Chapter 3

Doug turned into the parking lot for the office Monday morning at eight and noticed Lisa sitting in her car waiting for him. He handed her the second cup of coffee he had stopped for and unlocked the door to the office. He could see that Lisa was giving a good look-see to this rather barren office.

“I can smell that you had the office painted.”

“Yes it needed it but as you can tell there are a lot of other things that his place needs before we can call it an office and it becomes operational. This a list of some things that need to be done from purchasing new office furniture to office supplies, to a coffee machine and many other things.”

After looking at the list Lisa said, “There are quite a number of other things not listed here that also need to be purchased or installed.”

“I trust you to do what is necessary to get this office outfitted properly and make it operational. Here is a credit card for you to use to do the necessary things. Since you know what the purpose of this business is here is also a list of publications we should place ads in to let people know we are open for business. In your spare time please give them a call and place the ads that look something like this” and he handed another slip of paper.

Laughing Lisa said, “What spare time?”

“I am not going to bother you as I have an appointment to meet with Doctor Tom Carrol tomorrow who will probably be our first customer. He is an acquaintance of Jeff’s and Amy’s who as you know are our bosses. They would like for us to give him a loan to establish his medical practice in Amy’s hometown. I have already met with Attorney Brad Stevens and Barbra Harrison from Harrison Accounting whose services we will be using in doing this loaning of money. They are aware that you are going to be my right hand in this endeavor. I also have drafted a loan application form. Over time it will probably need to be revised but here is a copy of what I drafted.”

“It looks like you have been busy and now let me get busy and do some of the many things I need to do.”

Doug backed away and let Lisa do her thing. He observed her taking out her cell phone and making several phone calls from what he could hear were to various vendors. He could also hear that she was making some appointments for the next day. She opened a briefcase and took out some papers that he could see her referring to in making some of these calls.

Doug’s contribution to organizing the office was to ask Lisa if she wanted to go out to lunch or if should he go for some carryout. Lisa gave him a look with one eyebrow raised and told Doug to do the carry-out because she had many things to do.

The drive the next day for Doug to see Tom Carrol was uneventful. They met at one o’clock at a Burger King which you could say wasn’t crowded as besides them there were only two other customers there. After securing their order they sat at a table and discussed Tom’s plan for having a medical practice here. Doug was impressed with what Tom said about his establishing his medical practice. He presented Doug with some papers in which he listed what he thought were the major items along with the estimated cost of those items.

Doug looked at these papers and made some comments to Tom. “Medical malpractice insurance costs that much?”

“Yes, and it is probably one of the primary reasons Doctor’s Office visits are so expensive besides salaries. Because of the prospect of litigation most Doctors practice defensive medicine which means ordering some tests which may not be necessary but they do it just to cover their butts.”

“I see you have the people listed you would need to employ.”

“Yes, a receptionist and a nurse. Kathy my fiancée is a nurse and is going to be my right hand. I met her when I was in school and since she worked for a Doctor she is familiar with what I am going to need to do to be set up. I didn’t list my older sister Beth but she is an accountant who left the profession to raise her twin boys. With them now starting school Beth will have the time to handle my billing when they are in school.

“Have you found a location to hang your shingle?”

“There is some office space on the second floor of a building that has a realty office on the first floor. I am to meet with the owner of the building tomorrow.

There was considerable more talk especially about estimating the number of patients that would be seen daily and what that would generate in the amount of income. To Doug, it was the cash flow that was the key if Tom would have a viable practice here. Other topics as to how and where further testing of patients would be done along with the location of other medical facilities were discussed.

Doug looked at his watch and was surprised to see how long they had been having this discussion. He reached into his briefcase and pulled out an application form for a loan and handed it to Tom asking him to complete it. He told Tom he was going to stay the night at the motel he passed coming into town and would accompany Tom tomorrow when he looks at the office he was considering renting. They parted after shaking hands.

In the room at the motel, Doug knew it was a given that he was going to give a loan to Tom. The only question was how much of a loan. He did have some thoughts as to if this town could support a doctor but if Jeff and Amy wanted there to be a doctor here, who was he to question what they wanted?

The following morning he met with Tom who directed Doug to the office he was considering renting. The building’s owner was there and he showed them this second-floor office that was available. The office was barren and large and that was a problem since a reception area along with examination rooms and a doctor’s office would need to be constructed. The owner said it would be up to Tom to have this done and pay for this construction which bothered Doug. When the owner said the lease would be for three years with no option on Tom’s part to renew the lease that threw up a red flag for Doug.

Doug knew that this was not a place for Tom to lease but he didn’t say anything. He thanked the owner for showing them this office and said they would be in touch.