- Business: Rose Gynecology, Madeleine Rose, M.D. & Associates
- Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
- Interesting Fact about Rose Gynecology: It’s located in a beautiful old house, where Dr. Rose has cultivated a spa-like atmosphere.
- Interesting Fact about Dr. Rose: In her free time, she enjoys photography and develops her own photographs.
In 2012, Dr. Madeleine Rose had reached a turning point in her career. She was a board-certified gynecologist and active member of a number of women’s health associations. As an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Cincinnati, she taught and mentored many medical residents. Despite having achieved so much early in her career, she was feeling unfulfilled.
“None of these things were giving me what I envisioned my practice would look like,” she says. “I wanted to do my own thing.”
So she launched her own practice, Rose Gynecology, in Cincinnati. At first, finding clients was not a problem. But running a practice without any business experience was harder than Dr. Rose anticipated. Luckily, she discovered the business tools she needed to keep Rose Gynecology running smoothly.
Dr. Rose envisioned an entirely different gynecology experience at her practice. “I wanted to make it easier to come to this kind of doctor, and less medical,” she says.
A New Kind of Practice
Going to the gynecologist can be an unnerving experience for some women. Uncomfortable procedures and exams performed on intimate body regions in a clinical setting is enough to make patients cringe. Dr. Rose knows this all too well, which is why she envisioned an entirely different gynecology experience at her practice.
“I wanted to make it easier to come to this kind of doctor, and less medical,” she says. “So I found a space in a nice neighborhood. It’s a big house that had been converted into a medical doctor’s office, and the physician there was retiring, so I took over the space.”
From the beginning, Dr. Rose has worked hard to evoke a calming atmosphere in this beautiful old home. For example, patients receive spa robes for their annual visits. An herbal fragrance wafts through the rooms, and the office’s friendly, welcoming staff work hard to make every patient’s visit a special occasion.
The approach worked: her pleased patients spread the word about the new practice on Erie Avenue. “Before you know it, you’re seeing their mothers, sisters, roommates, friends. It becomes a family affair.” Other patients discovered her office on their way through the neighborhood. “They’ll say, “I jogged by your office and I thought, “I need to go to the gynecologist, and it looked like a nice setting,”” Dr. Rose says.
“Getting the numbers right, submitting them on time, keeping track of everyone’s hours. I finally said, “I can’t do this anymore. It’s taking up way too much of my time.””
When Time Keeping Is Time Consuming
When it opened, the practice consisted of just Dr. Rose and an assistant. As more patients signed on, Dr. Rose hired an RN, then an NP, then front office staff. Soon, she had five staff and 6,000 patients. It was a lot to manage, especially for someone with no experience in Human Resources or business management.
Time-keeping was a big challenge. Originally, Dr. Rose gave everyone a monthly calendar template on which they’d record their daily sign-in time. Then, Dr. Rose would put all the documents into a digital file and send it to her payroll company. “That was a really big chore,” she recalls. “Getting the numbers right, submitting them on time, keeping track of everyone’s hours. I finally said, “I can’t do this anymore. It’s taking up way too much of my time.””
She searched for a replacement to her analogue system. Maybe a time clock where staff could swipe in? Or some sort of online system? Dr. Rose analyzed a number of options and prioritized her needs. She didn’t want to invest in equipment, and she did want something digital and user-friendly. It had to be transferable so that she could easily onboard new hires. And it had to save her time.
Within a week, the analogue time sheets were gone, as was Dr. Rose’s task of digitizing them.
ezClocker Saves Time
After a few trials runs with different time-keeping software programs, she discovered ezClocker. “It was clear from the start that ezClocker did everything I wanted it to do.”
Within a week, the analogue time sheets were gone, as was Dr. Rose’s task of digitizing them. Now, it was taking Dr. Rose just five or 10 minutes per month to run time-sheets with ezClocker. “Before, I was always thinking about time sheets,” she says. “Suddenly, it was off my mind, and one less thing for me to deal with among the many other aspects of the business that I was responsible for.”
Today, when Dr. Rose hires a new person, she sends them an invitation to ezClocker. Then they download the app, log in, and start adding in their hours. And she’s not the only one in her family using ezClocker. When Dr. Rose’s husband, who is also a physician, started his own practice, she told him about ezClocker. Now, they’re both longtime users spreading the word to other medical colleagues who run their own practices.
“If you feel passionately about something, you should go for it.“
The Right Tools to Run the Practice
Though daunting, the challenges of running one’s own practice are not insurmountable, says Dr. Rose–especially when you find the right tools, like ezClocker.
“When you’re on your own and not connected with a hospital, these things are more complicated,” she explains. “It was really just me doing it all. And while you can hire a company to manage these kinds of tasks for you, they’ll force you to do things their way, and you’ll have to pay for it too.”
But that’s no reason not to start your own practice, she says. “I think that often, new doctors coming out of training are afraid to go out on their own,” says Dr. Rose. “They might see it as too difficult, and that the resources just aren’t there. Well, that’s not the case. If you feel passionately about something, you should go for it. Let your excitement and passion for what you do drive you, and you’ll find the right tools and resources along the way.”
