In all my years as a private practice owner, and in all my years as a private practice coach, if there is one thing I have learned is that…
…If you focus on the wrong thing, you spin your wheels forever.
When I used to treat patients full time, my staff therapists would come up and ask,
“How do you do it, James? How do you get so many patients to buy elective services, bring in family and friends, and complete their plan of care?”
The answer is simple (and I’ll share it with you below).
And to be completely honest, I have never focused much on marketing, profit systems, billing/collections, advertising or the other conventional aspects AND I have opened up clinic after clinic!
What I do focus on is ONE THING that I see few clinics focus on today.
When I choose to focus on this ONE THING–because it does take conscious effort–everything else gets better automatically*.
When I focus on this ONE THING, this is what happens:
- Patients become more loyal
- They buy more elective services
- They can’t stop telling other people
- They complete their plan-of-care AND want more
This ONE THING is…
…”Changing the Lives of Your Patients.”
(answer 7 from quiz).
What I find is that ALL therapists WANT to achieve this,
…but few actually do.
You can’t just hope you will.
Merely treating their pain doesn’t achieve it.
Returning them to work, or function, doesn’t do it either.
(Actually, these are basic expectations patients already have since they are in “therapy” and that’s what we’re supposed to deliver.)
Here’s What It Takes
(First, I want you to know that I don’t claim to be a guru of changing lives. Not by any means. I just have a sincere desire for how to do it through my physical therapy practice. I’ve come to know at an early age that money is not the end all, and I can’t take it with me when I die. So, I might have focused and dissected this more than the average therapist. And I just want to share it with all of you, that’s all.)
You must go above and beyond the typical components of a traditional treatment session. Yet, when you learn HOW to do it, you’ll see that it really doesn’t take you more time or effort than what you are doing now (and actually it’s easier than what I used to do).
You must go deeper into what drives the patient–yet you don’t have to get all “psychological”.
You must truly want to change lives in order to truly change lives. And you must invest time and energy into getting better and better at it (once you learn it).
But the reward is great.
It will become the purpose of what you do…and maybe even who you are.
*Not focusing on these other areas doesn’t mean I don’t have anything in place. I do. It’s just I choose to focus on the ONE THING more.
If you want to learn more, I will be doing an online training on this topic next week. If you leave a comment below and tell me why this training is important to you, I will send you a free ticket to attend.