Opening a new clinic location is an exciting experience. But it’ll take a lot of work to get all of your ducks in a row, and it can be nerve wracking when things aren’t falling into place the way you’d hope. Whether it’s your first time opening a new clinic location or your twentieth, this doesn’t change. Although, things begin get a little easier when you’re able to create a list of all the tasks that must be completed. In this article, we’ll be discussing some of the things that deserve a place on your new clinic location checklist.

 

Choose the neighbourhood where you’ll be setting up shop

 

There are many reasons why you may be prompted to open a new clinic location. Chief among them is the geographic location.

 

Your clinic might be located in the heart of the city, and many of your patients are travelling there from the neighbouring suburban communities. If there’s one particular community where many of your patients are residing, then there’s a good chance that the new clinic will be well attended. Other considerations for the location of your new clinic include: the neighbourhood’s affluence, its ease of access, and your nearby competitors.

 

Decide which staff members to send there

 

The next thing you’ll need to figure it is who will be working at this new clinic location. There are essentially two options: moving your current staff members there or hiring entirely new ones.

 

If you choose to send existing staff members to the new location, try to choose one or two that are intimately familiar with the way you’re running your other practice(s). It’s unlikely that you’ll need to send many therapists there in the beginning while you’re still growing your client list.

 

On the subject of growing, it’s a good idea to hire some part-time therapists to work at your new clinic location, too. If they have experience in the field, they may even bring some clients with them!

 

Do you treat it as a new branch or a separate business?

 

When you’re opening up a new clinic location, you’ll need to decide if you want to treat it as a completely separate clinic, or simply as another branch.

 

Opening up a new branch is great when your clinic has established brand awareness. After years of building a reputation of amazing service, you’re able to extend that reputation to all of the clinic locations bearing your name. Branding is also important for consistency—just think of McDonald’s. You know that you can travel across the country, step into a McDonald’s, and order the same hamburger that you’d find at the McDonald’s down the street from your home. It might not be the greatest burger, but you know that it’s more or less going to be the same. And in the end, you’re not going there for a great burger–y0u’re going there for something familiar.

 

Opening a new branch also helps to mitigate expenses. Instead of creating a brand new website for your new clinic, you can retain your existing website and add the information about the new location. You also don’t have to worry about paying a designer to create a new logo, promotional material, etc.

 

One situation where you may not want to turn your new clinic into a branch is if you’re purchasing someone else’s clinic. The reason for this goes back to our point about brand awareness. If the clinic you’re purchasing has already established itself as on of the community’s leading practices, rebranding it may do more harm than good.

 

Ensure the clinic is equipped with the tools it needs to effectively treat patients

 

Last but not least, make sure that your new clinic has everything it will possibly need to treat patients. Everything from treatment tables to your EMR software ought to be good to go by the time you open your doors to the public.

 

Speaking of EMR software, Practice Perfect makes it easy for clinics that are opening new clinic locations. You can share a database while maintaining unique schedules and client lists for each location. Additionally, clinic owners with multiple sites are eligible to save a few bucks with the multi-site discount.

 

Contact us today to inquire about the multi-site discount.

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