HOW IT ALL STARTED
Dr. Derek Baron started his journey into healthcare by choosing the path that led him to become a stellar Doctor of Chiropractic, followed by achieving his next professional goals of Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician/Practitioner (CCSP) and Diplomate American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians DACBSP, which have been invaluable in education and experience taking Dr. Derek to amazing places. Dr. Derek practiced for five years before joining forces with his lovely bride Terri.
Terri Baron started her journey into healthcare after experiencing her own physical therapy first hand, introduced via a challenging post-op ACL reconstruction path, as so many orthopedic PTs are. Terri practiced for others as a staff PT, as a clinic director and as a multi-site clinic director for 10 years prior to joining forces with her amazing husband Derek.
Our First Adventure
Dr. Derek and Terri then teamed up and decided to give it a go with their own private practice back in their hometown of Rhinelander, WI (#GoHodags) and successfully opened up Integrity Sports Medicine. Integrity Sports Medicine provided outpatient orthopedic physical therapy services, a full spectrum of chiropractic services, including use of decompression, along with traditional sports medicine services.
Integrity Sports Medicine eventually became the sole provider of Sports Medicine for two local high schools and one middle school where training room services were provided five days a week along with coverage of all the schools’ sporting events. It was a dream come true!
Dr. Derek and Terri had a flourishing practice for nearly 8 years with Integrity Sports Medicine.
Life happened along the way however, and Dr. Derek and Terri had a son Reese and ultimately decided they wanted to have alternative options for him and subsequently landed in Naperville, IL, a western suburb of Chicago.
Exit Stage Left... Now What?
Closing a dream private practice is a challenge, whether planned for or not. The experience it provided both Dr. Derek and Terri is invaluable when working with current clients today, on how to best plan, grow, retire from and perhaps even sell their practices one day.
This is when Dr. Derek started a digital marketing agency called ‘The Doctors Marketing Source’ as well as ‘Top Doc Interviews’ and ‘The Sports and Rehab Zone’. Dr. Derek has now evolved further and made a few pivots toward his passion of the Practice Insiders Edge.
This ‘Exit Stage Left’ is when Terri ventured into the Corporate world of Outpatient Orthopedic Physical Therapy, joining ATI Physical Therapy.
Brick & Mortar vs Virtual
Dr. Derek made his transition from his private, brick and mortar practice to the virtual world. Not in telemedicine, rather in helping his fellow colleagues grow their own private healthcare practices with his expertise in marketing and business coaching.
This education did not come solely from Dr. Derek’s experience in co-running his brick and mortar Integrity Sports Medicine practice, but additionally in the extensive self education he invested in, with years of marketing development along with personal development he sought out to adjunct his own real world experience. It was like going back to school to earn a new degree, specific to the healthcare field.
The time, dedication and financial contributions Dr. Derek made to improve himself and his knowledge so he may help other healthcare colleagues is staggering. Dr. Derek did all this, while simultaneously working from home so that he could also be there for his son Reese, the parent available to pick Reese up after school every day, attend ‘Donuts with Dad Day’ and be at every sporting practice and event!
Learning From 'Big Box' Physical Therapy
Terri made her transition from her private, brick and mortar practice to the corporate ‘Big Box’ Physical Therapy world, joining one of the giants in ATI Physical Therapy.
However, Terri joined this giant while it was in it’s teen years, having fewer than 100 clinics at that time. By 2020 when Terri departed, ATI PT had over 925 clinics nationwide.
‘Oh, the Places You Will Go’, made famous by Dr. Suess, aptly describes the experiences Terri had and was exposed to while working with ATI PT. Terri worked as a staff PT for some time, allowing her to be more flexible in balancing her family life with work, yet experienced the stressors of long work hours and being asked to put patients before her family, just as she’d done with co-running Integrity Sports Medicine.
Terri’s vast skills in healthcare business allowed her to transition to the corporate level, where she was admitted into a heavily predominant male business world, where she thrived as part of the team that created a nationwide mentorship program for new-grad PTs. Terri quickly took the lead, directing all aspects of the program nationwide, overseeing the mentoring of nearly 2000 PTs.
Being a part of ‘Big Box’ PT was a fabulous though challenging experience. Learning what the healthcare business standards, KPIs and unwritten nuances are when running a private practice, regardless of size, provided an invaluable education that Terri would carry forward in consulting and coaching her future clients in the private practice world of healthcare.
Getting the Band Back Together
Enter 2020 and all the ‘novel’ challenges [Covid-19] and opportunities it would present! It was time for Dr. Derek and Terri to get their ‘Band Back Together’ and start their next business venture, bringing to the new ‘normal’ market all the gems, resources and value that together they have cultivated over 48 years of combined practice.
This was the time for Dr. Derek and Terri to help their colleagues in the healthcare world of private practice survive, grow and prosper! Wahla, the inception of Practice Insiders Edge [PIE], where the passionate private practice healthcare business owner/entrepreneur can find their ‘piece of the pie’ when it comes to the success of their practice!
Off To The Races!
Dr. Derek and Terri have founded Practice Insiders Edge [PIE] to provide a platform for the passionate, private practice healthcare professional who wants to take themselves and their practice to the next level.
PIE encompasses practice growth using the Practice Leverage Method as well as the #1 All-In-One GRRO platform that delivers systems and customized automation to ease the stressors of tech and marketing in the running of a practice.
Additionally, PIE provides consulting and coaching to engage employees and grow patient relationships, ultimately resulting in exceptional practice results and more freedoms for the private practice business owner/entrepreneur.
Which Leads Us Here...
The U.S. economy is now heavily based on service businesses, such as found in healthcare, which have rapidly replaced manufacturing industries, as the foundation of a healthy, growing economy.
Most of those service business jobs are at small businesses, which tend to be poorly run, resulting in many small businesses that don’t leave much at the end of the day for the very hard-working entrepreneur that owns them.
The prospect of the impact Dr. Derek and Terri could have by bringing the ‘Practice Insiders Edge’ best practices to hundreds if not thousands of private practices nationwide is what drives them now!
If Dr. Derek and Terri can help these passionate private practice healthcare business owner/entrepreneur use the ‘Practice Leverage Method’, incorporating the GRRO platform, to get leverage in their practices and their lives for more freedom, more money, and more impact – it will be their greatest win yet!