Medical Practice Spotlight

Relationships and Culture are Crucial to Growing Medical Practice

Dr. Leslie Capin Celebrates 25 Years, Shares Strategies to Growing Practice

Creating a great company culture is crucial to running a business.  I think it’s all about relationships, says Leslie Capin, MD, Founder of Dermatology Associates of Colorado and Medical Director of Cara Mia Medical Day Spa. “Every relationship we have built over the past 25 years in my practice is incredibly important. We nurture them and they help us grow.” Capin says she and her staff focus first on hiring the right people, both internally and externally, and nurtures those relationships to grow the practice long term.

Get “The Right People on the Bus”

She says hiring a great practice manager, administrator, supervisor, and others in the practice, as well as the people that provide ancillary services like their accountant, lawyer, and medical billing firm, are crucial to the organization. “You have to have a good management staff and the right people running the practice.  I need to know I can focus my energy on taking care of patients and that my management staff is going to run the practice and to take us out of that picture. We don’t want to do medical billing. We would rather hire a partner that we trust who does a good job so we can focus on taking care of patients.”

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

Staff incentives and rewards are also a central component of the Dermatology Associates of Colorado practice, and it’s a management practice Capin says she would recommend to any doctor. Capin’s practices offer staff both a competitive salary as well as bonuses.

But Dr. Capin and her staff do more than bonus the staff; they reward them for longevity in very unique and creative ways.

  • Staff with 5 years of service receives a watch. The type of watch depends on salary level.
  • Staff with 10 years of service receives a cruise for two people for a week.
  • 25 Years in Business—take the entire staff on a trip to celebrate!

“We just celebrated our 25 year anniversary and we took the entire staff—42 people to Las Vegas for a three day weekend and the company paid for 100% of it,” Capin said. “That was the best team building you can ever imagine. The camaraderie and the relationships that were created during that three-day vacation in Vegas was amazing.”

When we pressed Capin for more details about the trip, she said would only reveal one thing. “It’s true.  What happens in Vegas does stay in Vegas,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

3 Keys to Successfully Growing a Medical Practice

When we asked Dr. Capin to summarize her advice to new physicians and other medical practices that want to grow their practice, she offered three essential strategies she has used to grow her practice.

  1. It’s all about relationships.
    “It’s the relationship with Clinic Service and the other providers, the nurse practitioners, the PA’s, my staff, the receptionist—everyone we work with. If we treat each other with honestly and respect we’re going to grow.”Work hard, be available for your patients, give back to the community.
  2. Work hard, be available for your patients, give back to the community.
    “It’s not 9-5 job. We do it the old-fashioned way and we’ve always been available 24×7.  You need to be available in the evenings, on weekends, and you need to be available in the medical community and for social networking. Give back to the community; whatever you believe in.”
  3. Hire the right management staff to guide the ship. You need someone looking at your bottom line.
    “That’s how you’re going to be successful. You need someone looking at your bottom line. If the doctor micromanages and gets involved in every single aspect of billing and everyday practice management,  it’s gets away from the everyday running of a practice, which is its patients.”

To view Dr. Leslie Capin’s video interview, click here. We hope her advice and strategies will help you and your practice become even more successful!