we must lower those barriers. For both NPs and PAs in much of America, the main hurdle to clear is finding a collaborating physician. Assuming they can do that and find a willing and able partner, their race is far from over. They must navigate legal compliance and ensure they have adequate medical malpractice insurance. This must all be accomplished while building their relationship with the collaborating physician as well as finding and building relationships with patients. Then, they must undergo a journey familiar to entrepreneurs everywhere, building a business from the ground up.
No mean feat. So, I set out to help them, launching Collaborating Docs so that we, as medical professionals, could better help our patients.
Starting from the Bottom
My experience taught me the main things standing in the way. First, finding a suitable collaborating physician to work with. Second, navigating the complexities of legal compliance and the minefield that is medical malpractice. Third, the basics of starting, marketing, and running their practice. Lastly, and a through-line central to all of our work, ensuring that NPs and PAs have the support they need throughout the entire process. As they give their time and energy to give the best care to their patients, it is important that they have the resources to care for themselves as well.
By providing these professionals with the support they need to begin their own private practices, we can help them better help you.
Paging Doctor… Who?
All states require PAs to have a collaborating physician, and in half of them, NPs need it as well. Even if it is not legally required, it is still a good idea to have that partnership, as any medical professional worth their Hippocratic Oath will tell you nobody knows everything about everything. Having a partner to serve in the true sense of a collaborating physician, another medical mind to assist, goes great lengths in optimizing care.
At Collaborating Docs, we know the most important thing is finding the right collaborating physician. For NPs and PAs, this means someone who satisfies their state and personal requirements. One knowledgeable in the field of practice who can be a willing and beneficial partner. Most of our team members are NPs or in the medical field themselves, and we continue to work with our NPs, PAs, and their physician partners to ensure we have made the right match. This helps us to expand access to healthcare by assisting NPs & PAs who want to practice independently to fix healthcare in our own small way while providing personable, professional, efficient, and responsive support.
Finding the right fit is key, and doing so quickly enables NPs and PAs to get their practice off the ground. This is why we guarantee a match within 14 days, matching 97% within seven. If either partner feels it is not a fit, we will facilitate a transfer to one of the over 1,800 physicians we work with. These physicians are in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., across a wide range of specialties, and we chose them as partners for their entrepreneurial spirit and their passion for helping and mentoring NPs and PAs.
In making these partnerships, we do the heavy lifting so that the NPs and PAs can focus on delivering care. We ensure the legal requirements are met. We work with new and experienced alike and help those working to launch their own practices as well as those hoping to work with hospitals or other existing practices. Many who are not required by law to have one still want a collaborating physician. By removing this logistical hurdle, we have helped over 4,000 clients match with collaborating physicians across all 50 states.
So (Don’t) Sue Me
Once a collaborating physician has been found, the work has just begun. Here, we use our expertise to ensure that NPs and PAs have the legal support they need. In addition to assuring full regulatory compliance and providing the legal agreement between the NPs and PAs and their collaborating physician customized to their state’s specific guidance, we include and cover the malpractice insurance for collaborating physicians.
The legal aspects are no small barrier and of themselves, and we have an in-house legal team prepare collaborative agreements and share state-specific guidance. You shouldn’t need a law degree to get your practice off the ground. We take care of the legal side, empowering NPs and PAs to focus on patient care. We offer personalized support, tailored with our understanding of the unique needs in different states and across different specialties. By taking legal compliance and malpractice concerns off of their plate, we enable NPs and PAs to focus on the work they set out to do. Care for their patients.
We Wear Many Hats, So You Don’t Have To
With the legal and compliance issues resolved, NPs and PAs are not out of the woods yet. Starting a medical practice is just like any entrepreneurial venture, and we give NPs and PAs all the help they need to succeed. We help them take advantage of all the resources available to them, building up and maintaining a brand image. We have been through this before, over 4,000 times, in fact, and offer NPs and PAs advice on how to build a successful practice.
From maximizing the benefits of their collaborating physician to utilizing social media and marketing to establishing and maintaining a good brand, we focus on all of the essential elements of running a practice that falls outside of providing care. This enables our NPs and PAs to focus on what they do best and what they set out to do all along — give great care to their patients. The best guarantee of success in starting a medical practice is providing good care. We set our NPs and PAs up to do just that.
Help Me Help You
Last but certainly not least, we ensure our NPs and PAs take care of themselves as well. Health care professionals experience high rates of burnout and depression, working difficult and stressful jobs. We do our best to remove as much of that stress as possible and provide ongoing support once we have helped them launch. I benefited greatly from the mentorship of NPs & PAs throughout my career, especially when I was a green new grad. With this at the forefront of our minds and with knowledge of the difficulties faced by NPs and PAs heading out on their own, all of us at Collaborating Docs are committed to giving back. By enabling NPs and PAs to take care of themselves, we let them better take care of their patients.
