The Executive Suite: Opening Your Private Clinic: What you need to know

Maybe you’ve just graduated from medical school, and you’re burning to change the world for the better with your practice, or you’ve been in the medical field for years, and you have saved up your money to open a successful clinic, the truth is that it hardly matters.

Opening a successful private clinic is hard, and you’ll need help along the way. Choosing appropriate medical assistant uniforms will be the least of your problems and more often than not, you’ll have to think like a businessman and not as a doctor.

With that said, we decided to sit down and really think about how to set up a private clinic for success. Is there a wireframe that can help you do it? Well, in truth, there might be something quite close to a wireframe. Of course, it’s not a fool-proof method by no means, but it is a guide that can help you make the first steps in a successful way.

You’ll need a business plan in order to succeed, as it’s really a business.

Kind of strange, right? Many new doctors don’t ever think about the business aspect of running a private clinic, but in order to run a successful clinic, you will have to be business savvy.

Mainly because starting a clinic requires huge upfront investments. Sometimes, you will even have to get outside funding, or you may even start your whole clinic from the very beginning with investor’s money.

It doesn’t matter really. The truth is that you will have to think like a businessman and you will need a solid business plan on how you’re going to recoup your investment from the very beginning, and if you have never done this before, you’ll need outside help.

Your clinic’s location can play a huge role in how successful you are.

Have you found the perfect spot to open your private practice clinic yet? If you’re still searching, you may want to pay that little bit extra for renting or buying a property that’s in a better location, or even in a better neighborhood.

The thing is, the more premium the location, the more you’ll be able to charge for your expert knowledge. And you want to recoup this investment fairly quickly and potentially expand your operation with more clinics.

The proper equipment is one of the most expensive investments you’ll ever make, but it’s crucial.

And while we’re on the topic of expansion, the thing that you’ll have to spend the most money on is equipment. Depending on the field of medicine that you operate in this equipment will vary in pricing, but expect to pay premium dollars.

The reason is that the more expensive the equipment, the higher the price of the procedure. But you’ll still need the right exposure, know-how, and marketing (more on that in a bit) to recoup the investment that you have made.

Figuring out the billing process isn’t as straightforward as you may think.

Betcha that’s something you haven’t put too much thought into. And it’s normal, and most doctors don’t spend six years in medical school to learn how accounting works.

But if you want to have a successful private clinic, you will need to create a solid billing plan that’s suitable for your clinic’s type of operation.

If you do everything in-house, you will have to hire a professional who has experience with the billing process inside a private clinic. And the best way you can figure out how to set up your billing process is to speak with doctors who are running their own private clinics and take know-how from them.

You’ll need to be solid in your marketing if you want to stand out from the competition.

And finally, you have to be a great marketer in order to succeed with your private clinic. With that said, one of the best ways to stand out as a great doctor is to market your practice.

Moreover, if you let your patients do the marketing for you, via referring friends from word to mouth, you can be sure you’re doing great work. And not only that but using your work is the ultimate marketing technique. You can be pretty sure people will start coming to you for their medical needs.

To recap everything, running a private clinic is no easy job. You will have to take off your doctor’s hat and put on your businessman hat quite often. This is what will help you build a successful clinic, and eventually expand your operation with more locations.