Do you want to start an urgent care center and need to write a plan? If YES, here is a sample urgent care center business plan template & feasibility report.
The urgent care industry in recent years have been driven by a new breed of healthcare consumer that wants quality medical care served with the sort of ease that fits snugly into their on-demand lifestyles. The long waits to see a traditional doctor, the lack of after-hours care, and cost-effective healthcare services are booming this business.
Many doctors, private equity firms, and even legacy medical providers such as hospitals and primary care physicians are now beginning to open urgent care clinics. So, if you’re one of those who think urgent care is the right business opportunity for you, then have it in mind that your success requires more than money and a healthcare provider.
A Sample Urgent Care Centre Business Plan Template
1. Industry Overview
Urgent care centres are convenient, on-demand care outlets akin to walk-in retail clinics, but instead of treating low-acuity conditions such as bronchitis and minor infections, urgent care clinics are equipped to handle more serious ailments, including fractures, sprains, and wounds. They also offer services like blood tests, stitching, and X-rays.
These centres can serve as a first step in the patient’s journey as well by referring patients to follow-up appointments or ERs. Although these centres are not meant for life-threatening emergencies, urgent care clinics provide easy access to quality healthcare for times when primary care doctor are not readily available.
According to industry reports, the number of urgent care facilities in the united states increased from 6,400 in 2014 to 8,100 in 2018, with another 500 to 600 expected to open. Some 24/7 urgent care centres function like satellite emergency rooms, and incur similar costs, while other centres simply charge co-pays.
Howbeit, urgent care visit is a money-saver for patients. Statistics have it that ER treatment costs were about 10 times more (an average of about $2,200) than in an urgent care centre (about $168) — even for patients with the same diagnosis.
Due to the overlap urgent care centres have with family medicine and emergency medicine, they are more likely to be staffed accordingly with at least one medical physician or specialist, as well as a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or radiologist available to see patients any time the facility is open.
2. Executive Summary
Rose Petal Clinic (RPC) will be developed to complement the existing acute care hospital (St. Rose Dominican Hospital) located in Henderson, Nevada, to provide direct healthcare access to the populace. Urgent care is the delivery of ambulatory care in a facility dedicated to the delivery of unscheduled, walk-in care outside of a hospital emergency department.
Development of the facility will facilitate access to care providers through extended service hours within closer geographic proximity to patients, families, and caregivers.
Under the leadership of the Nevada Board of Health (BOH), the linkage between Rose Petal Clinic and St. Rose Dominican Hospital will limit the duplication of services that would lead to unnecessary medical spending without discernible quality or service benefits by providing administrative and medical oversight.
By organising RPC under the Nevada BOH, we hope to minimize our operating costs by leveraging the existing infrastructure provided by BOH. The Office of Emergency Services will provide clinical monitoring to ensure quality service provisions.
RPC will also be integrated into the emergent care system of Henderson. We will act to alleviate demand for ED services by shifting lower acute patients to a less resource-intensive environment. Emergent patients entering our clinic will be triaged and stabilized.
Meanwhile, ambulance service will be located at Rose Petal Clinic to transfer emergent patients to the St. Rose Dominican ED. Also, locating ambulances at RPC provides superior response times to the far ends of the city. Our facility design must meet the needs of clinicians and consumers.
We understand that consumers invariably associate the quality of healthcare services with the aesthetics of the site of care. At RPC, our facility will be designed to blend into the local architecture to be a part of our community. Design will focus more on clinical efficiency and safety.
Our urgent care centre will be designed to accommodate urgent patients who must be continually monitored by our staff. Also, the waiting area will remain in the line of sight to a receptionist to quickly respond to patient needs. Our exam room will be located around the central nursing/physician station to allow for continual monitoring.
Additionally, the central workstation will provide our staff the opportunity to remain in constant contact, promoting communication and teamwork. A single entry point will be available at the front of the facility with a separate exit point. An ambulance entrance will also be provided for quick exit by the EMTs located onsite.
3. Our Products and Services
At Rose Petal Clinic, we will provide treatment to patients suffering from non-life-threatening conditions that require quick attention, including bone fractures, pneumonia, flu, and minor lacerations. For decades, hospitals have looked to urgent care centres to reduce rates of inappropriate ED utilization by triaging non-emergent patients to less acute settings.
Non-urgent patients account for well over 10 percent of the average EDs caseload, and semi-urgent cases account for another 20 percent. At the other end of the acuity spectrum, most emergent patients would be better served in an inpatient unit, but many are forced to board in the ED because beds are unavailable. Triaging patients to appropriate site of care properly allocates resources to meet patient acuity and result in better clinical outcomes.
Patients get more abbreviated and pointed clinical work-ups, which provides care more efficiently done by clinicians who are oriented to less intense discovery and intervention. We will also address community needs for convenient, reliable access to care.
Our clinic will fill the gap, acting as mid-level service provider in between that of the ED and GPs. To meet the needs of the community and provide the appropriate level of care without unnecessary duplication of a resource intensive Emergency Department, our clinic will provide basic emergent procedures, diagnoses and treatments.
Although, we plan to ensure that we inform the community about the limitations of our clinic and also maintain St. Rose Dominican ED as the focal point for high-acuity patients. The following are basic list of services we will offer at Rose Petal Clinic;
- Nursing triage
- Physician Assessments
- Minor procedures
- Basic Lab Services
- Basic Diagnostic Imaging
- Vital signs
- IV Therapy
- EKG
- Wound care
4. Our Mission and Vision Statement
- Our mission at Rose Petal Clinic is to promote the health and well-being of the population of Henderson and the State of Nevada by providing accessible, high-quality urgent care for people of all ages.
- At Rose Petal Clinic, our vision is to provide services that will exceed the expectations of our patients, resulting in a successful and profitable business.
Our Business Structure
At Rose Petal Clinic, aside from Dr Dorothy Connor (The Clinic Director), we plan to launch out with seven health workers: a nutritionist, three medical assistants and three nurse practitioners. We will also employ the services of other business personnel to help protect lives.
All our health employees will be paid hourly wages and have health and dental benefits. But as the business grows and profits start rolling in, we will add additional personnel to help with referrals and additional responsibilities that will be needed at that time.
We also plan to create a policy and procedures manual that will act as a guide to sick pay, leave, vacation, hourly wages, payment, etc. The philosophies and guidelines in this manual will help maintain proper clinical structure. Our business structure includes;
- Clinical Director (Physician)
- Nursing Practitioner
- Medical assistants
- Admin and Personnel Manager
- Nutritionist
- Accountants/Cashiers
- Security Officers
- Cleaners
5. Job Roles and Responsibilities
Clinical Director
- Oversees all other employees within the clinic.
- Align with the board of directors and other health workers to determine if the clinic is in accordance with goals and policies.
- Charged with encouraging business investment.
- Promotes economic development within communities.
- In charge of directing the clinic’s financial goals, objectives, and budgets.
- Implement the clinic’s guidelines on a day-to-day basis.
- In charge of hiring, training, and terminating employees.
- In charge of developing and implementing strategies and set the overall direction of a certain area of the clinic
- Provide visionary and strategic leadership for the clinic.
- Collaborate with BOH to develop the policies and direction of the clinic.
- He makes sure that the BOH have the information necessary to perform their fiduciary duties and other governance responsibilities.
- Provide adequate and timely information to BOH to enable it to effectively execute its oversight role.
- Direct staff, including clinical structure, professional development, motivation, performance evaluation, discipline, compensation, personnel policies, and procedures.
Nurse Practitioner
- Diagnose, treat, and manage acute and chronic illnesses.
- In charge of health promotion, disease prevention, and health education and counselling.
- In charge of conducting, supervising, and interpreting diagnostic and laboratory tests.
- Prescribe pharmacological agents and non-pharmacologic therapies.
- Helps patients make better lifestyle and health choices.
- Serve as researchers and patient advocates for the clinic
Medical Assistants
- Getting treatment and examination rooms ready for patients
- Getting patients ready for examinations, treatments and procedures
- Assisting with examinations and routine procedures, including minor surgery
- In charge of taking blood samples and specimens, dressing wounds and recording vital signs
- Performing routine lab tests
- Aseptic technique and infection control
- Sterilization of equipment
- Administering medications
- Performing some administrative duties, for example arranging lab work and prescriptions or filing patient records
Admin and Personnel Manager
- In charge of overseeing the running of HR and administrative tasks for Rose Petal Clinic
- Monitor clinic supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
- Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
- State job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
- Organise staff induction for new team members
- In charge of training, evaluation and assessment of employees
- In charge of arranging travel, meetings and appointments
- Oversee the smooth running of the daily office activities.
Nutritionist
- In charge of evaluating a client’s nutritional needs
- In charge of providing nutritional counselling and advice to clients
- Tasked with creating a clinical nutrition treatment plan for a client
- In charge of educating the public on nutrition issues
- Researching the effects of nutrition on health and fitness
- Consulting with a team of healthcare practitioners on nutritional management for a client
Accountants/Cashiers
- In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for Rose Petal Clinic
- Provide management with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting report
- In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
- Understand cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting
- In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
- In charge of administering payrolls
- Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
- Take care of all financial transactions for Rose Petal Clinic
- Serves as internal auditor for the clinic
Cleaners
- In charge of cleaning the clinic at all times
- Make sure the toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
- Make sure that both the interior and exterior of the clinic are always clean
- Handles any other duty as assigned by the director.
Security Officers
- In charge of protecting the clinic and its environs
- Controls traffic and organize parking
- Patrols around the building on a 24 hours basis
6. SWOT Analysis
We understand the importance of the services we want to offer at RPC. We aim to protect lives and provide essential healthcare services to the growing Henderson populace. We’re conducting a detailed SWOT analysis. This SWOT analysis was to understand our key strengths and possible pitfalls in the industry.
We have also taken time, with help from notable experts, to make sure we utilize our strengths and work on our weaknesses. Below is the summary of the SWOT Analysis;
- Strength
Our strength at RPC will be our direct focus on patient care and the growing importance of preventative care. We plan to implement an aggressive and accurate recall system to remind patients to have regular checkups. Also, the incentives we provide to our staff to benefit from increased profits generated by the clinic will also serve as a strength. Also, our streamlined office system will draw us closer to the heart of our customers.
- Weakness
Our weakness in this market will be the time it will take to make people understand the roles of urgent care centres. Most people believe that any other facility other than a well pronounced hospital is below par. We plan to remedy this weakness with the connection we have already with St. Rose Dominican hospital.
- Opportunities
Current healthcare services in Henderson are largely concentrated near or within Siena and Rose de Lima areas, suggesting that other parts of the city are left disadvantaged. Henderson with an estimated population of 310,390 in 2018, boasts of just two major hospitals to attend to the needs of this growing population. We plan to compliment St. Rose Dominican Hospital by providing direct healthcare access to the populace.
- Threat
We will be competing against already existing businesses in Henderson. These businesses include small and private owned healthcare facilities. Although it won’t be easy for a new entrant in the industry, the services we offer and our alliance with St. Rose Dominican hospital will serve as an advantage.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Trend
A lot of patients need continued treatment before or even after a hospital stay, causing an increase in demand for outpatient services. Interest in the on-demand, affordable care of urgent care clinics has been rising rapidly. Statistics have it that the total number of urgent care centres in the U.S. reached 8,774 in November 2018 — up eight percent from 8,125 in 2017.
These urgent care clinics handle about 89 million patient visits each year, which includes more than 29 percent of all primary care visits in the US, and nearly 15 percent of all outpatient physician visits. And nearly all of those visits are more convenient and affordable than a trip to the ER.
The UCA’s 2018 Benchmarking Report found that more than 70 percent of patients waited less than 20 minutes to see a provider at an urgent care centre, and nearly 94 percent were seen in less than 30 minutes. Overall, 85 percent of urgent care centres patients are taken care of in under an hour.
Urgent care centres play an increasingly crucial role in the continuum of care, providing services for a wide array of patients who may be unable to see a primary care physician for various reasons, including simply not yet affiliating with one. This is especially true of millennials, who are leading the way in driving demand and increased utilization of urgent care centres.
Just as illnesses evolve and become more complex, urgent care centres become even more valuable. Interdisciplinary skills are quickly becoming a must-have in the healthcare industry, and as a result, medical professionals are learning many valuable skills from areas such as the dental field to social disciplines as well. Also, diversity within the U.S. population—and increased life-expectancy—is changing the entire healthcare system.
As aging communities in the U.S. increase in number and live longer, urgent care centres and all other healthcare facilities must learn and adopt treatments to meet the needs of these communities. Also, the care giving field needs to research, study, and keep up with current research. The best way to do that is by subscribing to a few medical journals. Plenty of advances in medical research are being developed currently.
8. Our Target Market
Our business location boasts of many advantages that will propel our business to success. It is the second-largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with an estimated population of 310,390 in 2018. It is ranked as one of the safest places in Nevada and also one of the best places to raise a family.
Rose Petal Clinic will focus all our energy on providing urgent care services to the entire population. Below are the reasons why we believe Henderson is the best location for us;
- The people of Henderson rarely have the patience, and often cannot wait more than 30 minutes to see a doctor. They would rather “wait it out” on all but urgent matters.
- Also, the rate of development in the city due to its ever increasing tourist rate. Henderson is always booming with tourists coming in to enjoy the city’s diverse resources or passing through to other big cities like Las Vegas.
- Rose Petal Clinic is an urgent care centre, and will treat patients of all ages, incomes, physical abilities, races, and ethnicities. As a UCC clinic, there is no need to create marketing materials targeted at only one or two of these groups, but we can appeal to all with a similar message.
Our Competitive Advantage
The growing population base in Henderson and the limited number of doctors create a great potential for meeting our patient load goals. Most patients when choosing an urgent care clinic go for a place they believe is knowledgeable and skilled to listen and urgently attend to their health needs.
These same people are more likely to return to a health clinic whose location and hours are convenient and accessible, who have short waiting times for getting appointments, whose staff is friendly and helpful, and who work effectively with their insurance provider. These are the sort of services we plan to render in at Rose Petal Clinic.
We will stop at nothing to achieve our business goals and visions. Also, our well conducted and experienced workforce is another advantage we have in Henderson. We have put plans in place to educate our employees on the need to remain friendly and calm with any patient.
9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
- Sources of Income
Our primary source of revenue at Rose Petal Clinic will be the medical services provided by our workforce. Rose Petal Clinic will provide treatment to patients suffering from non-life-threatening conditions that require quick attention, including bone fractures, pneumonia and flu, and minor lacerations. We will also have additional revenue opportunities by leveraging the convenient retail setting to provide clinical services.
Occupational Safety Testing could be provided utilizing a secure bathroom to provide basic drug testing at a pre-packaged price. Currently the service is offered at the hospital, but is much better suited for a freestanding centre. The diagnostic lab and x-ray services available for our patients could also be offered as a diagnostic referral site for local GPs.
10. Sales Forecast
All our pricing will be set according to Medicare, Medicaid and other insurance regulation so pricing is not a major factor of consideration. The projection below is a very conservative sales forecast for our business for the next three years.
- First Fiscal Year: $980,000
- Second Fiscal Year: $1,813,000
- Third Fiscal Year: $3,422,000
- Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy
At Rose Petal Clinic, we intend leveraging a number of marketing strategies that will allow us to easily target men, women, and families living and coming into Henderson. These strategies include traditional print advertisements and ads placed on search engines on the internet.
We also plan to make use of an internet based strategy. This is very crucial to the success of our clinic, as many people seeking local services, such as medical services, go to the Internet to conduct their preliminary searches. We will also register Rose Petal Clinic with online portals so that people in city and those still coming in can easily reach us.
We are currently developing our own website. Our plan is to maintain a sizable amount of print and traditional advertising methods within local markets to promote all the medical services we render at Rose Petal Clinic. We will also maintain an extensive marketing campaign that will ensure maximum visibility for the clinic.
We will also build relationships with doctors all around Nevada and also implement a local campaign in Henderson with flyers, local newspaper advertisements, and word of mouth.
11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy
Our publicity and advertising strategy will be aimed particularly at tourists who visit Nevada. Rose Petal Clinic will run a strong publicity and advertising strategy, which is why we have partnered with Magic Image consulting firm, an advertising firm that specialises in business advertisements, to help us with boosting the image of Rose Petal Clinic.
- Rose Petal Clinic will pay Magic Image $25,000 to determine the needs of our market and how best we can meet those needs with promotions, literature and other marketing programs.
- Our Publicity and Advertising campaigns will be partially outsourced to Magic Image due to their expertise on the field
- Our Admin and Personnel Manager will work with Magic Image to inform potential clients of our clinic and encourage an image of community involvement for Rose Petal Clinic.
12. Our Pricing Strategy
At Rose Petal Clinic, we will use the most advanced computer, server and software systems, as well as Internet connections, in order to optimize the potential EMR and PMS systems software as well as in other software and network system utilized resulting in faster verification, efficient patient information transfer, reduction in administrative costs, computer breakdown or malfunction, as well as allowing outside access for the physician in order to access important patient information for hospital admissions and in other important situations.
We also plan to make use of an outside electronic medical billing company. We at Rose Petal Clinic believe that this option will allow us to focus our strength on patient care satisfaction.
This electronic medical billing company, Winter Health Billings, will use electronic claim billing and filing, which in turn will allow us to fully utilize the benefits of electronics claim filing while at the same time letting us maximize valuable clinic time and man power. Winter Health Billings charge 8 percent of the total expenses collected.
- Payment Options
At Rose Petal Clinic, we know that good payment options are a powerful business strategy which will attract customers, and we are very much ready to make use of it. We will be bringing payment options that are unique and will make the payment for the service we offer very easy for our customers.
- Payment by via bank transfer
- Payment via online bank transfer
- Payment via check
- Payment via mobile money
- Payment with cash
Rose Petal Clinic have partnered with a renowned bank in the country to enable us provide the above payment options. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials so that it will be easier for clients to make payments when necessary.
13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)
Our industry is capital intensive but at RPC we are ready to make good use of the funds we have. We also acknowledge that prices of equipment can differ across different locations in the country, but the difference we believe can’t be much and can be overlooked. Below is a detailed analysis of how we want to spend our startup capital;
- The Total Fee for Registering the Business in Henderson, Nevada: $750.
- Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits: $1,500.
- Marketing promotion expenses: $150,000
- Cost for hiring Consultant – $55,000.
- Insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $30,800.
- Cost of accounting software, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
- Cost for leasing facility for the clinic: $100,000
- Cost for facility remodelling – $50,000.
- Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
- Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
- Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $80,000
- Cost for medical equipment – $1,700,000
- The cost of Launching a Website: $600
- Miscellaneous: $5,000
From our detailed analysis above, we will need $2,195,620 to start up Rose Petal Clinic.
Generating Funding/Startup Capital of Rose Petal Clinic
At Rose Petal Clinic, we believe in our workforce and our vision to save lives in a conducive environment. Rose Petal Clinic was founded and will be managed by a great medical doctor Dr Dorothy Connor. The business will be funded by her until we decide to accept investors or partners. Ways we hope to raise our startup capital may include;
- Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
- Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
- Generate part of the capital from the bank (loan facility).
Note: Dr Dorothy Connor has been able to raise $1,500,000 ($1,000,000 from personal savings and $500,000 as soft loans from family and friends) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $1,000,000. We have verified all the necessary procedures to actualize or get our startup cost.
14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy
Staffing for our clinic will entail supporting the overall emergent system for Henderson. Rose Petal Clinic will be required to manage emergent cases until transport to St. Rose Dominican is available. Our site selection focuses on increasing access to care and facilitating better emergency and disaster response.
Currently ambulances are based at St. Rose Dominican which doubles response times for emergent events at some parts of the city. Positioning of the ambulance services also factors into the physical placement of our clinic. Our clinic will be situated adjacent to a Fire Service facility in Henderson providing opportunities for coordination of emergency services between our clinic and the city Fire Service.
Rose Petal Clinic will open after the normal working hours of local physicians. Operating during these limited hours will reduce the potential for triplication of services between St. Rose Dominican hospital, GPs, and our clinic. These operating hours also align with the peak ED visit times that significantly trail off after midnight.
Also, based on demand for service and the ability to recruit and train staff, RPC will take a phased approach to increasing hours of operation. Patients will initially be received by the receptionist and then triaged by a nurse or medical assistant.
Each patient will be assessed by a physician. Patient visit times will be approximately 15 minute per visit with a potentially large range explained by various levels of acuity and service intensity required for each patient.
Operational management at our clinic will rest within the Nevada Board of Health and utilize managerial staff to ensure standardization of services and effective implementation of best practices. Billing and records management will be centralized to our billing partner and St. Rose Dominican to benefit from the existing infrastructure.
Medical oversight will integrate our clinic into the emergency system for Henderson and be provided by the Office of Emergency Medicine at St. Rose Dominican Hospital. Our marketing strategies will be reviewed every 6 months to enable us understand what our customers want and how best to reach them.
Checklist/Milestone
- Business Name Availability Check: Completed
- Business Incorporation: Completed
- Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
- Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
- Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
- Application for business license and permit: Completed
- Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
- Conducting feasibility studies: Completed
- Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
- Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
- Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
- Writing of Business Plan: Completed
- Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
- Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
- Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
- Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
- Recruitment of employees: In Progress
- Purchase of software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
- Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
- Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
- Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
- Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress