Eyeworld

December 2017 • Ophthalmology Business 25 clear about what the doctor's person- al desires are for the rest of his life and the doctor's personal financial situation," Mr. Pinto said. Generally, there is very little mis- alignment between what a solo prac- tice physician wants to do personally and the practice's strategic plan. But a group practice involves dif- ferent types of clinical practice and career stages, which requires going through the exercise of determining each partner's vision and financial status to draw a composite plan that threads through their common de- nominators. The result is a strategic plan that gives each doctor options with which he or she is comfortable. drive the doctor's personal financial plan, which will drive the strategic plan for the practice," Mr. Pinto said. "If the doctor wants to retire early and sail around the world and he or she has sufficient funds to do so now, the strategy would be to sell the practice and retire early. Alternately, if the doctor has had financial rever- sals and has had to work into his 70s, the strategic plan for the business is going to be a work hard and don't take chances plan." Young and entrepreneurial phy- sicians with high economic aspira- tions should tune their strategic plan to that. "We don't put pen to paper to write the strategic plan until we are Practical steps to ensure that partners and practices share common goals to further success P ractices can be chal- lenged when their strategic plans differ from the professional goals of a partner. To avoid this situation, John Pinto, president, J. Pinto & Associ- ates Inc., San Diego, said the first step is to identify what's in each partner's "bucket." That will differ between a solo practice and a group practice. "For a solo practice, it's what do we want to see him do, and that will by Rich Daly, Ophthalmology Business Contributing Writer How to mesh careers and practice strategy continued on page 26

• Blank Page
• Blank Page (1)