“We must now have 12% to 15% of our weekly visits as new patient visit… There is an increased financial responsibility being placed on our patients to higher co-pays and adaptable, less resulting in fewer visits per week causing the potential for greater noncompliance with their prescribed plan of care.”
I guess I never really thought about this. When I was in private practice if we had 10 patients per week for me and for new evals, then we knew that we would remain busy for the next four weeks. With patients coming in for fewer and fewer visits, the rest of the week needs to still be filled with patients otherwise they will be therapist sitting around feeling their pumps. This means that we have to get more patients in the door for new evaluation. I don’t know if I agree with the fact that a patient coming into therapy for fewer days per week will lead to a lack of compliance, because compliance or better yet therapeutic alliance is more related to the communication that takes place between the therapist and clinician while the patient is in front of the therapist. I have many patients that I’ve been very compliant and active with her home exercise program even though I may only see them once every other week.
“If your therapist are not 85% efficient according to their schedule, maximizing their productivity per visited , and getting raving feedback in writing from both her patient in your referral sources, then you have found a good place to start.”
Again, it has to be said that productivity is not a bad word. Businesses need to keep their doors open. The only way that they can keep their doors open is to make money. The only way to make money, is to have your time settled with activities that actually make money. This is the definition of productivity. How much money are you making per hour for the company. When you consider that the average cost per session is $70 and the reimbursement from Medicare ranges from $9200, there is not a large margin when you are treating Medicare patients. So if your therapist is not busy making money all day long, this is a good place to start. The people who generate income must be generating income. Know the people on the team must be excellent. Period when I want their communication skills have to be excellent, their clinical skills have to be excellent, and their ability to work within a team must be excellent. Obviously, not every therapist is at that point yet. If I work for a team that has therapist that aren’t at this level, then I hope that this team is doing its best to coach everyone up to that level.
Gallagher BJ. Scheduling the next visit: Ensure your patients follow through with treatment with one simple task. Impact. Sept 2016. 33-36.
Physical Therapist at your service