Which is better – Own Dental Clinic or Working at Corporate hospital?

When a freshly passed out BDS or MDS comes out into the real world of competition, which is getting saturated at some major cities already, if the main aim is of clinical practice rather than to pursue any higher studies or academics or special courses, the first doubt that comes to their mind is what to do now – Whether to go for clinic set up or work in corporate hospital.

Easy as it may sound, but setting up a Dental practice by yourself isn’t easy at all and it always depends on many factors, based on which you can decide whether to establish our own clinic or work at a corporate hospital.

• Capital for establishing a clinic and advertising it
• Are we confident enough to carry out most of the cases in the clinic?
• Can we talk confidently with the patient?
• Will it be easy enough to diagnose the problem without the need of a specialist?
• Can we convert the patient to get the treatment done?
• Do we have a good enough panel of doctors for consultations?
• Will you be able to give the clinic a kick start with your contacts?
• Is the locality where you are thinking to have a clinic, an active one?

It is always preferable for a fresher to work in corporate hospital instead of establishing his own clinic right away, because what is needed is a minimum 1-year experience in the respective field before we set up our own hospital, and working at a well-established hospital gives you that knowledge and experience to understand how dental practices are run.

Advantages of working in a Corporate Hospital

• Zero investment – As a beginner, you don’t have to invest already without knowing anything about how to invest smartly, and you get a working environment with all advanced facilities provided
• No hurdle to get Patients – A corporate hospital has never got a scarcity of patients. That’s what helps you as you get your hands on several patients during your tenure.
• Exposure to special cases – You get to know some important treatment modalities, and can be part of a case that could be a learning experience.
• Managing the front office – It isn’t easy to understand how to manage appointments and patients records, which is what you can learn and get exposed to at a hospital.
• Learn how to convince a patient – Conversion and convincing a patient for a particular treatment is not easy and you can learn that from seniors or specialists there and the corporate hospitals do have managers whose talks could make you understand the way of communicating and convincing the patient for a particular treatment.
• Ambiance – You might get to know how important it is, and how one should maintain a good ambiance and environment for a place meant for healthcare.
• Meetings help a lot – Corporate hospitals usually have regular meetings and they guide you on various aspects of clinical practice, which ultimately is useful for your future practice.
• Pay and Incentives – From the first month, you are assured of a pay. Along with a fixed salary, these corporate hospitals give incentives (percentage on a particular treatment done by you) and that boosts you to do many cases and do it well so you get more referrals.
• Pay Slips – The corporate provide a legal pay slip for your salaries, which could help you in times like applying for a loan, etc.
• Medico legal cases – They train on how to manage medico legal cases by maintaining perfect records of patients and consent form to related treatment, which you can implement in your future practice.

The takeaway!

What you learn here is helpful in every way, not just for your current job at the corporate hospital but for your clinical practice in the future. The main point here is that you have to work at a corporate hospital only until a point where you have learned everything and are ready to move ahead and setup your own dental clinic.

Setting up your own Dental Clinic

After a good experience of one year or two based on how much you learned and if that is enough, start working on building your own Dental Clinic, because that is what would give you a secured future.

Advantages of running your own clinic

• You are the boss – You have no one to report to and have a certain professional freedom that might be missing when you work at a hospital.
• Recognition – You will be recognized as a practitioner, and although it may sound rude, working at a hospital gives you a tag of “Salaried employee”.
• Your own diagnosis – Too good to be true but corporate do force you sometimes to opt for a treatment plan that is profitable. Here, you diagnose the case by yourself and set the treatment plan based on that without any pressure.
• High profits – Think of the long-term benefits and you will see much higher profits and earnings compared to the pay scale while you were working.
• Difference between “I own” and “I work at” – You know the meaning of this. Having your own clinic gives you the command of saying you own it, especially when you have networking meets or conferences happening.

Major factor affecting your earnings and clinic growth

The Growth potential and income potential at your Dental Clinic is unlimited, and it is purely based on your commitment towards your own clinic. You not only have to be ethical but also committed to be on time and being true to your work. At a corporate hospital, you may choose to take leaves and also jump against the rules at times, but at your clinic, this won’t work, and you have to be true to yourself and see the practice grow with time.

So, with this guide, we can conclude that as a beginner you always need to know your strengths and weakness, which you cannot risk experimenting in your clinical setup, so joining a corporate hospital to learn things makes sense because many things that are not part of our curriculum are to be learned from someone, and then you can move on and achieve much better things by running your own clinic.