Clinical Solutions Blog

I recently attended a fitness business summit where thousands of fitness owners of gyms, boot camps, and personal training studios came to together to discuss what’s working now. While I was there I discovered that they had the same issues clinic owners constantly struggle with.

• They struggle to get new clients
• They struggle to keep their clients on the plan
• They struggle to duplicate themselves by building a team that can scale their business.

When I mentor clinic owners, the most common question I get asked is how do I grow my revenues? Many clinic owners believe that in order to grow it’s complex and they have to do all these different things. However, that’s just not the case.

Through my experience of building 3 multi-million dollar healthcare companies, building, and selling over 100 rehab clinics, I discovered that there are ONLY 3 WAYS to grow any clinic’s revenues. By implementing what I’m about to share in this blog post can increase your monthly revenue by 30% percent in as little as 30 days without spending any more money.

This is the exact information I share with all my clinic owner clients and when I speak at high ticket seminars.

So let’s get started…

I talk to a lot of clinic owners including people who are just starting out or have been in a business a long time. And when I ask them what their biggest challenge is, a lot say: building a caseload.

After building and selling over 100 rehab clinics, I understand the challenge.

When you’re starting out as a clinician or clinic owner, it’s obvious that you need to get patients to get your business off the ground, and to pay your bills!

And if you’ve owned a clinic for sometime, it may be that you just hired that new physiotherapist or chiropractor and you need to get their books full.

Clearly, building, maintaining and sustaining a consistent caseload is critical to the survival of any clinic!

When I mentor clinic owners, we always aim to have around a 80% utilization. This means 80% of your schedule is full.  

We don't want it to be empty or it won't pay for the rent. But, we don't want it to be too full or we can’t fit in existing patients who call to book or we can't fit in new patients.

So if you're struggling with building your caseload, listen up...

Today I want to share a few ways you can build up your caseload fairly quickly.

Let’s dive in…

I recently ran a vancouver workshop that was a huge success. In fact, it was sold out!

We did have a limit of 60 clinic owners attending and we had more than 20 clinic owners on our waiting list. The workshop was about keeping more patients (patient engagement) and getting more patients (with digital marketing).

My goal with these workshops is to help each clinic owners make an additional $10,000 per month. At the recent workshop, we had so much interaction, interest and questions that we ended up going well over the 2.5 hour planned workshop, finishing up beyond 10 pm!

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with all the awesome clinic owners from a wide variety of niches - pediatric, neuro, sports, rehab - from small clinics through to large multidisciplinary clinics.

This business workshop was sponsored by Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC). Since the workshop was split into two sections, what I’m about to share today is part one (patient engagement strategies), then coming up soon I’ll share part two (easy digital marketing tactics). 

Today you’ll learn:

• How to work smarter rather than harder
• Why 20% of patients drop off after just 3 visits and how to fix it
• How fixing patient engagement will boost your revenues by 30%
• 7 practical tips to get started with increasing your patient engagement

Yes, we’ve got a ton of great stuff to cover. So, let’s get down to business...

 

Have you or your practice been sued by a patient before?  

I have and let me just say, it was a brutal experience. This happened a while back now, when I use to own alot of physiotherapy wellness clinics. In fact, it happened to me twice. And it’s something I would never wish upon anyone.  

The first time I was sued was when a patient claimed to get burned from a hot pack during treatment. The second time was also another burn injury after interferential current therapy for treating pain. Crazy thing was one of the lawsuits was a lawyer who was a patient and it scared the crap out of the new grad physiotherapist we hired.  

While none of us ever want to be faced with a lawsuit, the reality is, it can happen. And when you think about it, it can happen to any modality including shockwave therapy, ultrasound or laser at your clinic. It can even happen with a dysfunctional hi-low table - so stay away from buying cheap beds, and cheap equipment for that matter, please do!!! It's just not worth the lawsuits.

 

 

Let’s talk about some of the things you need to be aware of and how to protect yourself as best you can, including:

1. Two things you need to get patient consent for
2. Two types of insurance you absolutely need    
3. How to comply with regulatory obligations
4. Two steps to protect yourself through informed consent

 

A new patient comes to your clinic. You may not realize it, but absolutely everything counts!

What does their first impression say about your clinic, your service?

Do you have a messy waiting room? Is your front desk team flustered and short with their communications? Are your clinicians on time or late with with their appointment? 

Like I said, absolutely everything counts!

People make judgements within seconds of meeting, seriously, you have like 30 seconds to make a great impression and research shows that first impressions are hard to change. And in clinical practice, those first impressions go beyond the front desk and into your treatment room.

Being that I’ve worked with countless clinic owners, I know that in most clinic’s 40% or less of patients graduate from their treatment plans. That’s A LOT of lost patients and revenue. It seems to be a major struggle for clinicians to get their patients to commit to a care plan.

One of the major problems is that the clinician rushes the assessment and spends way too much time doing, and talking about, the diagnosis. Number one, the patient wants to feel cared about, so you need to get the patient to trust you and believe you are their best solution to their health problem. Number two, as a clinician you need to tell the patient exactly how long it will take and get them engaged and accountable to your treatment plan.

 

It’s called being patient-focused. It’s also called being focused on exceptional patient experience.

And here’s the thing: “Almost 9 out of 10 consumers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience.” ~ Helpscout

So, we’re going to solve this problem so you can boost your graduation rates and here’s what we’re going to cover:

• The CarePath Framework - 8 steps to a kickass assessment
• How to get a patient to trust you within the first 5-10 minutes of contact
• How to plan effective treatments that patients will commit to
• How to get them to book the entire treatment plan on the first day
• And much, much more

After you read and implement these steps, you will never have a problem getting your patients to graduate from your treatment plans. And more importantly, for you that means you'll spend less revenue on attracting new patients, while increasing your revenue and referrals through existing patients.

Sounds like a winning situation right? It is!

So what are we waiting for...

 

Social media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat...ahhh. It all seems too overwhelming!

But, you also know social media is HUGE. You’ve heard it is an effective marketing channel. But you don’t know where to start, which platforms to choose, how to get a real return on investment and where to find the time.

Well, by the time you’re finished reading this, you will have some proven, practical social media strategies that will help you boost your practice.

However, just one key tip before you get started: make sure your clinic is answering the phones and saying the right things to convert callers into booked appointments.

Make this your first priority, otherwise you’ll be wasting a lot of your marketing money and efforts to drive phone calls that don't get picked up.

In any case, here you'll learn:

• The main objectives of social media
• 5 practical strategies you can use starting today
• Lots of examples from Myodetox, PhysioRoom, Strive, Calgary Core, Physio2U, Nova Physio & Bellefleur
• Getting the most out of social to boost your brand and business
• Tools and tips to be more time efficient on social

I talk to a lot of clinic owners and when I ask them what their biggest challenge is, they often tell me it's their patient engagement.

According to Strive Labs, 20% of patients drop out in 3 visits and never come back again. That's a lot of new patients who self discharged and never came back to your clinic.  

I’ve previously written quite a number of blogs on this topic:

• Why do patients self discharge and what to do about it
• How to measure patient satisfaction and boost referrals
• How to boost patient compliance that drive repeat visits

These blogs also have the highest open and click through rates, which just confirms that it’s a topic you may need help with too.

As a clinic owner, you spent a lot of money on marketing or building your brand (aka word of mouth). When a patient comes to your clinic and sees YOU, they stick around and complete their entire plan of care. And they even come back for massage therapy, buy that knee brace you recommended, and give you a 5 star Google review - they are the perfect patient.

Where the problem lies is when the new patients see one of your clinicians. Because your clinic is expanding, you seem to give your practitioners tons of new patients, but for some reason they can't keep them. Your leaky patient funnel is causing these patients to self discharge after the third visit and never come back again. Even worse, they may leave you a bad review which will affect your brand.

What are you to do?

Well, you certainly don’t want to do nothing. As you know, it’s super competitive out there so you can’t afford to lose new patients who come into your clinic. You want to make sure you maximize your marketing dollars and have every patient complete their care plan and keep coming back for more.

So let’s talk about:

• What this metric is and how to use it
• How to make sure your metric works to boost engagement
• How doing this right can double your revenues

Let’s dive in…

As a clinic owner, you spend loads of time (and money) on your physiotherapy marketing to acquire new patients.

New patients arrive and seem more than happy with the initial assessment and first treatment. They return for a few subsequent sessions and then, they cancel an appointment and stop coming back.

You’re left wondering, did they suddenly feel better and graduate from treatment? Or has this patient self discharged from treatment?

This concept of self discharge is not isolated to the physical therapy industry.

For example, out of all the people who set up a Canadian bank account, 32% will cancel their bank account within the first 100 days.

And 46% of people who attend a Chuck E Cheese, will never go back again.

In the world of physiotherapists and chiropractors, what percentage of new patients will self discharge? 

Actually, a better question to ask is: How many patients graduate from your treatment plans? 

You probably don’t know.

Well, from the clinics I’ve worked with, this number is 40%. That means that 60% of new patients never complete their treatment plans and will self discharge. Quite a large percentage right?

If you want to stop spending time (and money) on marketing to acquire patients only to lose them, you are going to love what I’ve got to share because we are going to solve this issue once and for all.

We’re going to cover:

• Why patients self discharge and what you need to do about it
• Why it’s so important to change this and retain the patients you acquire
• 4 steps to put a re-activation program in place

Ready to dive in?

 

One of the top struggles clinicians face with patients is getting them to commit to their care plan and see it through.

In fact, only 40% or less of patients graduate from their treatment plans.

How many of your patients are graduating? Do you even know this number? Or, is it more common to see patients leave and never come back after their first or second appointment?

I’ve coached and consulted with many clinicians in my Clinic Accelerator Program. I’ve got clinic operational experience in managing over 200 physiotherapists, massage therapists, and chiropractors over the past 10 years.

I help clinicians learn healthcare marketing techniques and apply them to the treatment rooms to get better results with patients and in business.

And here’s the thing…

What separates a good clinician and a great clinician is what happens when you do your initial assessment on day 1. It’s all about how you approach this first assessment, what happens during, and how you frame what’s going to happen in future.

Patients shop like consumers. Consumers don't buy on what's logical / rational, they buy on emotions and how they feel. Spend the time and make it an emotional and amazing first experience - this is where you’ll see your outcomes skyrocket.

So what I’d like to do is share with you today is an all star system that will make your patients more compliant, stick with the plan of care and get better results - ultimately leading to more patient referrals.

Why are you leaving it up to patients to make the decisions?

YOU (and your team) ARE THE PROFESSIONALS.

That’s why they have sought out your healthcare services in the first place, because they need a professional opinion, they need professional advice, and they want guidance and direction from you and your team.

This is one of the main reasons clinic owners struggle with patient engagement and achieving successful outcomes.

As a registered physical therapist of more than 18 years I understand that we are ‘ethical’ based practitioners. We’re in the caring business. So being a highly professional trusted health advisor and making strong recommendations can make many therapists feel pushy.

But I can tell you this is not what patients think.

I own AlbertaPT, which has 6 locations in Calgary. We run a multidisciplinary clinic that includes physiotherapists, kinesiologists, massage therapists, and we work with physicians.

As physiotherapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists, we need to engage the person in a treatment plan at the very first visit. And really, patient satisfaction and retention isn’t all that complicated.

So let’s talk about 10 patient engagement strategies you can implement tomorrow at your practice.