Curious about starting a private practice

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Eye-eye

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I've been curious about different career opportunities in ophtho, and it seems like if you are someone who enjoys having control over how you practice, living in a rural area, getting away from the bureaucratic BS, and really taking home what you kill (and you enjoy business to some extent), that owning your own private practice makes the most sense. There are certainly some great emerging resources on this, but one thing I'm wondering is how much building a practice costs. Let's say I want to build a 1 or 2 OMD practice in a town without any OMDs. How much does it take to build the clinic space needed? An ASC? What about space for a potential future optom for lens prescriptions, or an optical shop? Which of these things will actually be profitable? Just curious how big one should plan to go, to get the most bang for your buck. I'm the sort that would enjoy the new challenges of growing over time, so I wouldn't want to stunt the practice by simply not building enough. But obviously I also wouldn't want to build things that aren't profitable, or that require ridiculous resources upfront.

If anyone could shed light on potential figures for these sorts of things, I would be really interested - thanks!

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Perhaps someone more experienced can provide a better answer, buf I would imagine that numbers and profitability are going to vary widely from area to area, urban vs rual, catchment area, subspecialty representation, etc. It would be hard to give a ballpark number.

FWIW, ophthalmologists generally don't use the term 'OMD'. They just say 'ophthalmologist.'

Best of luck in med school. Ophtho is a great field if that's what you're considering.
 
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Perhaps someone more experienced can provide a better answer, buf I would imagine that numbers and profitability are going to vary widely from area to area, urban vs rual, catchment area, subspecialty representation, etc. It would be hard to give a ballpark number.

FWIW, ophthalmologists generally don't use the term 'OMD'. They just say 'ophthalmologist.'

Best of luck in med school. Ophtho is a great field if that's what you're considering.

Good to know - thanks!
 
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