So your dental practice is growing and you need to expand your office? Great! That means your business is successful and your clients are happy.
If you’re in the dental industry, chances are you’ve heard of Jeff Carter, DDS, and Pat Carter, IIDA.
Recently, they wrote for Dental Economics about challenges that come up when you are doing expansion remodeling. After 20 years of dental design and construction, we have experienced all of these challenges many times.
Because of this, we have adapted and come up with a systematic plan of action for these projects.
Today, I’m going to talk about how a remodeling construction project.
Micro-Scheduling
Remodeling an existing office takes an average of 8 weeks. That’s a really long time to close your practice. That’s why we have come up with our micro-scheduling system.
How does micro-scheduling work?
Clearly, it doesn’t make economic sense to keep your office closed for a long time. So, after we review the scope of the project, we can break the work up into pieces. This can happen in a few different ways. Either we:
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close the dental office for parts of days
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close the dental office one day a week
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or, work evenings and weekends around your schedule.
We will create a custom construction plan that works best for your dental practice.
Benefits of micro-scheduling with Primus
The absolute biggest benefit is that you can keep your dental practice open and functional during the remodeling period. Not only does closing the business totally eliminate any income during that time, but it can be confusing to your patients. Staying consistent gives your patients more confidence in the business as a whole.
Another benefit of working with Primus is our years of experience – we are pros at remodeling. Your staff may feel a little uncomfortable during the transition of your business. We know how to handle this and make them feel more at ease throughout the process.
Things to keep in mind
While closing your business for 8 weeks would make a huge impact on your income, it’s important to know that micro-scheduling your construction process will cost more than standard construction. Since we do projects in segments, we have to clean after each phase so that your office stays in great condition.
Redundancy of tasks such as cleaning and painting means that we spend more time working on the project.
But ultimately, being able to keep your business open during construction is worth the expense.
Unexpected costs during expansion remodeling
In the article that I mentioned at the beginning, Jeff and Pat talk about unexpected costs that can come up during dental remodeling. They are right that it is harder to estimate the cost of expanding. With accurate design and planning beforehand, though, it is less of a challenge.
That’s why it’s important to work with a dental design and construction company with many years of experience. We know what to expect and can give you an accurate estimate that you can rely on.
Expanding or remodeling your dental office is an exciting time for your business. Let us know when you’re ready to make the jump!
~Jason
