Looking to run your own business? There are countless options out there that will give you all the perks of being a business owner. Choosing the industry you operate in, choosing the size and growth of your business, who you work with, your branding and so much more. But it’s important to say that running some businesses will prove easier than others. This is because certain fields require more compliance, regulations, and safety measures implemented. One of the harder areas to delve into is opening up a business within the healthcare industry. At the same time, this can be a greatly rewarding area of focus in many ways too. Financially, there’s a lot of money to be made. Morally, you can rest assured that you’re helping people on a day-to-day basis. But where should you even start when it comes to launching a healthcare company and brand? Here are some areas of focus that you’ll inevitably face at some point or another down the line.
Choose the Right Space
To open any healthcare facility, you’re going to need a space to operate from. The right space to suit your needs will depend on a wide variety of factors. First and foremost, take a look at the local area and see whether there is another specialist in your chosen field already established. It can be hard to draw loyal patients to a new surgery that is close to their current one. You need to find a location where there is a need for what you’re offering and as little competition as possible. This will help to secure a good base of patients who will use your services on an ongoing basis. Secondly, you need to ensure that any spaces you’re looking at buying or renting are suitable for your purpose. This may mean having large spaces, smaller spaces, private spaces, soundproofing between rooms, and more to ensure that patients can be seen, are comfortable, and feel that everything shared is confidential. Browse a variety of options until you find something that fits your budget and that is available when you need it.
Have the Right Licences
Often, you’ll find that you need specific licenses to be able to operate a healthcare facility. As you can imagine, this is an area where you will be working with particularly vulnerable people and where you will have access to very personal information and data. It’s not all too surprising that the industry is heavily regulated. Research what licenses you need to operate your facility in your chosen area. This can vary from one place to another. You may also find that individual staff members need to have licenses and be background checked before starting work with patients. Check and double-check everything that is required to ensure that you don’t fall into problematic areas with the law.
Choose the Right Staff
The type of healthcare facility you decide to run will dictate the kind of staff you need on board. Some common roles that you’re likely to fill may include pharmacists, surgeons, doctors, nurses, midwives, administrative staff, porters, imaging assistants, ward catering staff, cleaners, support workers, phlebotomists, and more. Of course, each of these roles will have specific qualifications and experience required, which will be clearly dictated by regulating bodies in the region you’re operating. Make sure to look properly into requirements so you know what you need to check from potential candidates. Here are some requirements for the most commonly recruited roles to give you an idea to get started with.
Doctors
- Diagnose patients
- Prescribe medicine or refer for further treatment
- Provide test results
- Supporting patients
Nurses
- Monitoring patients’ vital signs and general condition
- Administering medicine
- Requesting diagnostic and clinical tests
- Keeping patient records
- Creating treatment plans
- Passing required information to patients and families
Support Workers
- Scheduling and conducting meetings with clients
- Assessing patients’ needs
- Creating care plans and treatment plans
- Attending healthcare and agency appointments
- Teaching families how to support the patient
- Completing domestic duties
- Record and data keeping
Of course, you need to ensure your staff are highly trained and competent at their jobs, as you want to make sure you’re providing a high level of patient care. You don’t want misdiagnosis or equipment malfunctions to be a regular occurrence. You could even offer additional training to the staff in your practice, through online courses like NEBOSH courses, or through classroom days with an instructor. This will provide your staff with the necessary skills and will assure patients in their skills.
Besides responsibilities, other characteristics are really important in healthcare staff. It’s all good and well having the best trained and qualified individuals, but seeing as this is such a people-oriented industry, you need to make sure that they’ll treat patients well and have good bedside manners too. The staff you hire should be empathetic and compassionate, able to understand things from the patient’s perspective. They also need to practice patience. Sometimes people will be going through tough and frustrating times and supporting them through this can be tasking.
Provide a Uniform
Medical staff almost always work in uniform. This is a sensitive environment to work in where people can feel unsafe, worried, scared, or insecure. Whether they’re having a blood test or major surgery. You need to instill a sense of professionalism and responsibility in the space, as well as ensure that patients can confidently and easily decipher who is working in the healthcare facility and who are other patients. This is why you need to make sure that you have a variety of uniforms for different staff members, making them easily recognizable to patients, as well as other members of their team. You may require surgical scrubs for surgeons and surgical assistants. You may need Uniform Advantage Scrubs for nurses and midwives. You may need specific uniforms for cleaners or people who distribute food and drink around the ward. The list goes on. In short, make sure you have specific uniform requirements for different members of staff and that everyone sticks to them.
Provide the Right Equipment
Healthcare facilities are dependent on more than staff alone. Your team is going to need the right tools and equipment to carry their jobs out to a high standard and there are likely a lot of different items, appliances, and machinery on this list. First, start looking into the services you want to provide. Some healthcare facilities will be niche and specialized. For example, if you decide to open up a chiropractor, you’re not going to have any use for an MRI scanner. If you specialize in podiatry, you’re not likely to need equipment for taking blood. However, if you have a more generalized surgery, you may need more equipment available to tackle a wider range of conditions. Make sure to browse the market and find quality options at a good price. There’s a whole industry that revolves around selling medical equipment to medical facilities and most salespeople will be able to come to a deal or agreement with you.
Take Out Insurance
Every business that operates closely with the public, and can have an impact on their health, safety, or general wellbeing, needs to make sure that it is well insured. Sure, this may be a big expense, but it’s not all too surprising that insurance should feature high in the list of priorities of any medical facility. Finding the right cover for the care and services you provide can be complex and difficult, but you need to make sure that you speak to relevant professionals to find the right cover to suit your needs. Don’t cut any corners, as this can come back to bite you if anything does go wrong down the line. You will also want to make sure that you have insurance on your premises and their contents, as medical equipment is costly and will need to be replaced if there are any issues such as theft, flooding, and more.
Branding
When we think of branding, we tend to think of more commercial products, such as clothing, food, beauty products, and more. But you will need to brand your medical practice or healthcare facility too. Sure, it may be a different type of branding, but you need to make sure that your facility reflects itself as professional, trustworthy, and knowledgeable. It’s a good idea to work with a branding agency. They will be able to present you with ideas that can help you to choose everything from color schemes to a name to a logo and more. Popular colors for medical practices tend to include white and blue. Consider your target demographic and make sure to complete plenty of market research to get insight into your different ideas before settling.
Marketing
When you get closer to the date of your facility’s launch, you’re going to need to start looking into marketing. It’s all good and well having the greatest facility in the world ready to go, but if nobody knows it exists, you’re not going to get any new patient sign-ups. You’re going to have to market your facility to get people on board. Again, a third-party marketing company can help with this. If you are focused on running a home care business, then make sure that you use targeted help such as a home care marketing agency, for example, as they will know what you will need, and how you can reach out to your target audience.
These, of course, are just a few of the basics when it comes to setting up and launching your own healthcare business. There are bound to be other steps, as well as ups and downs along the way, but hopefully, some of the guidance above will get this journey started in the right direction for you.