Medical Practices: Your Patient Experience Begins Before They Walk Through 

One of the easiest ways for a healthcare practice to hurt a new location is underestimating patient parking. If you know the parking will not work, don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole...stop there and move on to the next location! Would you want a new patient annoyed before they even walk in the door?

A space can check every single box..... Great location, strong visibility, nearby referral partners, a functional layout, and reasonable occupancy costs. But if patients cannot easily find a parking space, get dropped off, or access the building, the location can become frustrating very quickly. And when patients are frustrated every time they come to an appointment, eventually that becomes a problem for the business.

Look at the Property From the Patient's Perspective

When I evaluate a potential location with a healthcare business, I try to look at the property from the patient's perspective, starting before I ever walk through the front door.

I think about the entire experience from pulling into the property, finding a parking space, getting out of the car, locating the entrance, entering the building and eventually getting back out of the parking lot. Is the entrance obvious? Is traffic flow confusing? Is there an easy place to drop someone off? Can an elderly patient or someone using a wheelchair, walker, or other assistive device comfortably get from the parking lot into the building?

I essentially try to ask: What could go wrong here and what could patients eventually complain about? You need to anticipate the problems.

Don't Evaluate an Empty Parking Lot

One of the biggest mistakes is evaluating parking based on what you see during a property tour. A parking lot can look fantastic at 11:00 on a Tuesday morning when the building isn't fully occupied. That doesn't tell you what the parking situation will look like when your medical practice is operating at capacity.

How many providers will be seeing patients simultaneously? How many patients could arrive during the busiest part of the day? How many employees will be there, and where will they park? Those numbers can change the parking requirements of a healthcare practice very quickly. Anticipation!

You also have to look beyond your own space. If neighboring suites are vacant today, the parking lot may appear to have plenty of capacity. But what happens when those suites are leased? If another medical practice, restaurant, fitness business, or other high-traffic user moves in next door, the parking environment could look completely different from the day you toured the property. Anticipation!

Think About the Things That Aren't Obvious Today

There are also smaller issues that are easy to overlook during the real estate search but can become significant operational problems later.

Snow removal is a great example in the Northern States. Where will the snow actually be piled? If a large snowfall results in snow being pushed into an area that eliminates 8 or 10 parking spaces, what happens during your busiest patient hours? Those spaces may not seem significant when you're standing in an empty parking lot in July, but they could matter quite a bit in January.

For healthcare uses, I also pay particular attention to ADA accessibility, patient drop-off areas, employee parking, shared parking arrangements, traffic flow, neighboring tenants, and how all of those factors could change as the property becomes more heavily occupied.

Enough Parking on Paper Doesn't Always Mean Enough Parking

A property may technically satisfy a parking requirement, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has enough parking for the way a particular healthcare business operates. There is a big difference between having enough parking on paper and having enough parking when your practice is operating at full capacity.

That's why healthcare real estate needs to be evaluated differently than other real estate types. The number of providers, appointment scheduling, patient turnover, employee count, patient demographics, accessibility needs, and neighboring businesses all matter.

"What will it actually be like to operate our business here every day?" The patient's experience matters.... the employees' experience matters. The way the property functions at full capacity matters. Once a lease is signed and significant money has been invested into a build-out, many of these problems become difficult or impossible to correct.

Anticipation is the key!