Clinic opening Gantt chart template: lease to first patients seen
An editable Gantt chart for opening a medical, dental or physio clinic: registration, payer enrolment, fit-out, clinical equipment, records and staff, with dependencies and milestones up to the first patients seen.
What the clinic opening gantt chart template: lease to first patients seen process is
Opening a clinic involves two kinds of work. One is visible: a lease, a fit-out, clinical equipment and a team. The other is paperwork that runs on someone else's clock: a registration or licence for the clinic, and the enrolment of clinicians with insurers and payers so that their care can be billed. Both have to be finished before the first patient is seen, and the paperwork waits are often long and outside your control. A timeline shows which of them decides the date, so you can start it first.
This template has five groups: Registration and licensing, Payer enrolment, Premises and equipment, Systems and staff, and Opening. "Set up the practice entity and bank accounts" (5 working days) is the only starting task, because the applications and contracts that follow are made in its name. Two tasks start the moment it is done: "Sign the lease for the clinic premises" (10) and "Apply to enrol clinicians with insurers and payers" (5). The lease is the first gate: "Apply for clinic registration or licence" (5), "Design the clinical layout" (8) and "Hire clinical and front-desk staff" (20) all wait for it. "Set up patient records, scheduling and billing" (10) starts 10 days after the entity is set up.
With the illustrative numbers, payer credentialing sets the date. "Payer credentialing review" (60) ends in the "Payer contracts in place" milestone after 70 working days. Everything else is ready well before that. "Registration review" (30) ends in "Registration granted" after 50 days. On the premises side, "Fit out treatment rooms and reception" (25) ends after 48 days and "Clinical equipment lead time" (20) after 45, and "Install and commission equipment" (5), which may start 15 days into the fit-out but here waits for the equipment, ends in "Premises ready" after 50. "Premises inspection" (2) waits for "Registration granted" and "Premises ready", and "Open bookings and tell referrers" (5) is done after 57 days. "First patients seen" then waits 13 more working days for the payer contracts. The lesson is to apply to payers on day one, in parallel with the lease: had the application waited for the lease, the first patients would move 10 days later. Turn on View > Critical path to see the payer chain light up.
The Opening group is short. "Open bookings and tell referrers" waits for the inspection and for "Verify staff licences and train on systems" (6), and "First patients seen" waits for the bookings and the payer contracts. Where patients pay privately, or no enrolment with insurers or payers exists, remove the Payer enrolment group; the date then falls back to the premises, the registration and the inspection, after 57 working days with these numbers. All durations are illustrative. Replace them with your registration authority's guidance, what each payer tells you and your suppliers' quotes, and add public holidays as extra days.
A timeline schedules the work. It does not register a clinic, credential a clinician, verify a licence or make the premises compliant: "Verify staff licences and train on systems" is a task your team carries out, not a check the chart performs. For the process inside the long credentialing bar, see /templates/provider-credentialing-process, and for drawing registrations and inspections as waiting time and gates, see /guides/opening-permits-and-inspections-gantt-chart.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Five groups, Registration and licensing, Payer enrolment, Premises and equipment, Systems and staff and Opening, with 20 tasks and four milestones: "Registration granted", "Payer contracts in place", "Premises ready" and "First patients seen".
- Payer enrolment from the start: "Apply to enrol clinicians with insurers and payers" follows "Set up the practice entity and bank accounts" in parallel with "Sign the lease for the clinic premises", and "Payer credentialing review" (60 working days) is the longest task.
- A registration chain after the lease: "Apply for clinic registration or licence", "Registration review" (30) and "Registration granted".
- A premises chain in which "Install and commission equipment" waits for "Clinical equipment lead time" (20) and may start 15 days into "Fit out treatment rooms and reception", before "Premises ready".
- An opening gate: "Premises inspection" waits for "Registration granted" and "Premises ready", and "First patients seen" waits for "Open bookings and tell referrers" and "Payer contracts in place".
When to use this template
- You are opening a medical, dental or physiotherapy clinic and need one plan for the lease, the fit-out, the registration, payer enrolment and the team.
- You want to see whether payer credentialing, the registration or the fit-out decides the day you can see patients.
- A partner or lender wants an opening date and you want to compare the finish date with the date you need.
- You are adding a new site to an existing practice and want a skeleton you can resize.
The plan, task by task
Every task in the chart with its length in working days and what it waits for. A dependency is a step number; SS is start-to-start, FF is finish-to-finish, and +n is a lag in working days.
| # | Task | Group | Working days | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Set up the practice entity and bank accounts | Registration and licensing | 5 | |
| 2 | Sign the lease for the clinic premises | Premises and equipment | 10 | 1 |
| 3 | Apply for clinic registration or licence | Registration and licensing | 5 | 2 |
| 4 | Registration review | Registration and licensing | 30 | 3 |
| 5 | Registration granted | Registration and licensing | Milestone | 4 |
| 6 | Apply to enrol clinicians with insurers and payers | Payer enrolment | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | Payer credentialing review | Payer enrolment | 60 | 6 |
| 8 | Payer contracts in place | Payer enrolment | Milestone | 7 |
| 9 | Design the clinical layout | Premises and equipment | 8 | 2 |
| 10 | Fit out treatment rooms and reception | Premises and equipment | 25 | 9 |
| 11 | Order clinical equipment | Premises and equipment | 2 | 9 |
| 12 | Clinical equipment lead time | Premises and equipment | 20 | 11 |
| 13 | Install and commission equipment | Premises and equipment | 5 | 10SS+15, 12 |
| 14 | Premises ready | Premises and equipment | Milestone | 10, 13 |
| 15 | Set up patient records, scheduling and billing | Systems and staff | 10 | 1+10 |
| 16 | Hire clinical and front-desk staff | Systems and staff | 20 | 2 |
| 17 | Verify staff licences and train on systems | Systems and staff | 6 | 15, 16 |
| 18 | Premises inspection | Registration and licensing | 2 | 5, 14 |
| 19 | Open bookings and tell referrers | Opening | 5 | 17, 18 |
| 20 | First patients seen | Opening | Milestone | 8, 19 |
How it works
Apply to payers on day one
Keep "Apply to enrol clinicians with insurers and payers" straight after "Set up the practice entity and bank accounts", not after the lease. If a payer needs the premises address first, link the application to the lease and watch the opening date move.
Replace the review times
Set "Registration review" and "Payer credentialing review" from what your authority and each payer tell you. These waits vary widely, so use their guidance rather than a rule of thumb, and allow time for follow-up questions.
Set the fit-out and the equipment
Set "Fit out treatment rooms and reception" from your contractor and "Clinical equipment lead time" from supplier quotes. "Install and commission equipment" may start 15 days into the fit-out; change the lag to when the rooms can take it.
Plan systems and staff
"Set up patient records, scheduling and billing" starts 10 days after the entity is set up. Set "Hire clinical and front-desk staff" from your recruitment plan, and keep "Verify staff licences and train on systems" ahead of the bookings.
Check the opening date
Turn on View > Critical path to see the chain that sets the date, and compare the date of "First patients seen" with the date you need. If no payer enrolment applies, delete the Payer enrolment group's tasks and check again.
Add owners, share and export
Put the responsible person in People for each task, share the chart with your partners, contractor and practice manager, and export a PDF or CSV when you need a copy.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to open a clinic?
It depends on the kind of clinic, where it is and how long the registration and payer reviews take there. The template uses illustrative working days: with them, the premises are inspected and bookings are open after 57 days, and the first patients are seen after 70, once the payer contracts are in place. Replace the numbers with your own and read the dates from the chart.
Why does payer credentialing set the opening date?
Because it is the longest wait in the plan and it runs on the payers' clock, not yours. Starting it as soon as the practice entity exists is the main thing you control. If it still ends after the bookings open, the other chains have slack and the chart shows it. For how to read that chain, see /guides/gantt-chart-critical-path.
We have a date for the first patients. Can the chart work to it?
Give "Set up the practice entity and bank accounts" a fixed Start on the day work begins and "First patients seen" a fixed Start on that date, since the plan starts on the earliest fixed Start. The chart schedules forward from the start of the plan, and if the dependencies cannot meet the fixed date it flags a conflict and names the earliest date they allow. Then start the long applications earlier or shorten what you can, and check again.
Does the chart check that our registration, licences or credentials are valid?
No. It schedules the work and what each task waits for. It does not submit applications, verify a licence, credential a clinician or make the premises compliant. Keep the evidence in your own records and use the Notes column to say where it is kept.
Can I use it for a dental, physiotherapy or private-pay clinic?
Yes. Rename and resize the tasks, and remove the Payer enrolment group where patients pay privately or no enrolment exists. For who reports to whom in a practice, see /org-templates/clinic-business-organizational-chart, and for the method behind every opening plan, see /guides/new-location-opening-gantt-chart.