Things we did do right included setting up the clinic from the start with running water and it’s own bathroom, having a partner to run the self-contained draw station and a full spectrum of rapid result CLIA waived tests, and setting up in an area that has a high summer-time vacation population to make up for the seasonal dropoff in respiratory infection traffic.

Advertising is also quite problematic. Piggybacking on the host store’s advertising was unproductive. People simply didn’t notice anything but the grocery sale prices. Newspaper/radio/chamber of commerce membership all felt like a ripoff. Word of mouth, other pharmacies and other doctors offices have been our most steady source of referrals. We purposely didn’t set out to sell ourselves to the local doctors offices but we found them sending us patients immediately, especially the out-of-towners.

I’m not sure we’ll ever open a second clinic (our insurer requires 2 hours of physician presence every day), but if we do, it will be a challenge to decide which of the lessons we’ve learned will apply to another town, with another set of circumstances.