Practice Relocation Checklist: Key Strategies for Medical Practice Relocation

If your existing office space no longer meets your medical practice‘s needs, why continue to call it home? Consider navigating the medical practice relocation process and moving into a new office space instead.

Just make sure you plan every aspect of your move to ensure a successful relocation. Relocating a medical practice involves numerous challenges, from logistical considerations to maintaining patient trust, but you can overcome them by formulating the proper plans.

This guide will allow you to take a structured approach to transition to a new location for your practice while minimizing downtime and safeguarding the quality of patient care. Read through it before relocating.

Initiate Early Planning

Avoid waiting until the last minute to plan a move to a new medical office. Give yourself at least several months, if not longer, to provide plenty of time to prepare for your upcoming address change.

Assess Current and Future Needs

What’s working right now in your existing medical office, and, more importantly, what isn’t? Evaluate your practice’s current operations and find areas you would like to improve in your new office.

Anticipate your future requirements to align your new location with your medical practice’s goals. The last thing you want to do after relocating to a new address is to have to relocate again soon after.

Develop a Detailed Timeline

What tasks do you need to tackle this week and every week until it’s time for your practice to move? Develop a timeline to keep your office on track.

Create a comprehensive schedule and outline tasks and deadlines to streamline your practice relocation.

Assemble a Relocation Team

Each of your medical office’s employees will need to play a small part in your move for it to be a successful relocation. However, you should create a relocation team to take the lead during planning.

Designate a Project Manager

Choose a leader to oversee your practice relocation. This will ensure accountability among your employees and allow you to coordinate your efforts as you move to a new office.

Include Key Stakeholders

Ask representatives from various departments within your medical office to address all the different aspects of the move. Your administration, physicians, and IT team should all be well-represented and get the chance to provide ideas.

Select an Appropriate Location

The location of your medical practice’s new space could make or break its success. While shopping for a new location, take your time and ensure it offers improvements over your current office.

Evaluate Accessibility

Your practice’s new site must be convenient for patients and staff. It should be easy to find, with adequate parking and public transport options.

When you visit a potential space on business days, pay attention to the traffic surrounding it. Too much of it could prevent patients from quickly accessing a building.

Pick a New Office Layout

The new site should offer enough space for your existing medical equipment and other sterilization equipment you wish to add. Additionally, your practice’s physicians should have enough room to see even more patients than they do now, giving your business leeway to grow.

Consider Compliance Requirements

Before your practice relocation, verify that the new facility meets all regulatory standards, including ADA compliance and safety protocols. Your new building should offer access to those in wheelchairs and other mobility devices.

Notify Stakeholders

Once you settle on a new office for your practice, start informing stakeholders about your impending move. Plan to leave the building you’re in at the end of your current lease so you can be specific about when your move will be complete.

Inform Patients

Let your practice’s patients know about your plans to move early on in the process. Discuss the move when they contact you by phone and hang up signs with the date of your move near your front desk.

Use other communication tactics to inform them, too. You should convey your moving plans with the following:

• Letters sent through the mail
• Emails
• In-office signs

Communicating with patients about your practice relocation effectively is essential.

Update Regulatory Bodies

Notify relevant government agencies, insurance providers, and other professional associations and organizations about your looming change of address to maintain compliance and uninterrupted operations. This is another key step you should take sooner rather than later.

Manage Medical Records

According to the CDC, nearly 90% of medical offices rely on electronic medical record systems to access records. If yours does this, it may make managing medical records much easier during a move.

If it doesn’t, you might need to work harder to move medical records while ensuring they don’t fall into the wrong hands.

Ensure a Secure Transfer

Develop a plan for the safe and confidential transfer of patient records to your new site. Adhere to HIPAA regulations to avoid breaking any laws.

Facilitate Patient Access

Advise patients on how to access their medical records during the transition period. Even if they don’t need to access them during your move, your practice will maintain trust and transparency by taking this step.

Coordinate Logistics

Moving from your current office to your new office will become a logistical nightmare without the proper coordination. Plan each aspect of your office move accordingly.

Hire Professional Movers

Look for professional moving services in your community with extensive experience handling medical equipment and heavy office furniture. Partner with one of the top local moving services to prevent damage and ensure proper setup at your new site.

Schedule Downtime Strategically

Plan your practice’s move to a new space during periods of low patient activity. This will minimize disruptions to services.

Review patient activity in recent years to determine the best times to complete your move.

Update Marketing Materials

Your existing marketing materials will automatically become outdated as soon as your practice moves. To keep them current, plan to update them before your move.

Revise Contact Information

All your practice’s marketing materials must reflect its new address, phone number, and other contact details. Be sure to update your:

• Website
• Business cards
• Online directories

Announce the Move Publicly

No matter how hard you work to inform people about your move, the message will get lost when you communicate it to some of them.

Announce your move by using press releases and social media posts to inform the broader community about your relocation. Use this opportunity to highlight details about your existing services and other services you will begin offering in your new space.

Conduct Post-Move Evaluations

As long as you have a surefire relocation plan and lean on professional movers’ guidance and advice, your move to an updated office space should go off without a hitch. However, you shouldn’t take your foot off the gas once it’s all set up.

Analyze your move after finishing to determine what went right — and what didn’t. You will learn a lot about what key steps you should take next time to make relocating more successful.

Gather Feedback

Solicit input from patients and staff regarding the relocation process to identify areas for improvement. Using patient feedback, in particular, is something your practice should get into the habit of doing.

Review Operational Efficiency

Assess the functionality of your practice’s new location and adjust your workflows and processes as necessary. Offer your physicians and other staff members a continuing education on maximizing your operations.

Start Planning To Move Into a New Medical Office Space Now

A successful practice relocation demands thorough planning, clear communication, and meticulous execution. Our practice relocation checklist allows medical practices to transition smoothly, ensuring continued patient satisfaction and operational excellence.

Consider integrating Weave’s comprehensive communication solutions to enhance your practice’s efficiency during relocation. Our platform offers seamless patient engagement tools, including phones, reminders, online scheduling, and more, to support your practice’s needs.

Get a demo today to learn how Weave will help facilitate a successful transition.