What to do when a clinician is popular but unprofitable

Not all popularity pays: four clinician types every practice must address

I hear this a lot.....

"We have a self-employed clinician who is popular but not profitable."

On deeper investigation:

• Been with us for years;

• Very popular with the patients and the team;

• Has been offered additional training to improve clinical capability and/or communication skills

  • did the training but it has had little effect

  • didn't do the training, citing lack of time

• Consistently delivers an average daily production figure which is well below the level at which we make any profit at all.

The question I get - no surprise - is "what should we do?"

To aid with the consideration, let me share with you some categories:

1. Popular and profitable;

2. Popular but unprofitable;

3. Profitable but unpopular;

4. Unpopular and unprofitable.

Quick question.

How many of each do you have in your clinical team? (go ahead and include yourself)

Is there any justification for keeping 2, 3 & 4?

Please discuss.