Is it time to move your veterinarian practice to a bigger office? If you're getting a lot of business, boarding a lot of pets, and adding new employees all the time, you may notice a need for many things your current office space doesn't provide. A larger waiting room, more exam rooms, a bigger kennel area, an ICU for pets who need extra care, and even a larger administrative office for all of the extra files for new patients and added office personnel may be needed in order to allow your business to continue to thrive.
You know you have to move. However, moving a veterinarian practice can be pretty involved. You want to make sure you do it right, so you can start operations in your new office seamlessly and without any difficulties or kinks to iron out once you get there. Here's how to move your veterinarian office the right way, to ensure success from packing the first box to unpacking the last one.
1. Move the Animals Last and the Medical Equipment First
You want your new office to be all set up and running before moving any animals that are being housed at your old office. The last thing you want is to get the animals there before everything is ready for them.
This includes animals who are being boarded, those who are being kept for a few days (or longer) while they recover from injury, illness, or surgery, and animals who live at your office. Keep a skeleton staff at the old office until the very last animal is moved over to the new office, so there will be no break in their care between the transfer.
At the same time, you should move your medical equipment first. It needs to be in place and ready to go before anything else. It's also important to move it first because some of the more complex pieces of machinery may take a while to set up. Everything needs to be in working condition to start taking care of animals at the new location right away, so moving the most complicated and largest items, like medical equipment, first makes sense.
2. Take Care of Your Paperwork
This includes both paper and electronic files. When you are moving, it is a good opportunity to clear out old files you no longer need. The files of inactive patients, such as those who have moved away or chosen other veterinarians, animals who have died, and people who no longer work for you can all be either put into storage or shredded (or deleted, if they are on a computer). You will find your office is much more organized in the new location this way.
You should also make sure you're moving all of the files you actually do need, and that you can find them easily in the new office once you start operating from there. Pack up paper files in an organized, alphabetical and cross-referenced manner Also, back up all electronic files onto external hard drives or thumb drives, just in case something happens to them during the moving of the computers to the new office.
3. Hire a Corporate Moving Service
While you and your staff can do some packing and organizing of the things that are really crucial and specific to your business, you should leave the main part of the moving to a corporate moving service. You and your staff need to be available to continue working with clients during the move.
According to Smarta.com, it is also possible that someone who works for you could get injured while moving office equipment or even heavy boxes. You don't want to have to deal with a workers' compensation claim and time out of work for an important employee.
Using a corporate moving service will allow you to keep things running smoothly and all of your employees protected during the move. The only things you will want to move yourself are electronic files on external storage drives, and the actual animals (since you have special training in handling them and movers do not).
Conclusion
With some careful planning, you can make your move to a bigger, better veterinarian office as smooth as possible. Just be sure to let your clients know where you'll be, so they can continue to find you. Do some advertising in your new location to bring in new clients. Once you're settled in, be prepared to watch your business thrive in its new, more suitable environment.
Click here to learn more about moving your business.
Share12 February 2015
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