Clinic Set Up - A Definitive Guide & Checklist

Most doctors aspire to establish their own clinic at some point in their professional career. One’s own clinic gives a sense of belonging and accomplishment that comes second to no other achievement.

As a doctor aiming to set up a new clinic, you need to be mindful of several aspects apart from having confidence in your skills and abilities. You will be setting up an enterprise that directly involves people’s health and safety, and you need to plan down to the T before setting your plan in motion. Without a well-thought plan, you will be planning to fail.

Step One; Skip None

The first step should be to prepare a business plan for setting up your new clinic. A business plan should essentially list every step in the journey of opening your new clinic along with the resources necessary for fulfilling every step. Preparing a business plan will help you analyse your requirements, strengths, and shortfalls and help you constructively work towards chalking out a path for successfully opening your new clinic.

Enumerate all the aspects in your plan; target audience, location, clinic renovation, equipment cost, staff remuneration, supplies, monthly working capital estimate, vendors, and more. Your target audience determines everything; location, staff experience, the type of equipment, and whatnot. Considering the above, prepare an estimate of the investment you will need for each item. Neither be conservative in your investment amount assessment nor overshoot.

Plan Finances

Once you are ready with a business plan, the next step is to find ways to raise money for getting your new clinic to life. The cost of setting up a clinic varies depending on your medical speciality. The speciality determines the type of equipment, which form a significant portion of the investment cost. For example, a general physician can operate out of a clinic without complex diagnostic equipment. In contrast, a dentist will usually require an X-ray machine and a long chair in their clinics that increases the investment amount.

There are several means of raising finances, such as:

• Bootstrapping: This is a debt-free model where you use your savings for setting up the clinic. 
• Family loans: You can borrow money from your family and friends to start your independent practice.
• Bank financing: Banks have custom loan products for doctors looking to set up a new clinic and start their practice. (Example)
• P2P lending: There are several peer-to-peer lending platforms that you can use to raise funds for your clinic setup. These are loans directly provided by individuals to individuals via the platform. However, you may find the interest rates to be relatively high as compared to other means.

Get Regulatory Permissions          

Clinics are required to apply for several mandatory statutory and regulatory permissions before the commencement of operations. Depending on the nature of its services, i.e., whether the clinic conducts surgical procedures or only provides consultation, clinics are required to obtain several licenses, such as:

• No Objection Certificate from the appropriate authority at the Fire Department
• No Objection Certificate from the Pollution Control Board
• Permission to handle bio-medical waste
• Tax certificate
• Shop and establishment license

It is best that you prepare an extensive list of permissions and licenses and apply for it well in advance of your clinic opening schedule, as such permits may even take longer than the anticipated time for approval and grant.

Finalise the Location and Design of the New Clinic

Location is of paramount importance. Here are certain things to keep in mind while zeroing in on a location for a new clinic:

• It should be easily accessible by private and public transport modes
• Car parking space for patients
• Elevator facility
• Avoid locations with an established presence of clinics offering the same services
• Testing laboratories and well-stocked pharmacies nearby
• Building should be structurally strong and well-painted; take the services of an architect to conduct a structural audit for extra safety
• It is advantageous if there is a separate and exclusive access point for the clinic in the building

After finalising the site for your new clinic, design the space while prioritising patient safety and comfort. Some points you can keep in mind while planning the layout of your clinic setup are:

• Keep a clear and unobstructed hallway
• Maintain ambient lighting and comfortable ventilation
• Design a disabled-friendly clinic with sufficient seating capacity
• Select furniture and fixtures that are easily cleanable on a regular basis.
• Use odourless, anti-microbial wall paint
• Keep space at the entrance for storing visitor shoes and bags during monsoons
• Install sufficient fire extinguishers
• Prefer electronic stoves/ovens over gas cylinders in the pantry

It is always advisable to take professional advice from architects and interior designers for designing your new clinic. Their expertise will expose you to finer details which will help in efficient use of space and make your new clinic optimally utilitarian.

Medical Diagnostic Equipments

The most important component of your clinic setup is the medical equipment and machines you require to conduct your patients’ check-up and consultation. Always do a thorough vendor check before buying any instruments or equipment and ensure that you purchase well-known, branded equipment. Blindly selecting a machine or equipment for the only reason of it being the most cost-friendly option can compromise the accuracy of results and the hygiene quotient of your clinic.

Some common instruments and equipment that are required in every type of clinic are:

• Blood pressure machine
• Stethoscope
• Weighing scale
• Pen torch
• First-aid kit
• Height measuring scale
• Resuscitation kit/ Ambu bag
• Thermometer

Apart from such instruments, and depending on the speciality of your new clinic, you may need special equipment and instruments, such as:

• Portable X-ray machine, specially if you are a dentist. The majority of clinics other than dentist clinics advise their patients to get an X-ray from a nearby testing centre.
• Glucose testing machine; most general physicians or diabetologists keep this machine.
• Surgical tools

Surgical Instruments

Some clinics conduct detailed surgical procedures. If you intend to perform surgeries in your clinic, here are the four types of surgical instruments you must have in your clinic:

• Cutting and Dissecting: These instruments are used to cut delicate tissues. Examples: scalpels, surgical scissors, blades.
• Clamping and Occluding: Such instruments are used to clamp blood vessels: Examples: Hemostats.
• Retracting and Exposing: These instruments are used to hold back or retract tissues or organs to gain exposure to the operative site during surgery.
• Grasping and Holding: Forceps is the most common example of this type of surgical instruments. As the name suggests, these are used to hold the tissue or part of an organ during the surgery.

Protective Face Masks & Gloves

The present times of the COVID-19 pandemic warrant extra precaution with regards to hygiene and social interaction. More so, in clinics and hospitals, where chances of any contagion transmission are higher as you and your staff will be consecutively interacting with individuals at close quarters.

You must use personal safety equipments like protective masks, surgical gloves, and medical gloves at all times in your clinic. You can perhaps keep some extra masks for patients who have arrived at your clinic without protective masks for the safety of all.

Ensure that you keep a separate closed bin for the safe disposal of masks and gloves in your clinic. Unless mentioned otherwise, do not reuse masks and gloves as that may be ineffective and dangerous for your health.

Medical Sterilization and Disinfection Products

Clinics can turn out to be a hotspot for infection and diseases if not cleaned thoroughly. Sterilization and disinfection products are regular supplies that you can purchase using the services of Amazon Business.

Such online purchases provide the convenience of ordering products at the click of a button and provides you with the benefits of B2B GST-compliant invoices that provides sizeable savings in the form of input tax credits.

With Amazon Business, you also have the option of receiving bulk discounts when buying in bulk for your everyday business needs, such as cleaning supplies.

You can place online orders for multiple cleaning and disinfection supplies that you will require for your clinic like:

• Floor disinfectant liquids
• Brooms and mops
• Sanitisers
• Medical disinfectant spray
• Cleaning wipes and dusters
• Cleaning gloves
• Dustbin bags
• Tissue papers

Billing, IT and Electronics

In a clinic setup, you will need some basic IT devices, such as:

• Computer
• Printer
• CCTV setup
• Fax machine
• Wi-Fi router
• Telephone system with intercom facility

You will also need software for billing, record-keeping, and appointment scheduling. If you want to go a step further, select a software that can also help you maintain the electronic health records of your patients.

Recruit Staff

Doctors need dedicated and professional staff to run their clinics. You can recruit staff through your network or take the services of staffing firms. Nurses and medical attendants need to be trained and certified, so please ensure you do a thorough background check before recruiting medical staff.

You will also require non-medical staff, such as a receptionist and housekeeping staff, to smoothly run your clinical operations. Sensitise all your staff about patient privacy and following hygienic practices. Professionally train them in soft skills.

Market Your Clinic

You will need to market your clinic in social media and other marketing channels to generate awareness about your new clinic. However, in this profession, nothing beats personal connections and word of mouth marketing.

Going the Extra Mile

You can take some extra measures to ensure that your team and clinic is well-equipped to deal with some common emergency scenarios. These situations can occur at any time, so it is best that you proactively train your staff to avoid any significant loss if such mishaps ever happen. Some measures you can take are:

• Prepare a fire-rescue map and train your staff to assist patients if a fire ever breaks out.
• Maintain active contact or association with a nearby hospital and ambulance provider. Many patients have the habit of visiting clinics rather than hospitals for every health problem. However, clinics are not equipped to deal with all health problems and in case of emergencies, by the time the patients reach the clinic, their health could have worsened. Having tie-ups with ambulances and hospitals can help you save your patient’s life by rushing them to the hospital and providing them critical care in time.
• Train your staff with CPR and first-aid procedures.

Such level of preparation displays your commitment towards patients and generates goodwill among patients.

Special Covid-19 Safety Measures

You can keep the Covid-19 spread at bay by following some simple Covid-19 protocols in your clinic.

Here are some steps that you can consider following:

• Use infrared thermometers to check visitor temperature at the entrance. If the temperature is higher than normal, do not let them enter the clinic and immediately follow government-mandated protocols.
• Keep sanitiser at the entrance door for visitors to clean their hands.
• Ask visitors to remove their shoes outside the clinic. Or, provide them disposable shoe covers.
• Ensure visitors wear masks before entering the clinic.
• Maintain a detailed visitor register with contact number and address for contact-tracing.

You can order all such medical instruments and medical supplies online through Amazon Business. The platform focuses on onboarding only genuine sellers and constantly vets their product listings to ensure that customers get quality products in all their purchases. On our website, you have the option of getting multiple quotes instantly and can also read detailed product descriptions and the latest reviews before finalising your purchase.

With Amazon Business, you need not worry about visiting vendors and arranging logistics. Just add items to your cart, select the best quotes, click Buy Now, and you are through with ordering for your new clinic in a few moments.