Starting a hospital or a healthcare venture is a long-term commitment. You cannot just wrap it up, pack goods and shift suddenly on a whim if you feel that the location is not right. Hence, location is a crucial factor that must be considered carefully.

 In any business venture, experts agree that location is the key to success. This is even more so in a healthcare venture. A lot of thought and planning has to be invested into the decision of site selection.

Hope this checklist will be of help to you in making your right site choice.

1. In-depth Research

Your decision should be made only after careful scrutiny of the market, your competition, and your target audience.

Nowadays, patients put convenience on the top of their list while making hospital choices. You can use analytical tools like conducting a demographic survey of your potential client base to understand their preferences with respect to hospital location. E.g., If you aim at starting a cardiac rehab centre, your location must be in a serene and secluded environment so that your patients can recover in an atmosphere of tranquillity.

It is also a good strategy to understand the top competitors in the area you are considering in order to gauge whether you can make a dent in their customer base and funnel their clients into your hospital.

e.g.

If you are considering a site which is in close proximity to a well-established hospital, it is likely that you will get less footfall until you become well-known so your breakeven will be delayed.

Doing an end-to-end analysis of the location is essential if you want your venture to be practical and profitable.

Healthcare management consultant firms can help you in this analysis by providing you with precise and updated customer analysis and market data.

2. Size of your venture

The size of your proposed venture has a big role to play in your site selection. If you are planning to start a small clinic, it will be easy to zero in on a site.

However, if you are planning to start a multispecialty hospital, you have to have a vast space with provision for reception, waiting rooms, laboratories, equipment rooms, OPDs, consulting rooms and operation theatres to name just a few things. There will also have to be provision for sewage treatment, generators, parking faculties etc. You will have to conduct a schematic design planning exercise to help you determine the area that you require and only then narrow down on the sites.

3. Accessibility and visibility

Easy accessibility is a factor that just cannot be ignored. If patients are not able to speedily reach a hospital, they are likely not to choose it at all, especially in an emergency. In small set-ups, lower floors are better as they promote easy accessibility.

E.g., If you are interested in starting an orthopaedic clinic, it should preferably be on the ground floor to spare your movement-restricted patients the trouble of traveling to higher floors. Any healthcare unit that is housed on higher floors of a building should have elevator facility and wheelchair ramps.

You should also remember that your healthcare institution site should be well-connected by roads and means of public transport.

Parking lot provision and services are vital too. If your site is small, then see if underground parking, stilt parking or valet parking services can be made available. If your dream project is a multispecialty hospital, then assure that your site can house an emergency or trauma unit where ambulances can gain access without trouble.

A hospital that has optimum visibility gains higher footfall as compared to units that are tucked away on higher floors or in small lanes. In crowded metro cities, these options may be limited, but try to choose a site that is highly visible and accessible.

4. Budget

Starting a healthcare facility is an expensive proposition. While choosing the site, it is paramount that you keep an eye on your budget as well. Real estate prices are skyrocketing day-by-day, especially in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. These steep rates and the shortage of space may restrict your choices if you wish to construct a sprawling hospital in a cosmopolitan city. You should put things in proper perspective and make a rational decision about your hospital site without it pinching your purse-strings.

To summarize, hospital site selection is one of the first steps that you will have to take before your healthcare dream becomes a reality. Choosing a location that fulfils all your needs and at the same time fits in your budget is certainly a daunting mission. If you feel that you need help in this challenging task, be sure to contact Hospertz, a leading hospital consultancy firm in Mumbai. We have more than 20 years of experience in the field of hospital consultancy and can help you zero in on the optimum site for your healthcare venture. We can also provide you with a wide assortment of services like healthcare licensing services, hospital interior design services, hospital branding, healthcare marketing and financial planning services.

Blog has been written by Dr. Vishal Jadhav, a veteran in the field of hospital consultancy with a rich experience of more than 20 years and founder of the Healthcare Consultancy Firm, Hospertz.

Dr. Vishal Jadhav, Director
hospertz@gmail.com
+91 9867712705/ 9820833149