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Dear all,

I have built up a practice in a medical centre where i pay a percentage of my earnings. The thing is i have realised the next step would be to take this out into premises but im pretty sure this is not going to be the best career move. Financially good yes but i really dont want to run my own business. The question is where i stand legally with regards to selling what i have built to someone else, bearing in mind i have built the clientele up from scratch with no help from the management. I have no contract as such. I dont want to walk away from it with nothing after 4 years? Anyone had this experience with this kind of situation. Different people tell me different things. I know it would be a goodwill gesture.
Thanks for your help.

 

I am not sure what you are asking. If you opened up your office, most of your patients would follow you. If they followed you, you would have nothing to sell.

Still, you should meet with the powers to be at your medical center find out if you can obtain a fee for the goodwill you have generated. You earned it. The medical center would still get their percentage from your replacement. It would be a win-win situation.

A fair price would be 70% of one years net earnings. 70% because some patients may go elsewhere. In one year, the practice could be paid for which is a great deal as it took you longer to build it.

Steven

 

Hey Steven,

Thanks for your response. Thats very helpful. I actually want to move states and therefore would not have the patients follow me. The figures you are describing are kind of what i was thinking. Its taken 4 years to get to this stage. Im just over it all to be honest.

P

 

Where are you located and what type of practice do you have?
Normally, if you sell a practice, the new owner would have you sign a non compete contract usually (at least here in the USA) 1-2 years and at least 30 mile radius.

Steve

 

A few things to watch here.
Firstly, is there any restraint clause specified in your contract?
Secondly, irrespective of restraint clauses, who takes the patient bookings and where are the clinical notes recorded?
Technically, if the medical centre manages your appointment book in their own practice software, or if you record your notes in the practice's software program, they technically own the patient information as owners of the medical database. The problem here is, if they decide to get nasty, they can claim that they are owners of the patient information and you would be breaching patient privacy by taking or selling any of this information to a third party. This is a complex area of law and I unfortunately have a great deal of personal experience with it.
When you build a successful practice, it is essential that you protect your intellectual property through properly constructed contracts and good legal advice.

 

Yes, that is good advice. In addition, if the medical center is managing the appointment book and doing all the billings and collections as well as paying for supplies and employees, then it would make sense that they owned the practice. The employed doctor would get a percentage and the percentage would increase with growth of the practice. If the doctor left, the doctor would not be entitled to anything. It would then be easier for the medical centre to recruit a replacement as the new doctor will be making a nice percentage on an existing practice and the medical centre will make their profit margin.

Steven

 

Dear surf boy,

Thanks for that very useful information. It's a yes on both counts re the appointment bookings and note keeping (although I only commenced the latter about a year ago) . And they are the types who would certainly get nasty. I clearly need some legal advice. So surf boy was your situation similar?

Thanks again.

 

Private message me if you like Podkatonic2 and I shall advise you.