Essentials For Starting and Growing Your Healthcare Clinic

What are the first steps towards opening your own health/medical clinic and how to grow it if you already have one?

 

Opening their own medical practice is a route many professionals prefer. Although an exciting step, it can get quite challenging and tiresome. There are a number of hurdles that need to be thought of and dealt with. However, this should not deter one from taking up this challenge. One of the best ways to ensure a successful venture is to come up with a clear and detailed plan from the very beginning with well-defined milestones for yourself. To help you with the same, we have created a step by step guide to set up your medical clinic.

To begin with, we must state that there is no universal formula for starting a medical practice. You might opt for a professional consultant who has started medical practices before, knows the pitfalls and challenges, and can advise you on medical malpractice insurance and workers' compensation. The nitty-gritties of starting up vary as per the specialty, while some laws and regulations differ from state to state. However, the basics for the establishment remain the same all through. Let’s look at some of the things to keep in mind as you open your own health clinic.

  1. Funding: One of the foremost step is to find a trustworthy and reliable source for your funds. You can opt for multiple options varying from banks and financial institutions to family or friends. Each of these have their own pros and cons which need to be deliberated up on in detail. It is important to choose the one best suited to your needs and that which will prove profitable in the long run. Only with a strong back up can be focus on the further developments for your clinic.

  2. Purchasing equipment: Once you have the funding in place, you need to start putting together the basic requirements for your clinic. Choosing the right medical equipment is a task that many don’t take seriously. The kind of products and where you source them from can make or break your set up. You need to ensure that you get all of the supplies and equipment from verified distributors or manufacturers, who are reliable, provide quality products and are known for their services. You can always check out online medical suppliers such as Smart Medical Buyer for their impeccable services.

  1. Staffing: Another important aspect is getting your staff right. Without a knowledgeable, well read and talented staff, running the clinic on your own can never work out in the long run. You need people who can take up the responsibility and perform their duties without constant supervision. Ensure that the responsibilities are mapped out and there exists a flow in the functioning among the clinic staff.

Some other things to keep in mind while planning your own clinic include construction planning, credentialing doctors with payers, and marketing. These processes generally take some time and should be implemented as soon as you are done finalising your business plan.

 

Having an effective and impactful marketing strategy is equally important for a medical establishment that is already fully functioning. For you to ensure that your practice grows with time and you are able to garner more and more clients, there are certain steps that one needs to take. Your clinic should offer top notch services at reasonable rates so that patients do not hesitate coming to you whenever required.  It goes without saying that while you need to maintain a good relationship with your existing patients, you also need to focus on adding new patients and grow your practice. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can boost your clinic’s presence.

  1. Target audience: It is very important for you to have a clear understanding of the type of patients that your clinic attracts. There are a number of variables involved such as your speciality, the age group majority of your patients fall in, gender, and profession among other things. You can study your existing clients to collect this data. Once you get the results, it becomes easier for you to devise your marketing techniques and referral programs based on the type of clients you get. This shall prove to be a very effective technique to increase your reach and expand your business.

  2. Qualified team: Your patient’s first interaction at the clinic is with your staff and team. Before he or she reaches you, they have already experienced the comfort and professionalism at your clinic through your team members. It is absolutely essential to train your staff for creating a great first impression and addressing all the requirements of the patient with full conviction. The staff must be fully aware of all that you have to offer and how they can help the patient with their problems. It is only through your team that you can create a wholesome and comfortable experience for your patients and ensure that they come back to you in the future.

  1. Follow up with patients: Most of the medical clinics tend to spend almost 90% of their resources on new patients. However, retaining your existing clients is one of the easiest ways to ensure that your practice grows. Not only does it give you regular and trustworthy clients but is also a very cost effective way to ensuring a fixed clientele. If your existing clients are happy with your service they are bound to refer your place in their circle and nothing works better than words of mouth and personal experience in terms of medical institutions, thus automatically, increasing your chances of getting new clients.

  2. Mobile friendly website: You cannot afford to have an outdated website in today’s time. It is critical to have a modern, user friendly and interactive website to get more clients. Almost everyone accesses the internet through their phones and having a website that does not conform to phone standards will definitely make out lose out on a large number of patients. It reflects badly on your business and gives an impression of the clinic being old and regressive. Therefore, make it a point that you update your website regularly and keep it interactive.

 

The world we live in is constantly evolving and to keep up with the times, we need to adapt to the changes as well. You need to regularly review your functioning and marketing strategy to analyse your growth potential and its execution. You might find it beneficial to foster a relationship with a potential high growth patient as it allows you to improve existing services and products and at the same time focus on how to garner new clients for your clinic.