Steve Joyner, PA-C Physician Assistant, Owner Greenville Health Care Center, Greenville, NC

How is your practice organized?

The healthcare team at Greenville Healthcare Center includes one LPN, one radiology and one lab technician, an office manager, receptionist, insurance clerk and two part-time PAs (the owners).

Bruno and Joyner split 12 hour shifts for weekdays (each worked 6 hours) and alternated 4 hours on Saturday for a total of 64 PA hours per week.

Steve Joyner performed most of the business tasks related to ownership.

Managing the business is estimated to take 20% (7 hours) of work hours.
About 25 hours per week were devoted to patient care per partner.
The clinic averaged 50 patients per day.
Finding qualified staff is the #1 issue for any business including a medical practice. Following on the heels of that are interpersonal relationships within the staff. By carefully hiring the best people who were multi-skilled, they were able to achieve the success they desired. Examples of multi-skill utilization are: a) the receptionist who could also type up records from dictated notes, and b) the office manager who knew coding as well as office procedures. Joyner is adamant that giving competitive pay for good people builds success and loyalty. He would rather pay top dollar (compared to the local economy) and retain good people than to have the expense of turn-over.