As a regulated health professional in Canada, you have special considerations and risks compared to other traditional business models. And having the proper private practice startup paperwork in place is essential for protecting your practice and minimizing your legal risk.
Whether you’re a social worker, psychologist, psychotherapist, nurse practitioner or even a physician starting a private practice, having the proper paperwork in place is essential.
Sure, you could download the ‘free’ private practice paperwork you’ve found on Google; buy the $29 paperwork pack you found online; or use the paperwork your colleague graciously gave you. You could even hire out everything you need created for your private practice. But each of these options have their own set of limitations, potential implications.
In this article, I’ll discuss considerations for choosing your private practice paperwork in Canada.
Considerations When Choosing Private Practice Forms
In this section, we’ll discuss some considerations before choosing which route to go when choosing your private practice startup paperwork.
Copyright Considerations
The ethical and legal considerations, such as copyright, especially if you’re using paperwork that you haven’t paid for. Whether you found a free paperwork package online or a colleague graciously gave you theirs, you don’t necessarily have a license to use that paperwork in your practice, unless explicitly stated by the creator of the paperwork. And by using that paperwork, without a license, could potentially create future copyright infringement claims against you from the original paperwork creator.
Follows Canadian Legal and Regulatory Standards
Another consideration is whether the paperwork has a focus on the Canadian private practice owners specifically. Maybe you’re considering purchased paperwork, which will give you a licence for use, but it wasn’t created with the Canadian private practitioner in mind. As Canadians, we follow different legislation than other countries so ensuring that your paperwork follows the legal and regulatory standards for regulated health professionals in Canada is key.
Unfortunately, buying just any paperwork template online could unintentionally leave you to omit key clauses to protect your private from future disputes. And unfortunately, much of the paperwork for purchase online are from United States-based professionals. And even when a US-based paperwork template pack claims to be “vetted” or “created” by a legal professional, it may not necessarily be compliant for Canadian laws.
Hiring a Canadian Legal Professional
One of the more legally sound options is to hire a Canadian legal professional to write your private practice paperwork for you. However, the downsides for this option is that it has a significant upfront cost. When you hire a legal professional to create your paperwork for your practice, you’re likely going to spend a several hundred to even a thousand dollars on drafting your paperwork, even before you’ve opened your private practice doors.
The upfront cost for hiring a lawyer is usually the number one reason why many new private practitioners avoid doing so, especially when starting out. However, I am a strong proponent for having legally-sound paperwork and contracts, so when I first started my private practice I had a lawyer create my private practice paperwork. While it came with a price, I was confident that my private practice was legally protected.
Conclusion
While there are several considerations when deciding on a where to find private practice startup paperwork, it’s always important to balance coverage over cost. When choosing your private practice paperwork, ensure that your private practice paperwork follows a legal and regulatory requirements in Canada. The best way in doing so is by hiring a Canadian legal professional to help you draft your private practice paperwork. This way you’ll be confident your client consents and contracts include all necessary clauses and requirements.
Check out our article How to Start a Private Practice.
Disclaimer
Please be advised that I am not a legal professional and the information in this article is not to be considered legal advice. Instead, this article is intended to be informational and educational in nature and consulting with a legal professional is always encouraged.