Strategies to keep general practices sustainable and boost income
On-demand recorded 15 Sep 2022
This webinar covers strategies used by individual GPs to keep their business sustainable or to maintain their income and ensure they can continue practising as a GP or running a practice. Discussion topics include:
- experiences of practice setup
- examples of changes made (eg billing) – what prompted the change, how did this affect patients
- examples of what hasn’t worked (i.e. what a non-sustainable practice looks like)
- what factors were considered in devising solutions (eg community factors, practice/personnel factors).
While the focus of the session will largely be on billing, it will also address other strategies to improve sustainability including utilising practice management software, pursuing alternative funding streams, performing non-clinical work or working in other locations (eg hospitals) and maximising the roles of practice staff.
View the answers to quesrions asked during the webinar:
Answers to audience questions.
Resources to support this webinar:
Learning outcomes
- Implement a range of different strategies to improve business sustainability and maintain income, including strategies beyond billing changes
- Identify opportunities to utilise existing resources within a practice to improve sustainability (eg practice software, practice staff)
- Develop solutions to barriers affecting practice viability
This event is part of Improving the sustainability of your practice. Events in this series are:
Facilitator
Dr Emil Djakic
Chair – RACGP Business Sustainability Working Group
Emil is a practice owner in north-west Tasmania. He is Deputy Chair of the RACGP Expert Committee – Funding and Health System Reform (REC-FHSR) and Chair of the RACGP’s Business Sustainability Working Group. He was also Chair of the Australian General Practice Network until 2012. Emil is passionate about working with GPs to maintain practice viability.
Presenters
Dr Bernard Shiu
Director of Geelong Long Covid Clinic and Banksia Medical Centre in Newcomb and Torquay
Dr Bernard Shiu is the Director of Geelong Long Covid Clinic and Banksia Medical Centre in Newcomb and Torquay. He was the winner of the prestigious RACGP GP of the Year Award in 2020 in Victoria. His clinic was awarded the Victorian Clinic of the year in 2023. He was invited to speak at the recent Long Covid Conference in Melbourne on Primary Care management pathway for Long Covid. He is also a member of the National Clinical Evidence Task Force. Dr Shiu established the Australia first community based Long Covid Clinic back in June 2022. His current main clinical and research interests are management of Covid and Long Covid conditions.
Dr Emma Keeler
Member – RACGP Business Sustainability Working Group
Emma is a GP in rural WA. Her initial qualifications were in Economics and Science at the Northern Territory University, after which she worked for the Treasury Department in Darwin for four years. Emma then moved to Brisbane to complete a postgraduate medical degree. She worked in a range of different hospital positions before coming to Esperance in 2010 to try rural general practice. Her experience led her to pursue a career as a rural GP. Emma’s special interests include aged care, adult complex medicine and family medicine. In her down time she enjoys a range of activities, including catching up with friends for coffee, reading novels and watching movies.
Dr Rachael Sutherland
Member – RACGP Business Sustainability Working Group
After graduating in 2000, Rachael worked at Box Hill’s affiliated hospitals before undertaking her GP specialty training in regional Victoria. She’s been practising in the inner and eastern suburbs of Melbourne since 2006. Rachael offers patients the full gamut of general practice while having particular interests in women’s health, pregnancy shared care and mental health. Rachael has been active in the education of medical students and GP trainees, advocates for quality and efficiency in our health systems and is the GP liaison consultant at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.