Medical Equipment – Choosing the Right Exam Table

For many medical practitioners, setting up a private practice is an exciting step in their career. The decision to “go private” is a significant one with many benefits and considerations to account for. For starters, you’ll be establishing your own business which means you’ll need to account for and look after many small business considerations including looking for office space, handling accounts and keeping your practice updated with ever changing technology.

Decking out your new medical practice includes a few essential fit outs. For most types of medical practices, one of the most important pieces of equipment to acquire is the exam table.

It’s more than just a table

While generally quite practical in its nature, the choice of exam table for your medical practice can make a world of the difference to the patient experience. Medical suppliers offer a number of unique features in their exam table selections including:

- Comfort - the best way to determine the comfort of your exam table is to lie down on it. A relaxed position can help remove some of the initial uneasiness and help a patient settle in. Meanwhile, it is also essential that you as the practitioner are comfortable working in the space and that any features and extras don’t get in the way of your diagnosis process.

- Power adjustments - going to the dentist is probably not on the top of any kid’s fun list, but certain features like a power adjustments can really help break the ice for younger patients. It also makes the examination process easier for you as the practitioner, reducing the need to bend down and put undue strain on your back.

- Convenience and drawers - some exam tables include convenient drawers for equipment storage. This helps keep medical supplies organised and keeps them tucked away and out of sight, removing some of the initial uneasiness that a patient may feel looking down at a tray of unfamiliar instruments (that often look uncomfortably “pointy”).

- Other Features - some exam tables offer unique features such as warming drawers that can warm up implements and tools which can reduce the unwelcome cold sensation of an exam.

The right medical exam table will be important building block to establishing your medical practice. For physicians looking to upgrade their equipment, you can look to finance medical equipment with convenient business equipment finance offered by vendors and supported by providers.

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Become A Social Business: How to Use Social Networking for Business

Using Social Networking to Benefit Your Business

So you finally made the jump to the social media market. You created your companies Facebook page and a twitter account and are left asking yourself one question…

Now what?

The social media market is extensive, with millions of consumers literally a few clicks away. Making good use of these mediums can be an overwhelming and often under utilized experience. The common mistake that most new social media marketers make is assumption. They assume that the more friends or followers they have the more exposure they’re getting. The question that needs to be asked, is what are you exposing your followers to?

In a time where information travels fast, and the attention span of the average internet user is less than a few seconds, finding a way to steal a few minutes away is key. While tweeting the latest 5% discount may bring a few people in, the value provided by your companies social pages is left to a minimum. When I scroll through my never ending list of “I’m sitting at work bored” status updates and photo albums from Jenny Nosense’s weekend at the lake, a new promotion announcement in a 10 word status seems to just blend in and be overlooked. The social media market provides a quick way to spread the word about your products or services, but can be an even greater asset when used properly to convey an even stronger message.

Common social media misconceptions:

  • More followers = More Exposure
  • Advertising prices and promotions will get my followers attention
  • Having a facebook/twitter alone is enough to get new customers

If you think about it, the items listed above are all false. While they present the basic foundations of social marketing, they are far to simplistic to get any solid results. When the status update is replaced by the blog link, or the newest company note, you start providing greater value to your potential customers. It is one thing to tell your customers what you’re selling, it’s another to make them understand why they need to get it from you. Since your claiming to be the best lawn cutting service in the city, or you have the best built computers around, it should make sense that you show people why. Rather than using your new outlet as a product showcase and instead utilizing it to announce new break throughs in your industry or providing tutorials on how to repair a broken high heel, you give your user a reason to take a look and a glimpse into why you’re the best. When a user scrolls through that endlessly pointless list and see’s something that strikes their interest they’re going to take a look. And what will they see when they come to read your article? That status update about your 10% off sale on used printer paper.

Quick Tips to Increase Social Network Traffic

  • Start a weekly blog
  • Give your users something besides a sales pitch to read, give them a reason to remember your name.
  • Keep it short, no more than a page in a word document.
  • USE PARAGRAPHS and make your point, this is a legitimate blog post, not a 30 second used car commercial.
  • Update weekly, if not daily
  • Keep your content fresh, even if you refresh your status daily, keep things moving.
  • Create discussions and let users interact
  • Not an interesting writer? Ask your followers a question, get them to discuss their opinion. There’s nothing the twitter/facebook user loves more than arguing or hearing their own voice.
  • Get involved. Don’t just ask and ignore, respond. OFTEN! If you care enough to discuss with a customer online, you must be the guy they want to deal with in reality.

The idea is to truly connect with your user base. While having a ton of followers can ensure your message is shown, it doesn’t promise it will be noticed and for that matter read. By making a personal connection and engaging your customer, even if it isn’t directly related to your product or even your field, you give them a reason to remember the name John’s Store. When you break away from the linear, conservative ideas involved in corporate advertising and marketing, you can find an entirely new way of bringing in new customers and keeping them.

By removing the idea that traditional methods, i.e. advertising price and basic benefit, will work in a new age market you can begin to utilize the social market to it’s greatest level. Whether publishing a weekly blog about industry advances and cool stuff happening with your company, or giving demonstrations on basic techniques in your field, you set yourself apart from the pack.

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Radical Thinking and Social Entrepreneurship

Recently I was sitting at the pool, wasting time and listening to a broadcast on PRI (Public Radio International). The subject was Social Business Development. The speaker was 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yanus of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The bank has its focus on the poor and small loan programs with significant impact. I was amazed at the statistics he was discussing. 98% of the loans his bank gives out are repaid in full. They set up a personal relationship with each of their borrowers. They assist and advise each of them and follow up with support as needed. Most of the borrowers are poor women, eager to start a small business that will help them and their families get out of the grip of poverty.

Recently the bank began a program for beggars. They determined that as long as beggars were going house to house trying to get food, they might also carry along a small item for sale i.e. a toy for a child, or a small household item that might be useful. The beggars have no collateral, nothing but their own effort to sustain them, but in this past year most who have begun this work have found success and many are no longer begging at all. They have made enough to set up small shops or they continue to sell door to door, no longer needing a handout.

This social entrepreneurship turns the greed of Wall Street on its head. In this economic downturn which has caused so much hardship to so many, it is more than refreshing to hear of this radical thinking.

Many websites are devoted to the subject of social responsibility and I encourage you to explore a few of them.

Just yesterday I was listening to the Diane Rheme Show. Her guest was William D. Novelli, the just retired CEO of the “Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons.) He is going to Georgetown University to teach Social Responsibility courses to the students. This is one hot topic!

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