Excerpt
Preface
This book is intended to provide a clear and comprehensive step-by-step guide for counselors, therapists, physicians, community health agencies, mental health and substance abuse providers who have considered starting or enhancing services within a not-for-profit organization environment. Included within this book, you’ll find ready to use technical operating policy and procedure manuals, business plan designs, physician employment agreements and grant funding proposals, all of which are easily customizable to fit your specific organizational design and capabilities. Additionally, those providers that are currently offering counseling and/or substance abuse services will find a fully functional model in which to launch an integrated healthcare facility that is capable of delivering primary care with or without pharmacotherapy services.
While reading this book you must keep in mind that there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to starting and operating your own healthcare organization. Thus, this text is designed to move you logically along the disparate and confusing processes of incorporation, licensing, funding, program development, grant writing, business plan development, staff recruitment and retention, accounting, budgeting, marketing and community development. Historically, many people who start their own organization do not have a lot of money in which to hire top consultants, attorneys, accountants and public relation firms. Therefore, one of the main objectives of this book is to guide you systematically and methodically through these fundamental processes that will enable you to learn to do the bulk of the grunt work yourself that’s necessary to create a strong viable agency. Additionally, the specific examples included in this text will allow you to minimize your cash outlays for certain consultants, and outsource contractors that are absolutely necessary to put the last touches on certain facets of your business model.
The goal of this book is to provide valuable knowledge to those of you who have decided that you are committed to pursuing your dream of providing healthcare services within your community, yet, lack the necessary knowledge of available resources needed to complete your goals. Additionally, this book is designed to improve your ability to interact successfully with local and Federal health departments, local and Federal funding sources and private organizations interested in collaborating with unique healthcare providers.
This book provides an expansive range of real life information that can be put to use immediately and effectively. In fact, the technical information contained in this text is so detailed that you can create your organization in as little as 24 hours. And, most importantly, the data contained in this volume is based upon years of comprehensive knowledge. Yet, it is written at a level that is designed to be understandable by the novice behavioral healthcare entrepreneur. Additionally, for established behavioral healthcare providers this book includes detailed sections designed to enhance day-to-day operations by upgrading and stabilizing your current service delivery capabilities. The flow of information has been very carefully chronicled to ensure that essential processes and structures are considered and brought to your attention early on in the process. Again, the goal is to minimize your overall financial outlays and to avoid unnecessary time consumption. However, running an organization is not easy and you have to be committed to becoming successful.
Outlined within this text you will find a wealth of information that has been designed to allow you to operate your new organization in a cost-effective manner, and to be as productive as possible with limited resources at your disposal. The section on revenue should be particularly beneficial for the hundreds of organizations that are currently in the process of redesigning their operations with the expectation of reigniting positive growth and curbing costs. In addition, there is a special pharmacotherapy section that contains enough detailed information needed to start, introduce, or enhance the use of pharmaceutical detoxification and maintenance.
