Three Tips to Hire More Physical Therapists

In this post, I’m going to teach you different methods to recruit more clinicians for your private practice.  I get this question a lot:

As far as ways to find new clinicians is concerned, never put all your eggs in one basket.

You must have multiple things in motion to be able to recruit staff.

 Talk to your local physical therapy schools and try to become an affiliated learning center with those schools so that they can send their students to your clinic as interns. Once you have interns working in your clinic, you can observe them at close quarters and identify the bright, up and coming, young, enthusiastic therapists. A lot of clinics I consult with say they have considered this, but they end up not doing it because they think it’s a lot of work. You’ll be surprised. You can get affiliated in a college in as little as 4 or 5 weeks. Just initiate contact with the education director, fill out the paperwork, and get the ball rolling. Don’t wait, do this right away - become affiliated with a local college and offer internships to PT students in your facility.  Try and look outside your own geographical area and broaden your scope. You never know, you might find a physical therapist who is willing to travel to work for you in your clinic. You can rent a list of licensed physical therapists from the American Physical Therapy Association. You can send postcards offering them a position in your clinic. The position that you offer in your clinic can’t be just another dull boring PT job. The offer on the postcard has to be unique, attractive and better than other offers, not just from a salary but also a benefits standpoint.  This is an effective, under-the-radar strategy. Here’s how this works; Advertise a position for a part-time physical therapist with the intention of scouting for full time physical therapists. There are a lot of experienced clinicians looking for some extra part-time work. They already have jobs, they are just looking for a few extra hours. Try and get a physical therapist to work for you part-time, and if the PT likes your work culture, they may consider working for you full-time, if the offer and timing is right.

I hope you found these strategies useful. They are many more strategies including networking with other physical therapists on Linkedin and Facebook, working with recruiters (if you can find the right candidate, it’s well worth the cost associated with the recruiter), and also put up ads on job sites.

As your practice grows, make sure that you hire the right staff and create the right culture for retention, so you can live a life of financial freedom while maintaining a high standard of care for patients and increasing your profitability at the same time.