Articles on practice growth, service line economics, technology integration, and the strategic decisions that separate practices that scale from practices that plateau. Written by Dr. Jerry Relth, DC.
The first associate is a capacity purchase, not a rescue from burnout. The three readiness signals, the fully loaded cost math behind the break-even collection target, which compensation model fits, and the 90-day ramp that decides whether the hire works.
Read article →Discounting a cash service costs far more than the dollars you give away. Why a 20 percent discount can halve your profit, and how to market and sell at full price with outcome-led positioning, packaging, proof, and a team that holds the line.
Read article →You did not open a practice to become its bottleneck. Why working in your practice caps growth, the four jobs only the owner can do, and how to shift to working on it one task at a time.
Read article →The demo is designed to close, and vetting the vendor is your job. A due-diligence framework for practice owners: how to vet a vendor, platform, or partner before you sign, from the demo and the references to the exit clause and the total cost of ownership.
Read article →Everyone uses the phrase and nobody defines it. What a practice operating system actually is: the documented process, numbers, ownership, and rhythm that let a practice run on structure instead of on the owner, the six layers, and where to start.
Read article →Per-visit pricing makes you re-sell care at every appointment. Why program pricing wins on revenue predictability, case acceptance, and lifetime value, and how to structure it without overpromising.
Read article →Churn rarely shows up on the P&L, but it quietly caps growth. The real cost of losing patients, where they leak, and the retention systems that close the gaps.
Read article →The service line itself rarely kills the launch. The operational load on a team already at capacity does. A pre-launch playbook for adding a new offer without breaking the team that has to run it.
Read article →Standard operating procedures are the boring discipline that lets a practice scale past the owner. What to document first, how to write SOPs people use, and why it matters.
Read article →How a practice blends cash-pay services with insurance to grow and stabilize revenue. The tradeoffs, where to start, and the mistakes that quietly sink hybrid models.
Read article →A practical guide to reading a practice profit and loss statement the way an operator does, not an accountant, so the numbers actually drive monthly decisions.
Read article →The phased build order that lets a single-provider clinic add three revenue streams in a year without breaking operations or hiring more staff.
Read article →A clear-eyed look at recurring-revenue membership models: where they create durable income, where they backfire, the compliance layer, and how to structure one.
Read article →Your lapsed patient list is the cheapest growth channel you own. A practical playbook for reactivation campaigns that bring dormant patients back without discounting.
Read article →Most practices fail at multi-service expansion not because the services are wrong, but because no one owns the integration between them.
Read article →The signals that tell you a practice is ready for a dedicated manager, the real cost of the role, and how to hire one without creating an expensive empty seat.
Read article →Why most financing programs sit unused at the front desk, and how to structure and present financing so it lifts case acceptance instead of gathering dust.
Read article →Why a built referral system out-earns paid ads for most practices, and the five-part structure that turns happy patients into a predictable new-patient channel.
Read article →A week-by-week operating plan for the first quarter of a new service line, with the milestones that tell you it will work and the ones that warn you to stop.
Read article →Why buying equipment first is the most common (and most expensive) mistake in healthcare practice expansion, and the order that produces durable revenue.
Read article →A six-question framework for evaluating any new healthcare service line, with the math behind which questions matter most for ROI.
Read article →Insurance, cash-pay services, and recurring programs. The portfolio mix that separates resilient practices from fragile ones in 2026 and beyond.
Read article →After 15 years of working with healthcare providers, I see the same five plateau patterns repeatedly. Here's what causes them and the structural fix for each.
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