Plum Health Blog

Detroit, Education, Family Medicine, Writing Paul Thomas Detroit, Education, Family Medicine, Writing Paul Thomas

Doctors Embracing Startup DPC Book on Social Media

Startup DPC Book Gets Great Feedback on Social Media

This week, we’ve been getting a lot of love for the Startup DPC Book on Social Media.

Let me preface this post by stating a few things. First, I’m a physician on a mission to delivery affordable and accessible healthcare here in Detroit and beyond. Second, I’m an educator. Not only am I a clinical assistant professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine, but I also teach in other ways. One of those ways is by teaching other doctors how to successfully start and grow their own direct primary care practices.

I truly believe that direct primary care is a better way of serving our patients - we have more time to listen to our patients, we have more tools to deliver compassionate care, and we can actively lower the cost of medical care for our patients. Therefore, I want to reach as many doctors as possible with this information.

My physician colleagues have responded and they’ve sent me some tremendous feedback via social media. Below are a few of those posts!

Direct Primary Care Doctor Inspired by Startup DPC Book

Recently, Rebecca Berens, MD of Vida Family Medicine in Houston Texas sent out very kind post on Instagram. She recently read the Startup DPC book, Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice and she posted a quote on her Instagram that I used in the book from John C Maxwell, “Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it's almost always due to personal growth.”

This is the quote that I used at the beginning of Chapter 6 on How to Prepare for Direct Primary Care While in Residency. I used the quote here because I believe that new doctors and residents have the greatest opportunity to learn a new system of care, and they have a unique opportunity to adopt the DPC model and the DPC mindset before getting enmeshed in the dysfunctional fee-for-service system as an employed physician.

Here’s what Dr. Berens had to say:

I love this quote that Dr. Paul Thomas from @plumhealthdpc added to his new book, #startupdpc Direct Primary Care is a new concept to many patients (and even doctors), but it was truly personal growth that led me to take this path. I was so tired of churning patients through the system in 10 minute increments, never having enough time to really help them in the way I knew I could. Meanwhile, I was arriving home to my family emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Becoming a mother made me realise that I needed to do better, for my patients and my family. Starting your own business is a huge risk (even without a pandemic throwing a wrench in the mix!) but in the end all of the stress and uncertainty it will be worth it.
.
.
Does spending more time at home during pandemic have you reflecting too? How have you grown over the last few months?

TESTIMONIAL FOR STARTUP DPC BOOK AND COURSES

Post from Dr. Prisiliano Salas about the Startup DPC Book and Startup DPC Courses:

Just finished a course by Paul Thomas, M.D. from Plum Health DPC and #startupdpc. Let me just say that Paul knows his stuff. I met him in 2018 at the Family Medicine DPC Summit. He gave a lecture about his experience starting a #DirectPrimaryCare practice and using social media marketing strategies. I've been following him on/off during this time but had not fully made the jump onto social platforms the way he describes it. Now two years later his practice growth is testament to this method. He's full and added a new doc! On top of that he remains faithful to his mission, to empower the #DPC community with his knowledge and reproducible success. I'm now ready to embrace social media to share my knowledge and experience with my patients (though still working up to youtube to get more camera ready 😎 ). Take one of his courses or read one of his 2 books, he won't disappoint. Keep the momentum going!

Thank you so much for the shout out Dr. Salas! and best of luck with your direct primary care practice. I know that you’ll have every advantage on attracting new patients after taking our Sales Funnel course.

Regina Allen Hardin, MD of Modern Medicine made this post on LinkedIn:

Medical Student gives a shout out to the Startup DPC book

This week, Startup DPC got a nice shout out from Pretty Girl Practice on Instagram. If you’re a direct primary care doctor, social media applications like Facebook and Instagram can be great platforms to reach new audiences and also to improve your branding. If you don’t have a Facebook Page or an Instagram page for your direct primary care practice, consider making one to improve how people in your community perceive your brand and your business. I teach doctors how to do this, step-by-step, in the Sales Funnel course on our website, here.

Here’s what Pretty Girl Practice on Instagram had to say about direct primary care:

  • You pay a monthly membership fee (like Netflix) to your Doctor

  • You can schedule as many visits as you like with your DOCTOR and text your doctor medical questions when needed (no more Dr. Google 🤓)

  • Hour long visits and you receive higher quality care (currently insurance companies often have quick 20 minute visits to see more patients and therefore make more money)

  • great for fields like Family Medicine, Pediatrics, even some Dermatologists use this model

  • allows Doctors to be entrepreneurs again! and brings back the treasured physician-patient relationship. Also, decreases burnout for physicians. Plus patients are more satisfied, win-win!

  • I really think DPC will be the practice of the future. It’s the practice a lot of us dreamt of when we first became doctors.

The following image is a screenshot from her story about Direct Primary Care:

Startup DPC gets a nice shout out from PrettyGirlPractice on Instagram.

Startup DPC gets a nice shout out from PrettyGirlPractice on Instagram.

Sincerely thank you to all of the doctors who’ve picked up a copy of the book and who’ve used their social media platforms to share about the book. I appreciate all of you!

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

Read More
Detroit, Education, Family Medicine, Writing Paul Thomas Detroit, Education, Family Medicine, Writing Paul Thomas

Startup DPC Book Reaches Number 1 on Amazon in the Physicians Category

This is Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC here in Detroit Michigan. We believe that healthcare should be affordable and accessible for everyone, and we are doing our part to make that happen here in Corktown, and Detroit, and beyond.

However, several doctors have reached out to me and asked how we made Plum Health such a successful direct primary care practice. How are we attracting new patients? How are we lowering the cost of healthcare? How are we lowering the cost of medications, labs, and imaging services? How are we cutting all of the bureaucratic red tape?

I answered all those questions individually for my physician colleagues, but I also saved those answers in a word document, which eventually became this book.

This book is intended to help family physicians and internal medicine physicians start and grow their direct primary care practices. We want to see more doctors adopt this model that lowers healthcare costs and puts patients first.

The response to the book has been tremendous, and we’ve received many great reviews and a ton of great feedback about the content of the book. Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased the book, thank you for everyone who has left a review on Amazon, and thank you for making us number one on Amazon in the physicians category. We sincerely appreciate all of you!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC

PS if you're a doctor looking to start a direct primary care practice, check out Startup DPC

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice is the number 1 new release on Amazon in the Physicians category!

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice is the number 1 new release on Amazon in the Physicians category!

Read More