I am a RN since '87 and in dialysis since '98. I've recently become "burnt-out" with nursing in general and decided to take some time off from it all about 9 months ago. Since then, my husband (non-medical) had come into a real estate opportunity regarding a brand-new building to find a business to lease the space (or spaces, however large the operation would be). I suggested to him that the building would be perfect for a new dialysis clinic, since there were none in the immediate area at this time. And also, that if we could find the back up money, to start one on our own, in cooperation with the building's owners (who happen to be MD's, just not nephrologists). At first, it seemed a bit much to the MD's, but after some time, they became very excited about the prospect of owning their own clinic, instead of leasing it out to a large dialysis provider such as DaVita or Fresenius. It would, however, be up to my husband (who has managed several chiropractic and eye care clinics in his past) and myself (who has been in dialysis for over 10 years in both chronic clinics and in acute settings) to manage the operations for this new clinic. We are planning to start with 12 stations, and will have approx. 20 patients to start this operation (as per the "proposed" medical director's estimate). I was wondering if anyone has ever had such an opportunity to be a part of a new start up for a dialysis clinic, and could offer me any information or advice on how many employees, (nurses, techs, bio med) one would need to start with according to these patient numbers. I will also be able to help out in staffing as I am a dialysis nurse and can "fill in" to accomodate the start up of this clinic. I have a feeling that "filling in" will mean a full time job at first (meaning the first 6 months probably) but in any case, if anyone has any information or tips, I sure would welcome the input! Thanks in advance!
