During the Covid-19 crisis, there has been a shift in the health practice arena due to the uncertainty of employment. Rather than leaving destiny up to their employers, practitioners want to secure their future by opening up a practice of their own. Many are wandering into this scary journey for the first time and are unaware of some of the pitfalls that will cost them time and money. Here are some of the major pitfalls we have observed that can upset what should be a fresh beginning.
Time Poor Practitioners
Practitioners are time-poor. Between a day packed with consultations, paperwork and general practice management, there is very little time for anything else. When a practitioner begins a project to create their practice, we have observed that they generally only invest time in the first few weeks of the project. After this, other commitments take priority, and the project ends up rushed to get finished. As a result of the lack of time, a practitioner will inevitably end up spending more money than necessary, sometimes up to three times the budget allocation for the project itself.
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To avoid this pitfall, practitioners must plan, schedule and be aware of the time expense that goes into opening their dream practice. It involves time spent with the correct stakeholders for the project and time allocation for project deviations.
“The Wedding Factor”
What is the wedding factor? Take buying roses. They would usually be $20 a bunch, however, because they are for a wedding they might end up costing $500 a bunch. This multiple of costing is seen in the health industry when a practitioner is trying to open their new practice or even run an already set up practice. As soon as contractors and sales teams are aware that their services rendered or product offering is for a health practice, we have noticed that the pricing suddenly skyrockets.
Although this may seem to be inevitable during the building of a practice or the general provision of services or equipment, there are several ways this can be avoided. Firstly, vetting multiple contractors or providers for the same service or product offering and bargaining with each to get the best pricing. Secondly, using a third party such as a consultancy firm in between parties can reduce the costs of the contractor to the project. Lastly and most importantly, being aware of what is a reasonable fee for the service or providing that they are providing and attempting to negotiate with that in mind
A Plumber Trying To Do An Electricians Work
Practitioners are highly trained in seeing patients, diagnosing medical ailments and providing treatment. Project management is often a new skill that many practitioners are yet to learn and end up having to do so very quickly while making their dream practice. This process can be a very steep learning curve for them and inevitably cost them time, money and result in undue stress. Most importantly, it may result in practice that is very different from the practice they had in mind.
In our experience, practitioners that have managed the process in the past, have realised it was inefficient to manage the project themselves and see the importance of having a good project management team on board throughout. The management team take the project out of the practitioners’ hands, allowing them to continue providing healthcare uninterrupted.
Project management can be time-consuming for a practitioner but, without well-laid plans and strict time management, resource and budget management, a dream practice may turn out to be a costly and stressful headache.
To find out more about healthcare practice project management, please call healthprac on 0424628735 or info@healthprac.com.au