Improve The Profitability Of Your Physical Therapy Private Practice..

Posted on 28. Jan, 2009 by Nitin in Grow Your Private Practice, Improve Profitability, Marketing 101

Owners of physical therapy private practice rehabilitation centers are struggling to market their services to a society that needs physical therapy.

How ironic is that?

As physical therapists, we are not taught how to market a physical therapy private practice. From the days of school, we are conditioned to be excellent clinicians, but somehow never make the cut as marketing experts.

If you want to be successful in physical therapy private practice, this must change.

Start with an excellent physical therapy website. The right website should tell the patient about benefits and make it easy for them to call the clinic and schedule appointments.

A website for a physical therapy private practice succeeds when it does one thing: get the patient to contact you.

Many opportunities presented before you in every day in every thing you do to market your physical therapy private service experience. Opportunities like sports events take place near your locality or visiting a physician or speaking with friends at a local luncheon.

When exposed to these kinds of opportunities, take full advantage of each one to improve profitability of your physical therapy private practice. When contacting others, it’s vital to make the first meeting a memorable one and leave a lasting impression.

First, tell your potential patient about the benefits of physical therapy for his / her particular case. Establishing clarity of information and level of expectations before you start physical therapy.

Providing a fixed schedule of appointments, preferably a written one will increase the patient’s presence on a specified date and time and reduce cancellations of appointments with respect to forgetting specified date and time of the appointment by your clients.

Stick to your schedule, begin and end your treatment session within the stipulated time. This will make your patient understand that you are respecting their time and this will help them to respect your time.

Provide details of the home exercise schedules in written form along with references to books and websites. Enable your customers to understand these things at their comfort and help them to improve responsibility for their own good. When possible, provide package deals and extended payment plans for clients.

Manage your treatment protocols by sending detailed reports along with documentation of the treatment and giving these reports to care providers’ team in a timely manner.

Patients empowered with knowledge will choose their own physical therapy provider. Guide them to choose you by providing information about your services and its benefits.

Once they accomplish success with your physical therapy and achieve their rehabilitation goals, they are good examples of your service and become walking testimonials!

Use audio or video testimonials from these patients on your physical therapy private practice website.

Share your experiences about recent conferences you attended or any public speaking events you may have done to improve the awareness of physical therapy.

Distributing business cards is a great way of promoting your physical therapy. A professional business cards and pamphlet in the right locations (doctors offices, hospitals, rehabilitation centers) will always bring in new patients!

Make a lasting impact by sending thank you note for making visit along with consideration and good manners are the indicators on how well you are treating your clients.

Don’t hesitate. Start implementing these tips to attract your patients and you will see an immediate spike in the profitability of your physical therapy private practice.

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8 Comments

I couldn’t agree more, as a whole we are terrible marketers.

I think one of the challenges is that Physical Therapy covers such a broad spectrum of approaches, services, and conditions.

The general public doesn’t know that the Physical Therapy you may receive if you suffered a stroke is very different from the PT you might receive is you are rehabbing after surgery, which is different again from treating back pain.

I think the average person doesn’t really know what Physical Therapy is.

What are your thoughts?

Nitin

29. Jan, 2009

It’s a predicament for us as practitioners, yes. If we can serve the twin goals of promoting the profession and marketing our clinic in the process, it’s a win-win for both sides. Public seminars, informational brochures, business card distribution, website marketing and community events (injury prevention day) serve as a great way to promote awareness and brand your clinic at the same time.

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Bud Ward

13. Feb, 2009

Great points! A huge problem, as I see it, is that the little training most of us receive in marketing is completely wrong. Many of us are taught to be sales people, not true marketers. During my years as a director for a national PT company, their primary method for marketing was buying lunch for every doctor in town. This is a very expense & marginally effective approach. Often, the doctor will forget about you in 1-2 weeks (or less).

I’ve always been an advocate for direct to consumer marketing for healthcare. It’s more effective for a patient to tell their doctor about me than for me go “beg” for referrals. The key is to create awareness & “buzz” in your community using personal contacts, social media, etc. With patients becoming more financially responsible for their healthcare, they will start to choose quality (or perceived quality) and personal attention.

Nitin

13. Feb, 2009

Leveraging time is the key to winning new business. In the last 30 minutes, I have set the groundwork to reach out to over 200 people. I got off the phone with the chief of the local chamber of commerce and offered to do ‘a free health and wellness seminar’. I was told that I could get scheduled for April, and that I would be given an excel sheet with names and email addresses of over 400 local businesses I can contact via email, to get public speaking engagements. This the fastest way to reach out to a new patient population.

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