Setting up your own private medical practice may seem somewhat daunting, but if this is a passion of yours that you would like to follow then why not pursue this. If you are organized, patient, and willing to work hard there is no reason why this dream of yours cannot turn into reality. So if you are considering this as an option, then here is a guide on what you will need and how to follow things through.
A Location/Premise
This is going to be a top priority before you even commence with the rest of your plans, a location from which you can run and operate your medical practice. It will be useful to shop around for a good location prior to purchasing the lease and to visit it in person. You don’t just want to buy the first location you come across. It will be extremely useful to opt for a location that has good transport links as this will be able to serve those in the community that does not drive.
Financial Resources
You are going to need a good amount of financial resources to set up your practice and keep it going after that. So you will want to ensure that you have enough finances in place prior to setting up the practice and beyond. Keeping some savings aside specifically, that you can inject into the practice whenever you require will be useful. This will allow you to separate your personal savings from the finances that you need to keep the practice running successfully.
A Business Plan
Having a business plan in place will be useful to have so that you can establish what your goals are for the practice and how you envisage the growth of the business. You will need to know how much cash you need to get started and what your in and outgoings will be on a yearly basis.
Despite the medical practice being an important facility for patients to be able to be seen by a medically trained team, you still need to ensure that you make a profit as ultimately it is a business prospect. So the ability to make money each year will be important if you plan for the practice to keep afloat on a yearly basis.
Qualified Medical Professionals
Now, this is going to be high up on your list, hiring a team of professional, qualified doctors that will treat your patients. You may be qualified yourself and want to be a doctor as well as the founding member of the practice, but if you do not work in the medical field then you will still need to set up some interviews. It will be important to vet your doctors, nurses, and support team so that you can check the qualifications on their resume and meet them face to face.
Being able to provide the correct medical advice is important as a medical professional, but it is just as important to have good people skills to be able to talk to patients. Ideally, you will want medical professionals that have the ability to diagnose the correct ailments and illnesses as well as have a great demeanor and sympathetic attitude towards others. You will not get good reviews from patients if they find that the doctors you hire do not have adequate people skills.
A Support Team That Includes Nurses and Receptionists
Your private medical practice is going to need nurses to administer vaccines and provide ailments for minor illnesses which will free up your doctors to deal with more complicated medical matters. You will also need to hire a team of receptionists who will be able to provide a warm welcome to your patients and organize any routine appointments. It is also vital to have a support team so that more elderly patients are able to ring up and talk to a person or visit the practice in person as not everyone will have a smartphone or laptop in which they can use to book their appointments. So it is important to cater to all ages in the community.
Software Programs For Appointment Reminders
To help facilitate a smooth booking process for your patients, you could utilize appointment reminder services. It is easy to organize by outsourcing this to a company that specializes in this sector. It will enable you to manage your appointments much more effectively with the software program, which would automatically send out email and text reminders to patients. As we live in such a digital age now, it is far easier for patients who have the technology, to be able to click on links through their smartphones and have a reminder pop up regarding their upcoming appointment.
Medical Equipment
Now the next thing you will require will be quite a few medical supplies, which will include the smaller items such as plasters, gauze, sample pots, face masks, gloves, dressing, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, temperature check, as well as larger items such as the examining couch. It will be best to compile a list starting from the larger items and then work your way through to the smaller items.
Furniture and Accessories
Once you have compiled your list of medical equipment, next you will need to consider all the furniture that you will need in your medical practice. It is best to start off with the doctor’s examining room, so you will need things like a desk, chairs for both the professional and the patient, a couch to be examined on, and some cabinets and shelves.
Then in the waiting area, you will want to have some comfortable chairs, a coffee table for magazines, and then the receptionist’s desk with filing cabinets and drawers.
Technological Equipment
You might want to hire the expertise of an IT specialist, which you can outsource instead of hiring someone full-time. They will be able to advise accordingly on what type of computer system will suit your medical practice needs and having a good quality wifi connection. The last thing you want is to have endless problems with bad internet and issues with your computer system which would be pretty stressful.
You will also want to use a system that you find easy to use and understand, along with your hired staff so that they can get through the day without delaying their tasks.
Insurance Policies
You will certainly need to put in place some paperwork that will ensure that the medical practice is protected from different scenarios. Insurance policies will cover things like accidental damage, fire, theft, and medical malpractice. If you are not completely sure about the fine print regarding these documents then it is definitely worth hiring an attorney to go through this with you, that way you are fully protected from any unwanted scenarios.
Advertorial Content
Marketing the practice will be just as important as setting it up. Without any advertorial content, it will be pretty difficult to attract any new patients. You can either hire a marketing expert or social media manager to manage the day-to-day advertorial content as you will already have enough to be dealing with to spend sufficient time on this as well.
Conclusion
With a good level of organizational skills, ambition, drive, meticulous planning, and financial resources there is no reason why you cannot successfully set up your own private medical practice and keep it running for as long as possible.
