Strategic Planning for Your Healthcare Clinic: Two Key Areas to Focus On

Today, let’s dive into strategic planning for your healthcare clinic. I’ll break down a couple of important areas you could focus on and share a process you might follow to make these plans work for your clinic.

Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Review Your Strategic Plan

It’s July 5, 2024 — the start of a new financial year here in Australia. This is an ideal time to take a step back and evaluate what’s happening in the broader environment and how it affects your clinic. One big topic on many minds right now is inflation and the tough question:

“Should we be increasing our prices?”

The Price Challenge in NDIS and Healthcare

If your clinic provides services under the NDIS, you might be aware that prices haven’t changed in about six or seven years — except for a few areas like psychology and nursing, which recently saw some increases.

With rising costs — electricity, rent, staff wages — many clinics are wondering if it’s time to introduce a gap payment for plan-managed or self-managed clients.

This is a tricky area because:

• You can’t charge a gap for NDIS-registered clients.

• But for plan managers or self-managed clients, there might be room to consider it.

The real challenge is how to do this ethically, morally, and transparently.

How to Approach Introducing a Gap Payment

Let’s imagine you decide to implement a gap payment — say $10, $15, or $20 per session — starting October 1st. Here’s how you might break that down:

1. Work Backwards from Your Rollout Date
   Start planning at least two months ahead. So, by early August, you want to have your plan locked in.

2. Give Your Clients Plenty of Notice
   Aim for 3-4 weeks’ notice before the change. This helps everyone adjust and provides time to address any concerns.

3. Support Your Clients
   Think about clients who might struggle with the gap fee. Could you offer options or exceptions? Fairness and flexibility are key.

4. Prepare Your Team
   Everyone — from receptionists to therapists — needs to understand the why behind this change.

   • Host a team day or training session.

   • Work on clear messaging scripts so everyone can confidently explain the change.

5. Keep Admin Simple
   Don’t let the new payment process add a huge administrative burden that eats into the benefit of raising fees. Think about how you take payments now and streamline from there.

6. Collect Feedback
   Before and after the rollout, listen to your team and clients. Be ready to adjust if needed.

The Bigger Picture: Why Increase Fees?

The goal is to maintain high-quality care and service while covering increased business costs. Running a healthcare clinic is demanding — emotionally and financially — and it’s essential to reward your team for the great work they do. Without fee increases, this becomes unsustainable.

Another Strategic Focus: Growing New Client Referrals

Another common challenge for clinics — especially in muscular-skeletal fields like physio, osteo, and exercise physiology — is how to get more new clients through the door.

With the cost of living rising, many people have less disposable income, which can make attracting new clients more difficult.

How to Set a Referral Growth Goal

Say, for example, your clinic currently averages 3 new professional referrals per week. You might want to increase this to 6 by the end of the next quarter.

Here’s how you can approach that:

1. Analyse Your Current Referral Numbers
   What have you averaged recently? Has it fluctuated?

2. Decide if You Need More Referral Partners or Better Relationships
   It might not just be about getting more partners, but strengthening ties with your existing ones.

3. Understand Barriers
   Why might partners not refer to you as often as you’d like?

   • Do they know your capacity?

   • Are they aware of your full range of services?

4. Improve Communication and Messaging
   Make it easy for referral partners to know when and how to send clients your way.

5. Build Trust and Likeability
   Referral relationships often come down to personal connection and trust, not just expertise. People refer to those they like and trust.

Systemising Your Referral Growth Strategy

Create a framework or system that tracks referral partners, communication, and relationship-building activities.

If you’d like a free copy of the referral partner tracking spreadsheet we use at Clinic Mastery, just send me an email at Peter@ClinicMastery.com — no AU on the end — and ask for the referral partner spreadsheet. I’ll send it your way with no strings attached.

Sustaining Your Strategic Initiatives

A word of caution from experience: many clinic owners set up a great system, see some wins, then move on to the next big thing — leaving their progress to fade over time.

To avoid this, delegate authority and accountability. If you hand a system over to a team member, give them clear responsibility and check-in processes.

One easy accountability tool is a monthly report. Ask your team member to send a quick summary of progress, challenges, and opportunities on the last Friday of each month.

Wrapping Up

Strategic planning isn’t a one-and-done task — it’s a process. The key is to:

• Understand where you’ve been

• Define where you want to go

• Build sustainable systems to get you there

If you start now with clear, measurable goals and a plan, your clinic will be well positioned for a strong 2024-25 financial year.