Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiana Quitugua.
Hi Tiana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My initial years as a contracted medical Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) were spent moving through various high-demand environments—hospitals, schools, and outpatient clinics. I loved the connection of direct patient care, yet I continually felt constrained by systems that didn’t support optimal outcomes. The demanding productivity expectations were not only impacting my own health but were also stifling the quality of care I could provide.
These experiences motivated me to to create a truly patient-centered practice that prioritized providers over profit. I wanted a space that actively combats the provider burnout so prevalent in healthcare, where the best SLPs could focus on providing effective, evidence-based therapy. This meant intentionally redesigning the workflow—taking away the burden of scheduling and billing, and adding essential elements like time for collaboration, dedicated breaks, and professional development.
In the Fall of 2022, my husband and I launched our practice from a very small space. I focused on clinical care and building our foundation, while he managed the business side. Our commitment to supporting both clinician and client growth proved successful. We quickly outgrew our initial office, moving into our current clinic space with four new SLPs in 2024. Today, in 2025, we are proud to have expanded into a growing team of clinicians, supported by dedicated operations and patient care coordination staff.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ha! I think most entrepreneurs will tell you that it is never a smooth road, unless they’re incredibly lucky. There are always obstacles in the way and we’re blessed to be able to navigate them at all.
Cash flow was a big obstacle early, as most of our revenue is from insurance and are usually paid on a delay (30 or more days after we complete the service) while our expenses remain immediate. But we still have to make sure our team can rely on us to pay them on time, every time. So we did everything we could to make it work, including selling our house. We continue to make those sacrifices today, in hopes that we can build enough to continue to be able to provide for our team members, families, and ourselves.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Scoop Speech?
Scoop Speech is a pediatric speech therapy clinic providing effective, play-based, and neurodiversity-affirming care for children and their families. We are dedicated to enhancing each child’s communication and quality of life through skilled, individualized services in speech, language, feeding, and swallowing. Our therapy is always child-led, play-based, and neurodiversity affirming driven by passionate SLPs who make a meaningful difference.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
My husband and I are not inherently risk takers. We’ve always gone the safe route, we try to live beneath our means, save, put big percentages into our 401ks, all of that. For us, opening the business was the big risk. We had no guarantees that it would work. When we opened, healthcare reimbursement costs with insurances weren’t public knowledge, and to this day insurance companies have them in giant files that aren’t easy to decode. So we really didn’t know how much we would get paid for the services either! We went into this thinking that we had some money saved up, and if other businesses were able to survive, then we might be able to make it work as well.
We view risk not just as an inevitability, but as a critical element we must actively manage, particularly in a service-based model where we have less control over external factors like client and staff availability.
The primary risks we navigate fall into two categories. First, client consistency. A missed or late appointment creates an immediate loss for the clinic, as that billable time is unrecoverable. While we could enforce strict cancellation fees, we aim for a balance, understanding that overly punitive measures can negatively impact the well-being of clients who are already experiencing strain. We address this through clear policy communication and building strong, trusting relationships that encourage timely communication.
Second, team stability and talent investment. The process of hiring, onboarding, and training a new team member is a significant commitment—we invest heavily in the first few months, and it can take six to ten months to break even on that investment. This makes staff turnover a critical financial risk. Our mitigation strategy is built around proactive employee engagement and a supportive culture to drive long-term retention. We hire carefully, recognizing that turnover directly impacts our stability and resources.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.scoopspeech.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoopspeech
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scoopspeech
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scoopspeech
