Emergency Medical Center Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory
The Emergency Medical Center Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start an Emergency Medical Center business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.
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Emergency care centers have become extremely popular over the past 10 years given that many people who have insurance, Medicaid, Medicare choose to go to these smaller facilities for non-life-threatening emergencies. Additionally, both privately funded health systems and publicly funded health systems prefer individuals who have non-life-threatening matters to go to an emergency medical clinic or urgent care facility given that these businesses are able to render a service very quickly and without having to have an individual generate a more substantial bill at a hospital’s emergency room. These businesses can be highly lucrative given that they usually staff several emergency care physicians as well as nurse practitioners that are familiar with how to treat severe but non-life-threatening illnesses.
Generally, the startup costs associated with these types of businesses range anywhere from $150,000 to well over $2 million depending on the scope and scale of the facility as well as whether or not real estate is going to be developed or acquired for a standalone facility. The gross margins generated from revenues typically is around 85% which includes cost relating to medical billing as well as bad debt expenses. The barriers to entry for this type of business are extremely high given the moderately high start up costs coupled with the fact that these businesses need to be staffed by appropriately licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, as well as registered nurses. The demand for the services does not wane during times of economic recession and they are able to remain profitable and cash flow positive at all times.
Given that this is a medical business, almost all financial institutions are willing to put up the necessary capital in order to develop this type of operation. Of course, an emergency medical center business plan is going to be required. This business plan should feature a full scale through your profit and loss statement, cash flow analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. As it relates to industry research, emergency medical clinics and urgent care centers generate in excess of $29 billion per year. There are currently 7,500 urgent care centers and emergency medical clinics that are in operation within the United States and the industry employs approximately 150,000 people. The growth of this segment of the healthcare industry is expected to grow much faster than that of the general economy as well as the medical industry in general. This is due to the fact that many insurance companies and publicly funded health systems to encourage people to first go to a emergency medical center or urgent care center prior to being sent to a hospital. The expected yearly growth rate of this industry is 5% per year.
Within the business plan, a full demographic profile showcasing the local and regional market should be included as well. This includes a full analysis of the population size, population density, median household income, median family income, percentage of people that have health insurance, percentage of people that receive healthcare through publicly funded systems, percentage of people over the age of 65, and other relevant statistics to the local market. Within this aspect of the business plan, a full examination of competitors that are within the market should be included as well. Given the significant barriers to entry for a new emergency medical center there are usually only a handful of other operations within a 25 to 50 mile radius. Special attention should be paid to the size of the target market radius, which is usually considered to be about 10 to 50 miles in a suburban or rural area.
An emergency medical center marketing plan needs to be included as well. This marketing plan can be done somewhat on a lighter side given that people will very quickly use the Internet to locate a urgent care center or emergency medical clinic when they are in need of care right away the matter is not life-threatening. As such, a full-scale website needs to be developed that showcases the location, directions, biographies of key physicians and nurse practitioners, hours of operation, and contact information. There should be several features on the website that allow an individual to immediately contact the emergency medical clinic or urgent care center so that appropriate preparations can be made for when a person comes into the facility. A presence on social media is not needed, but it does help boost the visibility of the emergency medical center from the onset of operations. It is infrequent that people use social media to find an urgent care facility as they are much more likely to use a search engine in order to find the services.
It is also important that the emergency medical clinic have a significant amount of signage so that individuals who pass by the facility frequently become aware of its existence. This is one of the best ways that the emergency medical center can market it services to the general public given that when a time comes when they need this type of urgent care – they will know exactly where to go.
Beyond marketing to the general public, many emergency care clinics will develop ongoing relationships with physician practices and regional hospitals for referrals. This is an important aspect of the company’s operations given that for non-life-threatening issues, a physician that is on call may refer a patient to an urgent care center were emergency medical clinic in lieu of going directly to a hospital. Once at the clinic, a attending physician can make that determination as to whether or not it is appropriate for the individual to then go to a hospital. These ongoing referral relationships with physician practices and nurse practitioners practices can be of invaluable importance to the company as it is establishing its operations.
An emergency medical center SWOT analysis should be produced as well. As it relates the strengths, these businesses – given that they are a healthcare company – are always in demand regardless of what is going on with the economy as a whole. These businesses generate significantly high gross margins from their revenues, and they can be highly lucrative for an independent emergency physician that wants to own their own practice. The barriers to entry are high given that these companies are either required to be owned by physician or have a number of physicians on staff that act as the medical directors.
For weaknesses, the operating expenses of a urgent care center for emergency medical clinic are extremely high. The rental expense, utility expense, and very large personnel expense to contribute to very high undergoing operating costs. However, these businesses generate significant revenues from each individual visit by a patient and they are almost always able to cover their underlying operating expenses and financial obligations at all times. It should be noted that many emergency medical clinics and urgent care facilities will frequently acquire a working capital line of credit in order to finance their early operating expenses while they are establishing a brand name.
For opportunities, one of the ways that many emergency medical clinics and urgent care center companies expand their operations is by hiring additional staff so that a greater number of patients can be seen as well as developing additional facilities within the regional market. In some cases, an entrepreneur will seek to develop or acquire already established emergency medical clinics or urgent care centers in order to immediately boost their revenue base. However, there is a significant amount of complexity when completing this type of acquisition.
As it relates to threats, as this is a medical business one of the constant concerns among entrepreneurs to enter this field is changes to reimbursement rates among private insurance companies, state insurance programs, Medicaid, and Medicare. While this is an ongoing concern, there are always going to be healthcare systems that provide a significant amount of reimbursement for individuals that go to emergency medical clinics or urgent care centers. Additionally, given that these businesses carry a lower cost and seeing a patient at hospital – it is now the currently preferred method for patients to go and get treatment for serious but not life-threatening illness and ailments. Competition is generally the biggest threat is associated with a emergency medical center or urgent care center facility.
These businesses, provided they are appropriately staffed by either physician-owners were qualified medical directors, can be extremely profitable and provide its owners with several hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of profit on a yearly basis. The demand for these services does not wane at all, and they have become much more popular with patients given that the waiting times are significantly lower than that of an emergency room visit. The popularity of these companies is expected to continue to grow over the next 10 to 20 years.