Setting Expectations for Your Drug Rehab Business
When we go to a new restaurant, we have a level of expectation on how good the food will be once we sit down and eat there. Well, think about the drug rehab business like a restaurant. If the food (clinical care) is not quality care, then everything else does not matter. As every good restaurant has diners, rehabs have patients and they all talk to each other.
Market Misconceptions in Drug Rehab
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about how “easy” it is to be successful in the drug rehab business.
“I thought………that if we opened with 20 beds, it would not be that hard to fill 20 beds.”
“I thought that if we spent $20K per month on marketing, we would be all set.”
“I thought all we have to do was buy treatment leads for $50 or $100 each and we would be all set.”
“I thought if we hired 3-4 sales people or on ground marketers, we would be all set and not have to do much internet marketing.”
I see XYZ Rehab doing this, this and this and really aren’t that good of a rehab, we are much better.”
Here’s the answer to your expectations…Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again!
Opening and continuing to run a drug rehab business requires a lot of different skills and a lot of different processes. You must be professionally capitalized to play in this space these days. Too many drug rehabs are struggling mightily and these terms are often used.
Consider Every Aspect of the Business
There are so many moving targets in the drug rehab space that you must take into consideration all of the components; for example:
- Staffing
- Clinical Care
- EMR and CRM (Electronic Medical Records and Customer Relationship Management)
- Marketing and Lead Generation
- Hiring Sales and Admissions
- HIPAA Compliance
- Insurance Reimbursement
- Real Estate Licensing and Zoning (NIMBY Neighbors)
- Reputation Management
- Call Center Management
These are just a few of the hurdles that must be considered as you either continue to run or are thinking about opening your rehab. In our experience, if you hire some consultants and vendors who are new to the rehab space then you will find out quickly how much lack of experience can cost in most cases. You are much better off using people and vendors who have a lot of experience in the space. There are a ton of little nuances that aren’t written down on paper that will matter in the long run. Relationships matter and they matter a lot.
Setting Expectations for Your Niche
So how do you set your expectations correctly? Do your homework. Do your research. Talk to people. If it has to do with marketing then you have to audit the competition, you have to audit your own website, you have to audit your particular geo marketplace and your niche. Does your law firm have experience with HIPAA and Stark Law? If they don’t you better find one that does. The biggest question of all is how fast can I fill my beds? Whatever your current expectations are, take that and multiply it by 2 or 3 times.
Do you know how many admits you will get if you get 100, 200 or 500 calls into your rehab? Do you know how many calls you will get if you have 1,000 visitors to your website? Do you know what your average cost per call/lead needs to be? Do you know the cost per admit? Do you have a HIPAA policy? Our point is there is a lot to think about. Call us if you have any questions with the list of ten items above. We can assist you will all of them.
Are You Considering Investing-In or Opening Your Own Drug Rehab Business? Do you Have a Business that is struggling?
LET US GIVE YOU AN INITIAL CONSULTATION ON SETTING YOUR EXPECTATIONS:
