The most recognizable truth is that each and every physical therapy practice is unique.
You have unique demographics, unique therapists providing care and customer service, and unique personalities throughout the office.
That being said, all private practices require the same fundamentals to run successfully.
Here are Five Fundamentals Necessary for a Successful PT Business, anywhere in the world:
1. Standardized Processes
First is the standardization of all processes applied to both administrative and clinical aspects of the business.
If you, as the clinic owner, are not able to be in the clinic on a certain day because you are on vacation, will the running of your clinic fall apart? Too many PTs answer yes to that question.
Once processes and protocols are standardized and implemented, you have laid the groundwork for growth and success in the business, even if you aren’t there. These processes should follow a step-by-step protocol to ensure that the business goals are accomplished.
Administrative processes might include: Phone call scripting, scheduling procedures, reactivation of past patients, patient surveys, and referral generation.
Clinical processes might include: Consultation and new patient protocols for complete plans of care, re-exams and communication with the physicians, rehab protocols, upselling to orthotics or other DME programs and transitioning from skilled care to maintenance etc.
Having standardized procedures allows your clinic to still run without you even if you aren’t there. Having automated standards ensures that your patients always receive top care, even if they are being treated by a different PT in your clinic.
Creating processes and automation for your clinic is easier than it sounds, and it’s absolutely essential if you want to scale your clinic. If you want to learn more about how to automate your clinic with standardized processes, check out the PT Business Growth School Program.
2. Accountability for Results
Accountability for results is the ability to claim ownership for the results produced as a consequence of your involvement in the business. This can be broken down into personal accountability, team accountability, and managerial accountability.
Each member of your team should know what their responsibilities are and what goals you hope for them to accomplish throughout their day.
Personal accountability means holding yourself responsible for achieving your goals, completing your job duties, and following through on your commitments. But all members of the team must hold each other accountable for job performance and meeting of goals.
Holding others accountable can only be done when specific objectives are set, when job descriptions are clearly defined, and when systems are in place to measure goals and objectives.
3. Statistical Tracking and Analysis of Business Activities
If you want to know how well your clinic is performing, you need to keep track of your clinic’s statistics and analytics.
The minimum you should be tracking on a weekly basis is referrals, evaluations, patient visits, advanced scheduled visits, charges, collections, no-show/cancellations.
On a monthly basis you should be recording evaluations, visits, collections, write off’s and expenses.
These statistics need to be tracked and both the practice owner and staff must be aware of their individual, as well as team statistics and what benchmarks they should be trying to reach each week or month. These statistics should be openly discussed to improve them over the long term.
If everyone is on the same page, working on reaching their individual goals, the clinic’s growth will grow.
Do you have a process for tracking your businesses statistics? Check out the Customer Relationship Management software used successfully by Paul’s team to track and follow-up with our new leads.
4. A Strong and Positive Team
The fourth component is a strong, positive team. When you set clear expectations and goals, define the job and its objectives and communicate these in a positive format you’ll achieve a strong team working together to achieve your clinic’s success.
Management needs to acknowledge success, and failure and provide the resources for the team member to learn and grow from his or her mistakes and reward the team for success.
A strong team leads to improved communication, stronger relationships with staff AND clients and improved problem solving.
5. A Growth Mindset
The fifth component is a growth mindset. The business owner and staff must have a growth and expansion mindset to make the business successful.
The first step is for all team members to constantly be marketing the business to current, past and prospective clients.
This allows for the ability to maintain steady growth and profitability.
This “sales” mindset must be owned by every employee, especially the front-line employees. The business must have a referral program to reactivate past patients and welcome new patients.
The flexibility to grow and learn should be something encouraged in all members of the team as there may come times when certain team members will be called upon to take on new roles or responsibilities for a period of time. No member of staff should be pigeonholed into their set role. Open communication between your physical therapists and front desk should be encouraged. Every member of your clinic is essential and each person is necessary towards creating a fantastic patient experience.
Implementing these important five fundamentals will help your clinic bring in new clients, improve the retention of current clients and employees, while growing your business to a higher level. If your goal for your PT practice is growth, you need to implement these five fundamentals, today.
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