Lesson 1: Listen to your patients’ needs
According to Mr. Caputo, listening to the needs of Ortho Four States’ patients was the biggest lesson the practice learned when building a new facility.
“We conducted surveys among our patients, and they told us what they wanted in a new facility and what they liked and didn’t like about our current facility,” he says. Some of the complaints Mr. Caputo received ranged from the inclines when entering the building to a lack of adequate parking or tea and coffee in the waiting areas.
With the new building, Ortho Four States is addressing these needs. “We want to be a state-of-the-art facility and, most-of-all, patient friendly,” Mr. Caputo says. This includes aesthetic additions, such as a building a lake outside of the physical therapy building to give patients a calming and pleasant view.
Lesson 2: Assemble a great construction group that works together
The second lesson Ortho Four States learned while building a new facility was the importance of getting together a great construction team in place from the start.
“Make sure you have a great developer, general contractor and architect in place from the start,” he says. “This way they can work hand-in-hand and help ensure that the project is completed correctly and on time.”
Lesson 3: Plan for the future
A third lesson was making sure the practice did its homework and planned for its future, says Mr. Caputo. “We looked into patient demographics and wanted to find a location central to our patient volume,” he says.
Mr. Caputo hopes that a “neighborhood location,” rather than a location next to a busy acute-care hospital, will be less hectic and more convenient for Ortho Four States’ patients.
Also, when Ortho Four States bought the land for the new facility, they purchased 120 acres of land. The new building will only occupy six or seven acres, according to Mr. Caputo. The additional land allows Ortho Four States to plan for future growth and development around their medical campus.
“We have a vision of where we want to be in the future,” Mr. Caputo says. “We hope to develop our campus to include hotels, restaurants, retail stores and other medical facilities.”
Learn more about Orthopaedic Specialists of the Four States.
