Owning your own medical practice can come with many hardships. In recent years, there has been a rise in people looking to take advantage of smaller practices through malpractice lawsuits, hard drive hacking, or other means. It can be hard to have peace of mind when so many different groups and organizations feel like they’re just trying to take your money. The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself from many of these cons. If you are one of the numbers of physicians who need to protect their practice, start with these four tips.
1. The Right Insurance
Health care liability claims, fraud, and the list go on with the ways medical provides are attacked through lawsuits. One of the more common ways is through malpractice, especially for Texas physicians. Though many health care professionals in the United States are subject to these claims, the State of Texas has seen a rise in claims against their doctors. This is why Texas malpractice insurance has become critical to protecting your business. Though the state and Texas department of insurance don’t mandate that you have malpractice insurance, the rise in lawsuits could continue to trend upwards. It’s important to note that there are a variety of providers and options, and rates can vary depending on your specialty. With a little bit of research, you can find the best option in medical malpractice insurance to protect you and your business.
2. Proper Software
Another common form of attacks on small businesses is through cyber-attacks. Raw files are a thing of the past. Most information is now digital, and thieves are striking there. This is when your different file formats, web browsers, spreadsheets, or even Gmail come under assault. Whether you’re a Windows user, work on an android phone, or prefer an iOS device, you need to protect your online presence.
There are a few ways to do this. Having a back-up for all of your files is a good start. Make use of software like dropbox, cloud storage, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Amazon Drive. You’ll want to consider storage space for these, as they can come in 5GB, 50GB, 200GB, or even upwards of 2TB worth of space. If you use a lot of images, you’ll want to find the best cloud storage for photos. These hardware devices sync well with nearly every PC and can be great solutions for cloud backup. In addition to backing up files, you’ll want to have a desktop app for an antivirus. This will help to protect your web browser, social networks, and important folders.
3. Team Training
When it comes to protecting your practice, it’s important to remember the people who work for you. You can have the best cloud storage service and top-notch medical malpractice insurance coverage, but they won’t mean much if your team is ready to use and understand them. Spend some time training your team to use office apps. Make your insurance company known to them. Not only will you be strengthening your team and making them feel more important, but you’ll also save yourself some headache later. Additionally, this team building will pay dividends in the motivation levels for your employees.
4. Regular Reviews
Another way to protect your practice is through regular evaluation. This could be on your cloud service, health care provider, or team member performance. Sometimes, having a third party do an objective assessment of your practice can see how you’re performing from another’s point-of-view. Regular reviews can also be when you make sure your subscriptions are up to date and you haven’t lapsed in any coverage or certifications. You should schedule at least monthly, quarterly, and yearly evaluations for your practice and how it operates.