After months of careful planning, you’ve finally decided to relocate your medical clinic to another part of town, another city, or even another state. This could be due to a variety of reasons: the need for a bigger office, a more modern space, you are looking for more patients, etc.
It’s time to make preparations before the big move. If you’ve ever been in a home or office move before, you know how complex and challenging it can be. In a medical clinic, the process requires even more care because it involves specific factors that you should take care of to remain successful.
Thoroughly Clean Out Before the Move
Clinics deal with many sensitive materials that you must properly process when leaving your current space, such as toxic waste or radiation-emitting equipment. At the same time, you should take advantage of the disassembly and cleanup steps to get rid of unnecessary items that you can toss. As a move is not cheap, avoid transporting more than you need to your new location.
This checklist can help with the process:
- Pay special attention to the disassembly and transport of sensitive medical equipment.
- Take the opportunity to make an updated inventory of all items and their state of conservation.
- Avoid moving furniture or equipment that’s already very old. Sell or donate this material and purchase new items for the next location.
- To minimize downtime when reopening, prioritize transporting the most complicated equipment that requires reassembly and testing to function.
Inform the Current Patients
Your current patients need to be aware of the move well in advance. After all, you want your patients to move with you. At least a month before starting the moving process, give them updates through social media, emails, and the clinic’s website. Sending official and personalized correspondence to the private address of older patients can be a helpful tactic.
You can also keep your patients up to date on the new clinic and the benefits they will have from the move (more space, new procedures, etc.). The important thing is not to lose contact or bond with your customers, even if it is a move to another state. You never know how current connections can help grow your patient base in a new area.
Take Your Records Digital
Eventually, you will reach one of the most complex steps of a change of location: transporting and updating your clinic’s files. If you’re still working with paper records and reports, remember that this is the moment when files can be lost forever in transit. Or maybe you’ll never be able to organize them the same way again.
It might be a good time to plan for an EMR conversion. Electronic medical records (EMR) can improve patient care by allowing you to add and monitor information more practically and intuitively than a paper record. The system can easily generate graphs of each patient (to track personal data such as weight, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc.), improves the way you track chronic diseases, and allows faster and easier access to laboratory data, among other benefits.
Most importantly, EMR technology allows you to eliminate all the paperwork to improve the quality of care and enable more efficient management of each patient’s medical history. This will be vital while the staff is adjusting to the new location. They won’t have to waste time looking for patient data and can instead focus on providing proper care.
Offer Assistance for Employees
Another critical step in a move is deciding which and how many employees to bring with you. In addition to the more specialized professionals, you will have to consider whether it is worth keeping the entire team or whether it’s better to look for new professionals in the region where the new clinic will operate.
Remember that your current employees may need training on new systems if you take advantage of the relocation to expand services. They will also need time to get settled into the new location. Offer extra help and don’t burn them out between the move and the new location, considering that the whole process can be very stressful.
The Beginning of a New Path
A change of location can be stressful and laborious, especially for a medical clinic. But evaluate the process on the bright side: it’s also an excellent opportunity for you to start over and improve the services you provide. This can help you build loyalty with old customers (who will notice your desire to improve) and win new patients. Take the time to modernize your systems so you can continue to provide quality care in the future.
