Equipping a new clinic: what to buy first, and what can wait
A new practice has one budget and a long list. This is the order we would buy in, and the reasoning behind each position on the list.
Opening a practice means spending a fixed amount of money on an unbounded list. The order matters more than the total, because the first purchases decide which treatments you can bill for in month one and which you are referring out while paying rent.
First: the things you cannot treat without
The chair, the compressor and suction, sterilisation, and intraoral imaging. Everything else on the list is an improvement to a practice that already works; these four are the practice.
Imaging belongs in this group and it is the one most often deferred. A clinic without radiography refers out its diagnostics, which means it also refers out the treatment the diagnosis leads to, and often the patient with it.
Second: what removes a bottleneck you can already feel
After a few months of seeing patients you will know exactly where the day jams. It is usually one of these:
- Waiting for images. A portable X-ray unit and a sensor at the chair removes a walk from every exposure.
- Endodontics running long. An apex locator and a rotary system change the shape of the appointment.
- Turnaround between patients. A second sterilisation cassette set is a cheaper fix than a second surgery.
Buy against the bottleneck you have measured, not the one a catalogue suggests you might have.
Third: what opens a new kind of treatment
This is where 3D imaging, lasers and CAD/CAM sit. Each one lets you keep a case you currently refer, and each pays back at a rate you can actually calculate: the number of those cases per month, times what you currently refer away.
If that number is two cases a month, the machine can wait. If it is two a week, it is already costing you more to not own it.
What to think about before the first invoice
- Power and space. Imaging units have installation requirements, and a room that is 10 cm too narrow is discovered on delivery day.
- Who services it, and from where. The nearest engineer matters more than the specification sheet.
- Software seats. Ask how many computers can view images, and whether more cost extra.
- Finance. Equipment finance spreads the cost across the years the equipment earns in, which is usually the right shape for a new practice.
The mistake we see most
Buying the largest version of everything in month one, and then having no working capital for the first slow quarter. Every practice has a slow quarter. Equipment can be added; a cash position cannot be rebuilt on a schedule.
If it helps to talk it through against a floor plan, our team does that with new practices regularly — get in touch and bring the drawings.