With All Good Intentions

The author explores why imaging center businesses fail, how to recognize the warning signs, and what to do when they appear

With all good intentions, many of us have started a business that we believe has the ingredients of success:

  • a great location;
  • the right equipment;
  • a wonderful, differentiating marketing and sales strategy;
  • a staff of people (partners included) who have terrific attitudes;
  • a hook to bring business through the door;
  • enough money to get started and take us through the first critical months as business ramps up and cash revenues begin to roll in.

Unfortunately, the road to good intentions is littered with business failures, health care business failures included. In the past several years, I have observed a marked increase in health care outpatient business failures. These businesses often appeared to have many of the elements noted above, as well as a solid strategic reason to exist and the necessary financial underpinnings—and many of them did succeed. Unfortunately, in the cases of those that failed, something clearly went awry—and most of the time, more than one thing.

The goal of this article is to discuss a subject that is generally not talked about openly or frequently—outpatient health care business failures—how to avoid them, how to see them coming, how to assess the situation, what can go wrong, and what to do when faced with a business failure.

1  2  3  4    Next Page