This article is part of a series titled: The Ultimate Guide to Finding and Buying a Reliable Preowned Mobile Clinic.
On a beautiful spring afternoon ten years ago, two community healthcare executives had the idea of creating mobile medical programs.
The two executives were very similar - talented and passionate about their work with better than average doctors, staff, and administrators. Both organizations had good patient survey scores and both had Boards who were filled with ambition about the good they could do adding health and life to their communities.
They got to work and found funding. They wrote procedures, bought a vehicle, trained staff, and set off on the kind of whirlwind adventure you can only find when you get out of the office, out of the four walls where we're so comfortable and safe, and dive headfirst into meeting a cohort of people in your city or town who aren't comfortable - those who haven't made it, people who struggle with their health every day.
Both executives began to not only take great care of the people but take great care to the people.
Recently, the two executives met again at a conference. Both were successful. Both had positive stories to tell about the impact they were having in the community.
But there was a difference - in the ten years since they last met, one of the mobile programs had grown and prospered, making a difference in the lives of hundreds of patients a week, while the other was mediocre, and struggled to manage even a few patients a day.
Have you ever wondered (as I have) what makes this kind of difference in a long-term project?
It isn't a native intelligence or talent or dedication of the people. Smart people fail all the time, don't they?
It isn't that one person wants success and the other doesn't, is it? No.
The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge. The difference lies in decision-making: i.e how each person used their limited resources.
In other words, it's not the money you have that matters most - any dimwit can spend money - what matters most is what you do with the money you have. Money is just a thing. It's what the money does that makes a difference in your life and the lives of others.
That is why I am writing to you and people like you - people like those two healthcare executives. That is the whole purpose of Mission Mobile Medical - to give people knowledge and opportunity they can use to become the prospering program instead of the struggling program.
You see, Mission Mobile Medical is a unique company. It's the country's only licensed mobile medical vehicle dealer. It's full of servant leaders. We approach our business as a long-term partnership with our clients. Every day, we're taking care of every stakeholder in our organization - you, our clients, their clients, our coworkers, and business partners.
Every day, we are on a mission to help healthcare organizations and non-profits better leverage their scarce resources - to make your money do more.
Every day, we help people across the country who are passionate about helping people in their community by offering our knowledge, our time, and our talents. We give you the information and options you need - when you need it - and we don't leave. We're in this for the long haul (just like you). We believe in being partners, not selling products.
This morning, I looked over our website (the most read resource on Mobile Medical Units in the US per our web traffic analysis). I see research articles, videos outlining how to incorporate a non-profit organization, links to equipment manufacturers, maintenance checklists, and even 50-state Regulations. Every phase of finding, buying, and launching a mobile medical program is covered.
One of our most powerful recommendations is for an organization to spend less money on a vehicle and more money on program Operations. That one decision can be the difference between prospering and struggling.
Right now, I'm looking at the Ultimate Guide to Buying a Pre-owned Mobile Medical Unit. It's about a 25-page document full of checklists to follow when inspecting a pre-owned mobile medical unit. If you've never read it, you cannot imagine how useful it can be for you.
In Section 1 - Pre-Inspection Planning, we dive right into Price Range. We do that first because remember - it's not about the money you have, it's about how you spend it.
You can easily spend $100,000 more on a vehicle than you really need to. Over a 5-year program cycle, that's $20,000 per year that could be spent on staff, supplies, or better equipment.
Where there are benefits to working with a specialty vehicle manufacturer for a new clinic as well - the only point I’ll make is this:
$100,000 in savings on a truck goes a long way toward programming.
Research from BMC Medicine shows for every $1 spent on a mobile medical healthcare program, the calculated return-on-investment is $36.
My friend Eliot always says, "I'm no mathematician, but I can add." If a program saves $100,000 or more on their vehicle purchase and instead invests that money in programming, the result is a savings ranging between $100,000 (one-time, guaranteed), $3,600,000 (estimated annual savings), and $18,000,000 (the return on that $100,000 investment over a five-year program)
Depending on the life of the program. the savings have a greater impact over time - for example, saving $100,000 upfront on a mobile medical vehicle engaged in a 5-year program could show a differential ROI of $18,000,000.
That would explain the difference between a successful program and a struggling program for our two executives after 10 years of effort. An initial investment in programming vs. equipment creates significant secondary effects over the life of a program.
I cannot promise success will be yours by purchasing a pre-owned mobile medical clinic instead of a new mobile medical clinic. But I can guarantee we'll be here to help you figure it out - today, tomorrow, and every step along the way.
TL
Oriol, N.E., Cote, P.J., Vavasis, A.P. et al. Calculating the return on investment of mobile healthcare. BMC Med 7, 27 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-7-27