18 UNDER THIS ROOF / New Facility
To those considering a new facil-
ity, Jevens strongly advises being true to yourself. “You know that concept about a cou-
ple having a baby to save their marriage?” he asks. “The same can be true with tak- ing on a building project. You need to ask yourself, ‘Who are you? What are your goals? Where are you going? Is it part of who you are? Is it what your market needs? Is it what your team needs? Are you excited about it?’ “You may discover you are trying to fix something that really isn’t going to be fixed by a new facility. Maybe you should be getting out a mirror rather than a phone book to call a list of architects.”
Raising expectations “Our number-one goal was to become
AAHA-accredited, and there was no way we could accomplish that in our old building,” says Nancy Hendrikson, prac- tice manager and owner of Norwalk Ani- mal Hospital in Norwalk, Ohio. Her hus- band’s one-doctor practice was winner of the 2011 Hospital of the Year Award in the general practices category. “It was only two rooms with no
amenities,” she recalls with a laugh. “The wiring was so bad that we had to unplug the air conditioner to operate the X-ray machine.” Originally operating out of a garage, the 600-square foot hospital was replaced in 1996. The couple painstakingly exam- ined each of the new building’s 2,600 square feet. “The greatest dollar impact is obvi- ously the square feet that sit under your surgery table,” says Ms. Hendrikson. “A lot of clinics have square feet that are really not productive. We tried to design ours with the idea that every square foot would have to contribute almost as a team member and have the ability to create income and provide better client service.” The Hendriksons used colored mark-
ers to track traffic flow of each staff mem- ber and how he or she interacted with clients and one another.
Trends magazine, September 2011
“Our design emphasized taking very
few steps so everybody can get their job done as quickly and efficiently as pos- sible,” says Ms. Hendrikson. “That effi- ciency not only impacts the bottom line, it also created the setting for us to work more effectively as a team.” “If nothing else, the new building
raised everyone’s expectations,” Ron Hendrikson, DVM, says, “not only among our clients but in our staff too. We were all determined to match the level of our service to the quality of the facility. “As in many things in life, you only get one chance to do it right. We wanted our building to reflect our pride in our work and the ideals of veterinary medicine, as well our commitment to the people in this community. We think it’s helped us achieve all those goals.”
“We tried to design [our clinic] with the idea that every square foot
would have to contribute almost as a team member and have the ability to create income and provide better client service.” —Nancy Hendrikson
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