FIX THIS NEXT FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

Seasoned advice for health care providers from an entrepreneurial therapist.

Compton learned through bitter experience that she needed to treat her health care practice “like a patient and make it better” by focusing on what was most important. For guidance, she read the 2020 book Fix This Next by Mike Michalowicz, which so inspired her that she transformed his “Business Hierarchy of Needs” into her own “Healthcare Hierarchy of Needs.” The author begins this tightly organized book by first administering “The HHN Assessment,” a diagnostic questionnaire that orients readers to her Hierarchy, and then examining in detail its three interrelated levels: “Sales,” “Profit,” and “Order.” Along the way, Compton offers compelling examples from her own and other professional practices. Many of these stories are sure to resonate with health care providers. In order to dramatize the “Sales” level, for instance, Compton deftly recounts the tale of “Tina,”the owner of an outpatient medication management treatment practice, who had little trouble attracting business; in fact, she acquired more clients than she could effectively handle and “neglected to pay attention to actually getting paid.” Because she overlooked the “Core Needs” of her business, Compton writes, the result was disastrous. Similar stories, both positive and negative, populate the pages of this book, and the author demonstrates a keen awareness of her intended audience by employing health care terminology rather than business terms that may be unfamiliar or intimidating. She structures the Core Needs of the three levels, for instance, as a “diagnosis” with “presenting problems/symptoms” and offers “possible interventions” and a “treatment plan.” Later in the book, Compton valuably highlights numerous other treatment plans to demonstrate how specific providers designed fixes for their own practices.

An engaging guide that wisely balances the business of caring with financial realities.