physical therapy business Archives | Page 3 of 9

Physical Therapy Management Strategic Marketing

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Mar 5, 2018 | Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Every business must have a strategic marketing plan, including physical therapy. Nitin Chhoda suggests ways in order to have an effective and strategic marketing plan, and emphasizes its importance and impact on your practice.

A recessive economy, loss of insurance and limited patient funds has led many clients to delay treatment for their health care needs.

Instead of treating a burgeoning clientele, physical therapists are spending less time with patients and expending more effort marketing their practice and dealing with budget issues.

Physical Therapy in Today’s Economy

Practical physical therapy management is essential in today’s economy and requires focused budgeting of time, money and effort. There was a time when a therapist could hang out his or her shingle and count on a steady flow of patients.

Those days are long gone and in the new economy, a critical element of operating a successful practice and physical therapy management involves careful budgeting and marketing efforts that offer a superior return on investment.

Physical Therapy Management Software

Implementation of a physical therapy management software system to increase efficiency, productivity and profitability is an ideal beginning. Operating on a budget for physical therapy management doesn’t mean therapists can’t market effectively.

A variety of low-cost, budget friendly means are available that will increase referrals, attract new patients and achieve a higher rate of return clients. Physical therapy management and marketing choices should be made carefully, keeping in mind the best return on investment. Different strategies will produce assorted results, based on the target market, locality and services offered.

Promotions

Therapists of physical therapy management can utilize small, inexpensive giveaways such as key chains imprinted with the practice’s phone and website, colorful handouts, and downloadable eBooks and audio files.

Informational CDs and DVDs all represent affordable, low-cost marketing methods for clinics on a budget. Even a simple phone call, postcard, email, or voice or text message has a place in modern marketing methods on a budget.

Customizable publications for physical therapy management such as Therapy Newsletter and the Clinical Contact mobile marketing system offer therapists with an easy way to connect with clients and potential patients.

Special offers and coupons can be transmitted electronically, and they provide social media marketing.

In the digital age, websites provide a first contact for patients and sites should include SEO to rank highly in search engine results.

Maximize Marketing

Physical therapy management requires maximization of every marketing dollar that’s spent and therapists can gain additional value through featuring local doctors and healthcare providers in their newsletter.

Those who haven’t built up extensive practices are more likely to find the idea appealing. It’s an effective way to increase overall exposure and referrals, and build beneficial relationships for the future.

In the current economy, therapists of physical therapy management services are finding themselves contending with shrinking budgets and the need to identify innovative ways to market their clinics.

Giveaways, downloads, newsletters and EMRs all provide low-cost ways to stay within a budget while increasing awareness among patients and other healthcare providers.

Effective physical therapy management includes distinguishing and differentiating the therapist, practice and services from all the possible competitors and those that do so will see an increase in referrals, better retention of established clients and an influx of potential new patients.

Physical Therapy Management: Maximizing Time Management

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Feb 25, 2018 | Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Managing and maximizing time value is critical for physical therapy private practice owners. Nitin Chhoda explains the importance of an effective time management system to increase the productivity of the practice.

Budgeting is just the beginning of efficient physical therapy management.

Time is a physical therapist’s most precious commodity and ruthless management is required to solve problems, market the practice and ensure a superior level of patient care.

Many popular time management of physical therapy management methods are predicated on an eight-hour day, which is why they don’t work and therapists often find themselves losing ground in the battle for time.

The Goal

The goal of time management is to provide therapists with sufficient time to treat patients, increase the clinic and physical therapy management’s profitability and tend to high-dollar tasks that would be beneficial to the practice.

Physical therapists are extremely effective at using their skills to relieve pain and restore mobility, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good at managing time. Before therapists can master their practice, they must first have self-discipline.

Implementing a physical therapy management and documentation system can manage everything from patient scheduling to billing, along with a full range of options for recording treatments, prescriptions and procedures.

To develop an effective plan of action for physical therapy management, therapists must ascertain the income they desire. That figure can be used to calculate how much the practice owner’s time is worth, allowing them to bill accordingly.

It’s Like Any Other Businesses

A physical therapy management and practice must be treated like any other business. The goal is to make money, not pour funds into the operation. Even working with a general idea is better than having no plan at all.

One of the most efficient uses of time for physical therapy management and business is to cluster activities together for maximum effect. Similar and complementary tasks should be scheduled together for maximum productivity.

Individuals that work uninterrupted accomplish twice as much in the same amount of time as those who must constantly change their focus. Don’t answer the phone and only be available in the event of a life and death emergency.

Proper Delegation

Delegation is part of good physical therapy management. With a trained and competent staff, low-dollar tasks can be assigned to others, leaving therapists with the necessary time to grow the practice’s profitability.

Depending upon the circumstances, it may be more efficient to outsource some duties. Identify non-productive activities and avoid them like the plague.

No shows, cancellations, clients that self-terminate their care, and those who need constant reminders are inevitable, but they also cost practices in time, money and effort. An over-abundance of these types of patients represent a drain on physical therapy management and clinic resources.

Therapists might be better served by sending them to a competitor. The same can be said for those who seek a free diagnosis and information outside the office setting.

Do Not Waste Time

There are dozens of ways to waste time each day and hundreds of people willing to help. Physical therapy management services for efficiency and profitability requires tough, goal-oriented decisions that some may view as harsh, but a physical therapy clinic is a business and therapists much learn to treat it as such.

Physical therapy management is a multi-faceted endeavor that requires strong leadership, focus, and management of staff in and out of the clinic to achieve a profitable practice.

Those who exhibit undesirable traits and behaviors don’t respect the therapist or the practice. They cost clinic owners money and valuable time that can be better spent building an efficient practice.

Physical Therapy Management: Clinical and Non-Clinical Staff

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Feb 19, 2018 | Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Nitin Chhoda discusses how good leadership, management and supervision of clinical and non-clinical staff can affect the total operation of a physical therapy business.

Physical therapists hold many roles within their physical therapy management practice, from managing patient health and promoting physical therapy within the community, to managing clinical and non-clinical staff.

Therapists will be called upon to manage staff, disputes and performance inside and outside the clinic to ensure a superior level of customer service and profitability.

The three key ingredients for interacting with staff in an effective physical therapy management can be summed up as leadership, management and supervision.

Good Leadership

Physical therapy management employer-employee relationship is always an adversarial one, with each party’s goals in direct conflict. Therapists are focused on the profitability of their practice.

Employees are concerned with their families, homes, bills, social activities and a myriad of other topics. It’s not a bad thing – it just is. Despite all that, less supervision and great physical therapy management should be the goal of every physical therapist.

The first rule of staff management is that employees are not friends, nor are they family. A mutually friendly attitude should be cultivated in physical therapy management, but always remember that at the end of the day, employees are paid to do a job and do it well.

Management At Its Best

Camaraderie is desirable for the good of the practice, but viewing the relationship realistically will assist therapists in managing staff more efficiently for the future profitability of the clinic.

The less time spent on explaining tasks, disciplinary actions, accepting excuses and ensuring staff perform to expectations in your physical therapy management, the better. There will always be employees who lie, steal and provide inferior services.

Never tolerate unacceptable behavior and weed out those who refuse to conform. Firing staff is never pleasant, but it’s part of efficient physical therapy management and a necessary part of ensuring the quality of treatment and the reputation of any practice.

Supervision

Incentive programs can be used to encourage clinicians to reach new heights in performance. Clinicians of physical therapy management require more hand holding and tracking, and therapists should condition them to receive small rewards based on performance.

If they see 81-90 patients in a 40-hour week, they get a $100 bonus. For those who treat 91-100 clients, they receive a $175 bonus. Anyone who sees 101 patients or more within a single week receives a $350 bonus for that week. physical therapy management people The ultimate goal of any business is to make the maximum amount of money with the least number of expenditures.

Practice owners of physical therapy management are not in business to create jobs or operate in the red.

Every aspect, from labor and equipment to toilet paper, must justify the expense and pay for itself in one way or the other.

Every item and each employee must serve an essential function to obtain the best return on investment for the clinic owner.

Do Not Overlook

Practice owners shouldn’t overlook the convenience and cost savings of office and physical therapy management systems. They’re versatile, customizable, and can perform many tasks typically handled by employees.

Automation is essential in the 21st century to curb costs, attract new patients, market, and meet mandated requirements for electronic medical records (EMR).

An automated system provides therapists with the tools to manage every facet of their practices, from patient care, and billing to physical therapy management staffing for a more profitable clinic.

Health Care for Patients with Modern Technology

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Dec 17, 2017 | Healthcare Practice Management, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Using modern technology for health care management such as EMR can help many patients foresee their medical expenses. Nitin Chhoda explains how medical EMR can determine the status of the patients’ insurance so that they can prepare and get ahead of their expenses.

In a system of health care practice management where insurance seems to be primarily concerned with the financial bottom line, patients often get caught in a bad place.

Patients are left to shoulder hefty bills because their insurance and benefits don’t cover what they expected them to cover.

Patients are often thrown into medical debt through no fault of their own, losing their jobs, sometimes their homes, and often their ability to get back out there and find work again is hampered or completely destroyed by their health care medical condition.

The Modern Technology

So how can modern technology help to make the patient experience less of a downward spiral? There may be nothing that a private practice health care can do to change the laws, so that insurance companies cannot drop patients for irrelevant technicalities.

However, for health care practice management professionals who want to continue to provide services and help people to get better, there are some ways that technology can improve the way things go for patients.

Preparation Rather Than Reaction

One problem that many patients run into is that they are unprepared for the amount of work it will take to recover, and they are unprepared for the amount of money they have to pay for their health care.

Even for patients with insurance, a serious injury or the diagnosis of a serious medical condition or disease can spell financial ruin due to the high price of medical care in the United States.

As a result, patients are terrified that they will end up at the doctor’s office, hearing bad news. They begin to avoid regular check-ups, even without realizing that they are doing so. In fact, many people actually make their health care worse by avoiding their medical care.

Medical EMRs can make a practice more efficient from within, and for many patients, that becomes a benefit. If health care clinicians can access patient files more quickly, easily, and efficiently, they will spend more time learning about the patient and what they need.

If billers and other staff members have more time to figure out what the patient will owe after the insurance company pays their part, the stress of an unexpected bill will be lifted.

Open Communication

Technology can help patients to prepare for what is going to happen as part of their health care treatment or recovery. This empowers them to make the right moves and take the right steps to getting better.

Additionally, with technological advances, it is possible for everyone within the practice to communicate faster and more clearly. If everyone in the health care practice is aware of the needs of patients, patient care improves.

When the staff is in better communication, they will also communicate more effectively with patients. And the more informed your patients are, the better they will understand their role in the process of healing and recovering.

There are ways for clinicians and staff members to make things easier for patients. Many technological options exist today that will help to empower patients and bring better efficiency to everyone involved in the health care of patients.

Health Care Practice Management for Patients to a Better Practice

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Dec 11, 2017 | Healthcare Practice Management, Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management

Nitin Chhoda shares how modern technology such as EMR, and having a good vision about your staffs’ efficiency help you provide better health care for your patients and good management for your practice.

If you ask anyone working in health care practice management, they will probably say that their main goal is to help patients who need medical attention.

The jobs of clinicians, doctors, nurses, and even receptionists revolve around the ability of everyone in the practice to take care of the patients that come through the doors.

And yet, the way that most health care practice management are run does not align with that primary goal.

The Technology of Today

Today, healthcare practice management professionals must put their focus elsewhere; someone has to be watching the income and expenses to make sure that the practice will continue to run.

Most recently, medical EMRs have surfaced as one tool that health care practice management professionals have implemented in an effort to streamline the practice and become more efficient.

Staff members are taught to be focused on time management, and medical billing and coding staff have to constantly fight to improve their rates of accepted medical claims so claims submission is not just a job of futility.

EMR of Health Care Management

Medical EMRs of health care practice management certainly help staff members, who are often set in their ways, to adjust workflows and become more efficient and more effective at their jobs.

But how does this affect the way that patients experience healthcare at your practice? Will improvements in technology really benefit patients? Can health care practice management clinicians care for patients more attentively if they’ve got a tablet computer in front of them rather than a file folder full of paperwork?

The truth is that everyone in the health care practice management, including patients being treated, benefits when the practice runs more smoothly.

Transitioning to new technology is never simple or easy, but once staff members settle into new rhythms, they may find that they are faster and that they feel more confident about their jobs as a result.

Everything Should Be At the Right Time

Of course, it takes time and a lot of very attentive and well-planned health care practice management to get to that point, but in the new economy, this kind of investment may be the only way to survive into the future. Anything that slows down the practice will reduce competitiveness, and the medical community is trending towards switching to medical EMRs.

For health care practice management where the implementation of a medical EMR seems like too much work and not worthwhile, it may take a little bit of visioning for everyone to get on board.

But imagine a practice that has an integrated medical EMR already installed and functioning properly.

Vision Is the Key

Imagine that the entire staff is already comfortable with the way the program works. Imagine that patients know how much they will pay for each visit, and they even pay up-front because the billing staff knows what their insurance company will pay.

Imagine that health care practice management clinicians have more time with each patient, even though appointments stay the same length, because it is easier and more intuitive for clinicians to review a patient file using the medical EMR.

Everyone benefits, and that includes patients. A confident, happy, and productive health care practice management staff will improve the patient experience. A medical EMR can improve productivity and bring a bit of extra confidence to the staff.

Physical Therapy Marketing – Team of Advisors and Consultants

by Nitin Chhoda PT, DPT | Dec 4, 2017 | Physical Therapy Documentation, Physical Therapy Management, Physical Therapy Marketing

Building a team of advisors and consultants are necessary when growing a successful practice. Nitin Chhoda explains the steps needed in order to choose the right and knowledgeable advisors and consultants so that your business will thrive.

One of the secrets of the world’s wealthiest and most influential individuals is that they surround themselves with experts in a variety of fields.

Physical therapists don’t have to be knowledgeable about the stock market to invest wisely, but they do need to surround themselves with people who have attained a superior level of expertise in that field.

The Role of Advisors and Consultants

Assembling a team of advisors and consultants is essential for physical therapy marketing, management, and the financial health of any clinic.

Advisors and consultants of physical therapy marketing and management provide valuable information on a variety of topics and can assist therapists in critical decision-making processes, from the installation of an electronic medical records (EMR) system to the best time to expand a practice.

Navigating the financial environment in the new economy requires physical therapy marketing practices and strategies that pool information and data from a wide array of resources. Physical therapy marketing is a key element for successful physical therapy clinics and is reliant upon accurate information.

Physical therapy is a specialized field and when assembling a team of advisors, it’s essential that those experts have extensive experience within their profession and are qualified to dispense advice on a variety of physical therapy concerns, from investments and expansion to the addition of new patient services including physical therapy marketing.

Select Knowledgeable Advisors and Consultants

Therapists know that attaining a seven-figure income is dependent upon their clinical skills and the success with which they market their practice. A knowledgeable team of consultants and advisors provide valuable advice and assistance for all aspects of physical therapy marketing.

Busy clinic owners often don’t have time to assemble and evaluate necessary data. A carefully chosen team can perform those services for the therapist and provide insight into potential patient numbers, past and future marketing efforts, and the local economic climate.

Many choose to outsource their consultancy needs to outside companies, an option that can prove very costly. For those with smaller practices and limited budgets, selecting a local firm may be a better alternative.

Two excellent but often-overlooked resources is the local chamber of commerce and small business bureau. Both offers free services that can be utilized for physical therapy marketing and management, increase referrals and establish the therapist as a specialist in his field.

Use Your Network

Networking and leveraging beneficial connections with friends, family and colleagues provides a wealth of low-cost and no-cost opportunities.

Don’t overlook the potential available among staff members and clients for physical therapy marketing opportunities.

They may know someone with special expertise or have hidden talents themselves.

Feedback from all those resources can provide valuable insight into weaknesses within the practice and where physical therapy marketing efforts could be more successfully employed.

Be a Master of Physical Therapy Marketing

In today’s economy, physical therapists must be masters of physical therapy marketing and gurus of patient care to ensure full client scheduling and to stand out from others offering the same or similar services.

Hiring a team of consultants for physical therapy marketing is a pricy proposition, while knowledgeable consultants can often be found within the community in which the practice is located, providing therapists with the means to plan ahead and allocate expenses for the future sustainability of the practice.