Do I Need an Office for Podiatry House Calls?

No.  And seriously...why would you want one?

To be realistic, lets look at what you get when you decide to set-up a podiatry office or store-front location. You now get to pay rent. You get to pay paychecks (that you write of course, out of your own bank account) to nurses, medical assistants and office staff. 

Then of course you will need insurance, too. So you buy renter’s insurance to insure the property in the office is covered against theft, fire, vandalism, etc. You will buy slip and fall insurance to protect you from the out-of-work opportunist/scam artist who perceives you to be rich and therefore someone who might want to pay out rather than fight a frivolous lawsuit. You will need to buy workman’s compensation insurance to cover the salary of that perpetually late and/or rude employee you need to fire. And let’s not figure waiting room furniture and all of those podiatry chairs that each cost about as much as a small car. 

If spending all of you income on an office fun to you, then by all means, open a brick-and-mortar podiatry office.

But if you plan on doing house calls, keep in mins that all of those expenses will cost you, even while not use...as in all the time you are out doing house calls. 

If your brick-and-mortar office overhead expenses run at $100 per hour than you have to make $100 per hour every hour while out of the office just to cover the office expenses. 

If your total office expense are more like $200-$500 per hour, better drive fast. 

When you eliminate all of that useless office overhead, it suddenly becomes much easier to make a real profit doing podiatry house calls. 

I am not trying to contend that office setting aren’t useful for most practices. I am only pointing out that when you choose a podiatry practice model based on direct pay, house calls and increased physician access, an office is a lability and not asset.

The podiatrist who believes he needs an office in which to see “serious cases” such as infections, diabetic emergencies and the like, is fooling himself. Serious cases don’t need an office, they need a hospital. 

Think about an urgent issue that a podiatrist discovers in a nursing home. The Podiatrist doesn’t take the nursing home patient back to the office...he treats the patient right there, or admits the patient to the hospital. 

This certainly more closely follows the course of a podiatry house call practice. 

You certainly need to consider whether or not your target market is really patients who want to visit an office for care, or patients who want to have their care delivered to them at home. 

If you think your market is BOTH, you will likely find little success in either. 

Choose wisely, but choose one. 

Dr. Christopher Segler is a podiatrist who started a house calls based podiatry practice from scratch. He designed an insurance-free practice model that works and is profitable much earlier than a conventional podiatry office practice model. After working out the kinks, you has shared his recipe for house call success with a limited number of podiatrist. If you are considering building a house calls based podiatry practice, and wonder if it would work for you in your community, you call reach him directly at 415-308-0833.