What are some key skills for Healthcare Leaders & Executives?

Last week on the podcast, I discussed my nonclinical career path and how I went from staff clinician to a healthcare business consultant and practice owner. After that episode, I received a few emails asking for specific skills or areas of personal development that help in advancing from a clinical role into healthcare administration or leadership. I figured it was worth exploring, and actually writing down what I considered to be key skills for healthcare leaders & executives.

So, this week, I dive into the 5 key skills, or characteristics, that I consider key factors in transitioning from clinical work to healthcare leadership and/or executive roles.

What we cover in this Episode:

The importance of intentionally planning your professional growth and development
Communication as a key skill for healthcare leaders and executives
Starting a healthcare business with no funding
Using Data to make decisions or create communication pieces
Key principles in managing and leading a healthcare business
The importance of crucial conversations
Beginning to take a high-level, value-creation based vision of your work and roles
Achieving Better Outcomes by stepping out of the clinic to affect systemic healthcare improvements

We post videos of certain podcast episodes, including this episode, which can find on the YouTube Channel.

Full episode notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-137

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Full episode notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-135

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

Are you a clinician considering a nonclinical career path?

I get asked regularly about how I got started on my nonclinical career path. Whether I'm speaking at a conference or event, or working with clients on business development strategy projects, it seems people are interested in learning about how an occupational therapist went from treating patients in the clinic to working as a healthcare positioning strategist.

So, this week, we're continuing our series on nonclinical career paths with this solo episode where I break down every role I've held since graduating in 2012. I walk through each job, what I took from each one, how I made the step into the next role, and things that I thought were key factors in skilling up for these nonclinical roles.

What we cover in this Episode:

-The importance of taking every learning opportunity available to you early in your career
-Looking at every position as an opportunity to grow your network and skills
-Starting a healthcare business with no funding
-Purchasing a healthcare business
-Key principles in managing and leading a healthcare business
-How I used LinkedIn to get my first nonclinical consulting role
-Understanding business models and incentives and how that relates to obtaining nonclinical roles
-Achieving Better Outcomes by stepping out of the clinic to affect systemic healthcare improvements

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Want me to help you put together a business development strategy that actually drives conversations with qualified prospects? Click here to schedule a call with me. It’s free. It’s 30 minutes. And, if nothing else, you’ll walk away with some insights that you can apply on your business that day. https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery

How do you start in healthcare copywriting?

Maybe you've heard of copywriting. Maybe you haven't. I tell people that I work with that copywriting is probably one of the most valuable skills that entrepreneurs and business owners can have. You don't necessarily need to be the best copywriter, but you should understand what makes for good healthcare copywriting. That skill opens up the doors to many opportunities, for business owners or clinicians looking to make a nonclinical transition. And, as I've discussed on the Strata Stories podcast, content creation and copywriting allows clinicians to monetize their expertise in more ways than simply direct clinical care.

So, this week, we're continuing our nonclinical careers series with a conversation with Krista Frahm about her transition from clinician to healthcare copywriter and now marketing strategist.

What we cover in this Episode:

-The value clinicians can bring to nonclinical roles
-How to delivery high impact services as a copywriter or marketing strategist
-Starting a healthcare copywriting business
-Networking to build your business
-Coaching and consulting clients to deliver upstream services
-Achieving Better Outcomes by leaving the clinic to help other businesses succeed with copywriting

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Have you thought about transitioning to nonclinical roles as a clinician?

It seems like I receive more messages and emails these days about transitioning to nonclinical roles as a clinician. When I first left clinical work in 2017 to work as a management consultant, many colleagues were interested, but ultimately, they didn't want to leave clinical work entirely. Part of this is likely due to the fact that many clinicians find there way to healthcare as a sort of calling rather than a "job". The other part of this has to be related to risk tolerance. Many clinicians have traditionally seen nonclinical work as "more risky" than using their credential to work as a clinician in their given specialty. That being said, in recent years, the content about nonclinical roles has increased, and so has people's interest in this topic.

So, this week, we're kicking off a miniseries all about transitioning to nonclinical roles as a clinician. We'll cover this topic from a few different "stages" or phases: 1) early in the process, 2) nonclinical roles as an employee, 3) entrepreneurship in nonclinical areas. This week's episode starts us off with phase one. In this episode, I share an interview with an Occupational Therapist (and former student of mine) Hayley Carver to discuss her decision to transition to a nonclinical role, some of the resources she's found helpful, and coaching programs and their value in the process of transitioning to these nontraditional roles.

What we cover in this Episode:

Challenges in traditional clinical roles
The risk of burnout in clinical care
Deciding to leave the clinic in pursuit of nontraditional or nonclinical roles
Networking to find opportunities in healthcare
Coaching and consulting programs to bridge the gap between the clinic and nonclinical opportunities
Achieving Better Outcomes by leaving the clinic to make a larger impact on the healthcare industry

Want me to help you put together a business development strategy that actually drives conversations with qualified prospects? Click here to schedule a call with me. It’s free. It’s 20 minutes. And, if nothing else, you’ll walk away with some insights that you can apply on your business that day. https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

How can real-time data help improve health equity and population health?

We've talked about the social determinants of health before. We've also covered using data to improve healthcare policy and decision-making. But, where do those two things intersect? How can data be used to improve health equity across populations, geographies, and other factors? This week, I sit down with Perfecto Sanchez from EquityQuotient, a dynamic health equity data and insights platform.

What we cover in this Episode:

-The social determinants of health
-Using data to improve healthcare decision-making
-Challenges in aggregating data to make the most informed decisions
-Understanding the value proposition of data in healthcare and decision-making
-The importance of training AI models with representative data to make recommendations effective and accurate
-Achieving Better Outcomes by using healthcare data to improve health equity

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

Are you making this mistake in healthcare sales?

You're doing healthcare sales wrong. At least, a lot of people are making the same mistake in sales calls or demos. I talk to a lot of healthcare startups and tech companies who are trying to drive sales and awareness. But they're going about it all wrong.

They're not doing anything crazy, like spamming people in the LinedIn Message Inbox (cause that's just annoying, am I right?) But, they're messing things up when they get into a discovery or demo call. They spend most, if not all, of the time with a prospective prospect "presenting" them with all of the value add, features, benefits, etc. But they glance over the MOST IMPORTANT part of these initial conversations: understanding the prospective customer's situation, context, and value-drivers..

Many healthcare sales folks spend too much time trying to "convince" a prospect that their solution will solve their problems. But they never actually take the time to understand what problem the prospective customer actually wants to solve. All sales, including healthcare sales, need to first start with a simple conversation.

And that conversation has 2 goals:

1) Understanding the prospect's situation & the nature of the problem they are seeking to solve
2) Determining whether there's a good fit between your solution and their problem; and whether that fit warrants moving to the next step

Sometimes, the answer is "no", and that's fine; but it's not fine to waste too much time getting to that ultimate conclusion. The goal in any initial demo or discovery conversation is to understand whether or not you should even continue the conversation. The faster you answer that question, the more efficient your sales process becomes. So stop presenting or trying to bombard prospects with your solution's benefits or features, and spend more time trying to actually understand the prospect's situation. Then see if there's a fit between that situation/problem and your solution.

What we cover in this Episode:

-The importance of positioning on lead generation
-Understanding the role that specific value plays in a healthcare sales conversation
-Driving sales with conversations
-How to craft a value proposition for your healthcare business
-Understanding the barriers to adoption of healthcare solutions
-Aligning business models and incentives in the healthcare sales process
-Achieving Better Outcomes by replacing demo presentations with value conversations

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

How do discover and communicate Value in Healthcare Technology?

In my work helping healthcare technology companies developing positioning strategies, the topic of value and return on investment for the buyer plays a major role. An effective positioning strategy involves answering the question "value to whom?". The challenge in that effort revolves around actually being able to define, describe, and communicate those value drivers. To effectively communicate value in healthcare technology, you must first uncover the specific value drivers your product or service addresses.

So, this week, I sit down with Craig Solid from the Solid Research Group to discuss uncovering value in healthcare technology. Craig has been on the show before to discuss Return on Investment Studies and Value in Healthcare. This week, he's back to discuss value in healthcare technology.

What we cover in this Episode:

-Understanding the targeted buyer in a healthcare technology buying decision
-Creating digital (or in-person) communities for healthcare providers
-Using content and knowledge translation to start a healthcare business that doesn't require patient care
-How to craft a value proposition for your healthcare business
-Leveraging technology to start & scale a business that leverages your clinical skills
-Achieving Better Outcomes by taking control of your healthcare career through business ownership

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

Full Show Notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-131

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

How do you start a healthcare business with no funding?

Let's play a constrain-based game. You are a clinician and want to start a business that leverages your clinical degree/skills. It can be direct clinical care (like a practice), some sort of clinical innovation (like a device/invention) or an infrastructure play (like a software or professional services solution). Here's the constraint: You can't get any outside funding for this venture. No loans & no investors; you're bootstrapping this thing. You are going to start a healthcare business with no funding.

Here's what you want for this business:

It can provide the same (ideally higher) income as you would earn as a staff clinician in a relatively short timeframe (you don't want to spend 5 years in side gig mode)
It can scale without your direct input (you eventually don't want to be the one directly providing the service or solution)

What we cover in this Episode:

-Understanding some of the drivers that lead people to choose healthcare as a career
-Creating digital (or in-person) communities for healthcare providers
-Using content and knowledge translation to start a healthcare business that doesn't require patient care
-How to craft a value proposition for your healthcare business
-Leveraging technology to start & scale a business that leverages your clinical skills
-Achieving Better Outcomes by taking control of your healthcare career through business ownership

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!