Setting Up A Private Practice in a New City

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Well, we’re moving.

After 7 wonderful years in Boston, we’ve decided to move to my hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana for a few years. It’ll be a fun newlywed adventure as well as a new professional challenge. Our goal is to go down South for a few years and enjoy a lower cost of living. With our additional savings we’ll be able to move back to Boston, buy a house and start having kids.

So, this offers an interesting dilemma for me: How to establish myself in a new city.

Starting Over

In Boston, I’ve been able to build a strong network of professional ties through the hospital where I work and the university where I teach. This has allowed for a steady stream of private patient referrals. Now that I’ll be moving to a city where I don’t have a job yet and have very few professional ties, what am I going to do?

1. Get a job as a traveling Speech-Language Pathologist

I’ve had the same job at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston for five years. I have gotten so much experience there; I hate to leave. In looking for jobs, I have decided to try the traveling SLP route. I have always heard that the pay is great and it’ll be nice to try some different facilities before I  commit to a new job. The only thing that is making me nervous is that I’m a planner and I’m about a month and a half from my move and I don’t have a job yet. It seems that the traveling therapy jobs are more last minute job placement, so I’m trying not to stress out too much.

2. Start a private practice in New Orleans

Not unlike someone starting out for the first time, rebuilding a private patient business in a new city is a major challenge. I won’t be able to rely on word of mouth referrals, so I’ll have to beef up my marketing efforts.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Applied and received my Louisiana state speech license
2. Applied to become a provider through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, Aetna and Medicare.
3. Started putting together a list of professionals who might be able to refer patients (neurologists, neuropsychologists, physical medicine and rehab doctors, social workers, fellow SLP’s, brain injury lawyers, etc.)
4. Made promotional materials to introduce myself and the services I provide
5. When I move, I’ll establish a PO Box to use as an address to put on my postcards and then mail them to my mailing list
6. Make sure I change the contact info on my website to reflect my new location

Phew. I’m basically though step 4 and I still have a month until we move. I am hopeful that my February, I’ll have at least two private patients. Depending on my job hours and flexibility, I’ll add more to my caseload.

3. Continue to treat private patients in Massachusetts via telepractice Skype

The rules of telepractice state that you need to be licensed in all states where your patients are. When I told my patients that I’m moving, two of them said they would be interested in continuing to see me via Skype. While I’ve never done this, we’re going to give it a try and see how it works. I’m up for the challenge and they don’t want to lose a therapist whom they know and trust.

The sessions will remain an hour long. I will e-mail them their assignments in advance and we’ll work on them together during the session. We’ll use either PayPal or my account through FreshBooks to bill for my speech services.

I’ll Keep You Posted

I’m really looking forward to this new challenge and I’m very hopeful that I can find a new primary job that I like in addition to building a nice private patient business. Who knows, if the private patient business builds up, maybe I won’t need that primary job!

Any thoughts on starting over professionally in a new city?

Related posts:

1. Private Patients vs. Private Practice