Six Common Mistakes You Should Avoid When Starting a New Physical Therapy Clinic

The day has finally arrived.  Your PT shingle is ready to hang and your first patient is about to walk through the front door of your very own Physical Therapy clinic.  But prior to opening day, a significant amount of planning and hard work, not to mention valuable resources, must be directed towards your new pride and joy.  This document is designed to help anyone navigate the choppy waters of purchasing new clinical equipment and supplies for a startup facility and prevent unnecessary and costly mistakes.  Take the time to read this report and choose an equipment distributor that has a plan of action for each and every item discussed in this document.  Choose a prepared and experienced distributor wisely and you will enjoy the experience as well as preserve valuable resources including your sanity.

1. Be Very Specific With Your New Equipment List:  Although an obvious statement, you might be surprised how many seemingly savvy and well educated clinicians make this first major mistake.  Sending an equipment list lacking equipment specifics and firing that off to 3 or 4 vendors for pricing is the first major no-no of this report.  What the clinician does not realize is that a very general list of product names provided to a vendor with instructions to offer pricing or make suggestions will put your vendor in an adversarial frame of mind.  If they realize the list was sent to more than one bidder, the smart vendors will submit a bid with the cheapest, most stripped down version of an item knowing the bottom line dollar amount is going to weigh heavily for or against winning the deal.  For example, if the list contains a treadmill, the gain may go to the vendor that leaves off medical rails or includes a residential only warranty.  If the therapist does not catch this, and it is not easy if details are lacking, the vendor knows that adding medical rails later will most likely occur after all negotiations are complete and can be purchased at list price.  Another example that commonly trips up clinicians trying to open their new facility on a limited budget are electric hi-lo tables.  The assumption when comparing quotes might be that all tables include casters.  The low bidder’s table may not include casters and thus an apples-to-apples comparison is not achieved.

2. Don’t Rely Only on a Catalog:  Although it takes valuable time, the worst thing you can do is to choose the tools you will use to effectively treat your patients from a printed document that is out of date the day after it was printed.  Or, worse yet, rely solely on your knowledge of current modalities and techniques from the last facility where you were employed.  Technology advantages are introduced practically on a monthly basis and relying on only what you have used in the past limits your opportunity to attract the highest number of referrals.  I suggest you meet with 1 or 2 trusted sales representatives and utilize their knowledge of the competition, available product trends and equipment upgrades that you may not realize even exist.  They have experience working with other clinicians whom may have made mistakes that you can avoid.  Caution, not all sales representatives are created equal and you should choose wisely based on reputation, breadth of product offering, intelligence and experience in the industry.

3. The Price of the Item on the Quote is Not the True Cost:  Inexperienced buyers typically look at the prices on the quotation, ask for an estimate of freight and make their decision based on the lowest total dollar figure from multiple vendors.  The hidden costs in opening a new clinic can be significant.  You should consider that many of the national “big box” distributors will win the bid and then ship the items to the new facility dock to dock.  There are several problems with this scenario that end up landing on your shoulders.

Instead, hire a distributor for your new clinic that can deliver and install your new equipment on a convenient, preplanned day that is in sync with your opening date.  Make sure they use their own employees that care about the results and have previous experience with a new clinic setup.

 

4. Don’t Assume Anything When it Comes to Freight:  This is an area that must be managed effectively or conflict may occur upon receipt of the final bill.  Do not take anything for granted and think about these important questions when determining which company will best serve you.

5. Before Accepting A Final Bid, Make Sure Your List is Complete: Opening a new physical therapy clinic is the same as building a new home or office building.  Change orders are expensive.  Don’t forget the step stool or the gel warmer and make sure everything you want is in the final bid package.  To add it later usually comes without price comparison and is a potential profit center for the distributor. 

6. Relying on Product Operation Manuals and Previous Experience to Get The Most Out of Your New Equipment:  The age of technology is upon us and smart clinicians want to get the most out of the equipment they have invested in.  When you purchase equipment from internet sites and low bidders, it is easy to forget about the very important product in-service required by many liability insurance carriers and Health Maintenance Organizations.  Modern electronic therapy equipment is designed with time saving efficiencies that may not be intuitive and do not get used because no one knows they exist.  Ask for an initial onsite in-service and inquire about future product training as you add staff or new employees join your team.

There is no reason that opening your first or thirtieth new clinic cannot be a professional and pleasant process.  At Advantage Medical, we have found this to be the case because we take extra steps to anticipate and avoid these costly mistakes.  Please give us a call if you are looking for a partner with solutions to assist with your next capital equipment purchase.

 

By Jeff Worrell of PT Talker