How She Grew a Medical Practice to $30M, With Meredith Hirsh

Welcome to Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi! Your go-to podcast for transforming your business into an unforgettable brand, where branding meets SEO and link-building. I’m Chris Panteli, Co-Founder and CEO of Linkifi, and I’m joined by my co-host and Co-Founder, Nick Biggs.

In this episode, we’re joined by Meredith Hirsh, CEO of The Hirsh Center for Arthritis and Sports Medicine and host of Working Healthcare Podcast, to unpack what it really takes to grow and operate an independent medical practice. Meredith shares how she went from advertising and real estate into healthcare, how she helped build a practice from eight patients on day one to a major South Florida medical business, and why visibility, reputation, retention, and business discipline matter just as much as clinical excellence.

 

Key Talking Points

✅ From Advertising to Healthcare. Meredith’s background is in advertising, not medicine. Even though she grew up around physicians and healthcare professionals, she never planned to work in healthcare.

✅ The Birth of Advanced Rheumatology Center. What later became The Hirsh Center for Arthritis and Sports Medicine started as Advanced Rheumatology Center. Meredith helped launch it with her background in advertising, education, and real estate.

✅ Local Roots Helped Growth. Both Meredith and her husband had strong South Florida ties. Her husband trained at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial, which helped with referrals, credibility, and community trust.

✅ Location Was a Strategic Decision. When choosing where to buy their first office condo, Meredith looked closely at demographics and geography. For rheumatology, they intentionally chose an area with an older, affluent Medicare-age population.

✅ 250 New Patients Per Month. Today, the practice averages around 250 new patients per month, which shows the strength of the brand, the referral engine, and the local reputation built over time.

✅ Why Doctors Must Be Visible. Meredith stresses that doctors cannot avoid social media or online visibility. Even if the patient is not Googling the doctor, their children often are.

✅ Reputation Starts in the Exam Room. Online reputation is only part of the story. Meredith also emphasizes how physicians present themselves in person, including eye contact, presence, and how they treat patients.

✅ AI Visibility Is Doctor-Specific. The conversation highlights that AI tools often recommend individual doctors associated with clinics, not just the clinic itself. That means the authority of each physician matters.

✅ Taking Over Google Profiles. The Hirsh Center claims and manages Google profiles for its providers, but LinkedIn and other personal branding channels are largely left to the individual doctor.

✅ Recruitment Is a Long Game. Recruiting rheumatologists is extremely difficult. Meredith explains that it can take around 18 months to hire a rheumatologist, partly because the training path is so long and the talent pool is so small.

✅ Retention Is Hard, Even When Culture Is Strong. Meredith shares examples of providers leaving for reasons outside her control, including family needs, relocation, and life changes after having children.

✅ Growth Depends on Clinical Supply. Demand is not the problem. The practice can only grow if it can hire and retain enough providers to serve more patients.

✅ Healthcare Reimbursement Is a Business Challenge. Meredith explains that Medicare physician reimbursement has not kept pace with cost-of-living increases, forcing independent practices to be creative and entrepreneurial.

✅ The 2016 Rebuild. After stepping away from daily operations, Meredith returned in 2016 to clean up the business, rework the culture, and rebrand the practice as The Hirsh Center for Arthritis and Sports Medicine.

✅ Revenue Growth Through Leadership. Meredith says the practice generated a little over $26 million last year and expects to reach around $30 million this year.

✅ Healthcare Is Behind on AI. She believes healthcare is still far behind in AI adoption, partly because of compliance, complexity, and the operational realities of medical practices.

 

Notable Quotes & Moments

📌 “My background’s in advertising.”

📌 “I always say I’m the agent and he’s my talent.”

📌 “Word of mouth is really not an advertising platform.”

📌 “Everybody Google searches their doctor before they go to see the doctor.”

📌 “If you are not on social media or you think you are not on social media, you are on social media.”

📌 “You have to be out there. You have to be part of your community. You have to be visible.”

📌 “If you stop trying to grow and you flatline, you’re essentially going on the decline.”

📌 “If you don’t make money, you don’t stay in business and you can’t reach your mission.”

📌 “The smartest one in the room is not the person who has the highest intelligence. It’s the person who knows who to ask.”

 

About Meredith Hirsh

Meredith Hirsh is the CEO of The Hirsh Center for Arthritis and Sports Medicine and host of Working Healthcare Podcast. With a background in advertising, real estate, education, and healthcare leadership, she helped build an independent rheumatology practice in South Florida into a major medical business. She also teaches in Florida Atlantic University’s certified medical business management executive education program, helping physicians understand the business side of medicine.

🔗 Website: http://thehirshcenter.com/
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithfhirsh/
🎙️ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/working-healthcare/id1746629912 

 

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👋 Connect with your hosts:
👉 Chris Panteli on LinkedIn
👉 Nick Biggs on LinkedIn

 

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