By Stephanie Stephens
When John Bender, M.D., started his private family medicine practice in Colorado in 2002, he worked with one other employee and one computer. Miramont Family Medicine now has 75 employees, including seven physicians with four partners, keeping busy in four locations in the state.
Now comfortably staffed and enjoying the momentum of his business, Dr. Bender is able to enjoy the positives of having enough of the right people. With more physicians in the stable and less call time for each, “it’s getting easier to recruit to what is now a more appealing practice situation. I know that when a physician is drowning, and patients call and can’t get in, it’s definitely time to hire another provider,” he says.
But bringing on a new hire isn’t something he does off the cuff, because there’s just too much at stake — both professionally and financially. There are real costs to hiring a new physician, some obvious and some not so obvious.