Episode 58 : Six Months In: How Dr. Ruth Solomon Is Growing April MD
What do you do when you're six months into a Direct Primary Care practice, doing all the right things, and the patients still aren't coming fast enough?
Dr. Ruth Solomon opened April MD Direct Primary Care in Babylon, New York after more than a decade in the traditional system, a 90-minute commute each way, and the kind of burnout that had her researching how to leave clinical medicine altogether. What she found instead was a way to stay.
"There actually is a way to do this that is still sustainable where you can still practice medicine, you can still do what you love but not be grinded out by the system."
Six months in, she charges a flat $149 a month, keeps 30-minute appointments, and adds one or two patients a month. She is doing the groundwork too: networking events, pop-ups at gyms and Pilates studios, a library program, social media she films and writes herself. The return has not matched the effort yet, and she is honest that it is hard not to take that personally. A business coach gave her the reframe early on.
"You kind of have to be naive when you start a business because if you understood everything, you'd never do it."
Dr. Anne Gonzalez turned the episode into a working session. Comparison is the first thing to drop: a physician who opened five minutes from where she used to practice starts with a patient list, and that has nothing to do with Dr. Solomon's situation on Long Island, where almost no Direct Primary Care practices exist and most conversations start with explaining what this even is. The real work is getting specific about who she is talking to. Dr. Solomon named her: April, 30 to 50, a service-industry professional, two kids, busy, uninsured, finally ready to take care of herself after years of taking care of everyone else.
"When you start speaking in specifics like this, it's actually kind of universal."
From there the fixes get practical: follow up with the doulas, lactation consultants, therapists and physical therapists she has met, because those referral sources are not locked into hospital networks the way specialists are.
Keep one core message on social media instead of a scattered feed. Batch film. Drop the memorized script and talk the way she talks with patients, which Dr. Gonzalez points out is the most compelling thing she does. And at a networking event, another business owner gave her the long view: that woman had zero clients her first year and now turns people away.
"You just have to keep at it, as hard as it is."
Connect with Dr. Ruth Solomon
Website: https://aprilmd.com/
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aprilmdli/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aprilmdli
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