LM322 - Anything You Ever Wanted to Know About Private Practice

Friday, March 28, 2025

3:15 PM - 4:15 PM CST

Location: Rooms 206-207

Earn 0.1 CEUs

Sponsored By

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Lead Presenter(s)

Susan M. Taulia, AuD

Owner, Audiologist
Lafayette Hearing Center
Lafayette, Indiana

Disclosure(s): Financial: No financial relationships to disclose; Nonfinancial: Member of Audigy Group

PDF Handouts Slides

Presenter(s)

Megan Glaspie, AuD, MS (she/her/hers)

Owner, Audiologist
Finger Lakes Hearing Center, Inc.
Geneva, New York

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
TH

Todd Harry, AuD

Owner/Audiologist
Finger Lakes Hearing Center
Geneva, New York

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
Georgine Ray, AuD

Owner
Affiliated Audiology Consultants, Inc.
Phoenix, Arizona

Disclosure(s): Financial: No financial relationships to disclose; Nonfinancial: Member of Audigy Group.
Shanna Dewsnup, AuD

CEO / Audiologist
Happy Ears Hearing Center
Peoria, Arizona

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
MP

Molly A. Parker, AuD

Owner
Parker Audiology, P.C.
Davenport, Iowa

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
Alex Crippin

President
Hearing Associates
Mason City, Iowa

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
Shannon L. Austin, AuD

Owner/Audiologist
SLA Audiology
Brownsburg, Indiana

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
Carver G. Dethloff, AuD

Owner/Clinician/janitor
Emerald Coast Audiology P.A.
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
DM

Donna M. Merchant, AuD

Donna M Goione Merchant, Au.D.
New Jersey Hearing Health Center/Educational Audiology Resources
Brick, New Jersey

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.
IG

Ian Gerszewski, AuD

Owner/Audiologist
South Bay Hearing
Torrance, California

Disclosure(s): No financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.

Abstract:
Attend this panel to ask any question you ever had about private practice. We present a panel of private practice owners from across the country and will open the floor to questions for most of this presentation. Each of us will briefly describe our practices, how we came into ownership, what we like/dislike about private practice, and then open the floor to questions. Some of us just recently started our practices, and some of us have bought large multi-office practices. We represent practice owners from all coasts as well as the middle of the country. Ask us anything!

Summary:
The fantasy of owning a private audiology practice and the actual daily experience clearly are not the same thing. Many of us might be very intrigued by the idea/concept of a private practice work setting and of working for ourselves and not for someone else. However, we might be paralyzed by unresolved fears that keep us from making our dreams our realities. Attend this panel to address those fears, and to learn about the different pathways each of the owners on this panel have taken to achieve practice ownership and success in providing hearing health care they way they see fit. Each practice owner on this panel has worked through both common and unique challenges, many of which they may have not felt prepared for in their prior work experience or professional education. Private practice can be incredibly professionally satisfying for audiologists, but it also presents unique challenges that can be difficult to navigate. We offer you a panel of successful private practice business owners who are all at various stages in their careers and practice ownership journey. We provide you an avenue to ask the questions that lurk in your mind about private practice, and, if you are interested in being in private practice yourself in the future, we can hopefully inspire you to start to look at the necessary steps you might need to take to achieve your own dream for practice ownership. You will learn about different pathways each of us has taken to achieve practice ownership, and what our individual challenges have been. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about the concerns that may have held them back from previously pursuing private practice ownership themselves. Many of us have similarities in our journeys to become practice owners, but many of us have also solved unique, challenging situations creatively. The kinds of opportunities that can pave the way to private practice ownership have changed over time, and current barriers to practice ownership are very different in some ways in today's landscape than they were 10 years ago.

Brief Summary of Clinical Takeaways:
3 models of private practice ownership (starting from scratch, buying existing practice (solo entrepreneur), owning practice with partners).
3 common challenges owners face being self-employed.
3 common benefits owners enjoy from self-employment.
Unique challenges owners have overcome.
Fears and questions that attendees have about practice ownership.

Learning Objectives:

Describe 3 different pathways to become private practice owners and describe one unique challenge with each pathway that owners did not feel prepared for.
State 2 common challenges and 2 common rewards private practice ownership brings, and participants will be able to describe 2 unique challenges owners have had to work through.
Describe concerns and questions that attendees have about private practice ownership.