Nursing Homes For Sale
Axis Partnership are business transfer agents with a range nursing agencies and nursing homes for sale. We assist with the buying and selling of health care businesses of all kinds throughout the UK and have nursing agencies and nursing homes for sale in Suffolk, Essex, London, East Anglia, South East, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Home Counties, England, South West, North West, South East, Midlands and West Midlands. With our extensive experience of the health care business sector we can help you whether you are looking for a nursing home or nursing agency for sale in your area.
Click here to view our current selection of Nursing Homes For Sale
This article looks at the differences between a nursing home and a nursing agency, and considers the different challenges involved with each.
About Nursing Homes for Sale
Nursing homes are residential care homes which provide care by qualified nursing staff. They are suitable for people who are unable or no longer wish to live independently in their own home, who have some ongoing medical needs, but which are not sufficiently severe to require being in hospital. Nursing homes can provide temporary care (e.g. for someone recuperating after a hospital stay prior to returning home) or permanent care (e.g. for elderly or disabled people who will require this level of support for the remainder of their lives).
Some nursing homes are NHS owned and run, while others are independently run. Increasingly, the NHS has been seeking to place people into independent homes, with the NHS meeting the fees providing the person meets assessment criteria. This growth in the use of the private sector to fulfil NHS obligations has resulted in many independent nursing homes flourishing and expanding. However, the recent budget cuts look set to reduce the amount of NHS funding that independent nursing homes can rely on.
Prospective buyers should therefore consider the current mix of private and NHS funded clients currently catered for by the nursing home, and what the impact would be if NHS funding were to be reduced.
At Axis we focus on the independent nursing homes for sale, helping owners to find suitable buyers for their business. Our role is to match buyer requirements to each business.
Buying a Nursing Home Business
There are two types of buyer for a nursing home business.
The first is the owner-manager who will typically have a nursing background appropriate to the type of needs catered for at the home (e.g. geriatric, psychiatric, etc). This type of owner will have the relevant skills and qualifications enabling them to be the registered manager, and they will typically have a fairly hands on role within the home and be present much of the time.
The second type of buyer is the chain or franchise buyer, looking to add to an existing set of care or nursing homes. This type of owner will typically keep the existing registered manager in place (unless they are also the owner) or employ someone to be the registered manager on their behalf, perhaps as a franchise arrangement.
For an owner-manager with a nursing background, the main challenge is to learn all the other skills involved in running a nursing home. In particular, marketing the business and tendering for work to ensure a steady stream of work, is essential, especially in a competitive sector where many clients are highly cost-sensitive. But they will also need to become skilled in areas such as staff recruitment and retention, monitoring standards, ensuring ever-changing legislation is satisfied, taking care of financial management and accounting, and so on. A buyer of this type should ensure that there are either staff in place responsible for these aspects, or seek to build a team around themselves as soon as possible.
Running a nursing home is, obviously, a 24/7 operation, requiring nursing staff to be available at all times of the day and night. An owner-manager needs to put good rotas in place to ensure adequate cover, to avoid finding being called in themselves.
When looking at different nursing homes for sale, here are some of the main factors to consider:
Location and Demographics – Some areas (e.g. coastal towns) tend to have a higher proportion of elderly people, which creates greater demand for nursing home care in these areas.
Profitability – Is the business currently profitable and what are its main sources of income (NHS, local authority or private)? If it is not profitable, make sure you understand why and whether the problem can be fixed through changes in staff, marketing, refurbishment, etc. Even if it is profitable, how are these profits achieved? By having an excellent reputation and lots of satisfied clients? Or by excessive cost-cutting?
Private / Franchise? – The majority of nursing homes for sale will be independent, private business, but franchise opportunities do arise sometimes. If you want to be able to run the home your way, you will need to look only at independent businesses.
Premises – What is the current state of the premises and how well equipped is it? Be sure to get accurate surveys and be clear about any repair or refurbishments costs which you may have to bear after purchase. While you may relish the idea of turning a run-down establishment into something a lot more up to date, make sure that this work is accurately costed and forms part of your overall business plan prior to purchase, not forgetting the disruption to clients or the need to close areas of the home during the work.
About Nursing Agencies for Sale
A nursing agency does not involve running any premises (except perhaps some office space). Its purpose is to supply qualified nursing staff to individuals at home, to hospitals or other institutions.
Some nursing agencies focus on supplying nursing staff on a temporary basis, for instance to help with recuperation at home, or in the final stages of an illness, or to provide sickness or maternity cover in hospitals. These agencies will have access to a bank of staff who can be called in at short notice.
Other agencies are actually nursing recruitment businesses, helping hospitals or other institutions to find nursing staff for permanent placement.
Some agencies will cover both temporary and permanent placements.
In addition, a nursing agency for sale may also provide general domiciliary care, for people who require support at home but do not need medically qualified people in attendance. Often there is an overlap in needs – e.g. a person may need nursing care immediately following an operation, but then require non-medical domiciliary care thereafter to help with dressing, cooking and so on. Other people may fluctuate between nursing and domiciliary care at different times depending on their condition, so it is convenient to have one agency providing both types of care and able to respond quickly to changing needs.
Buying a nursing agency does not necessarily require a nursing background. The primary requirement is managerial and marketing ability to promote the business and organise staff placements efficiently, as well as the right personality to keep staff and clients happy. Nursing experience is necessary when it comes to recruiting and assessing nursing staff – but this can be arranged by employing qualified people to perform these functions. There will tend to be a reasonably high turnover of agency staff, so it is helpful to have a good set of existing contacts so that nursing staff can be recruited easily to maintain and grow staff levels.
When looking at a nursing agency for sale, here are some of the main factors to consider:
Current agency staff and workload – How large is the workforce and how experienced/qualified are they? Get a clear idea whether the existing workforce will be sufficient for the plans you have, and how much work will need to be done to build up the size and quality of the staff bank. Take a good look at existing admin staff too and assess how much work can be left to them or whether you will need to reorganise how the agency is being run.
Profitability – Is the agency currently profitable and what are its main sources of income (e.g. lots of small private placements, or a few large contracts)? If it is not making a profit, try to understand why and whether the problem can be fixed through changes in staff, marketing, refurbishment, etc.
Customer satisfaction – If you are taking over an existing agency you will also be taking over its reputation with clients. The long term success of a nursing agency, especially one catering for private clients, will depend very largely on referrals and reputation. Try to assess whether clients are happy or not with the agency and aim to replicate the elements which are working and rectify the elements which are not.
Click here to view our current selection of Nursing Homes For Sale or click here to register your requirements with Axis.