Do You Really Manage Your Patients?

[Guest guest]

We all spend a tremendous amount of time learning the clinical skills of our

profession. These are critical and really are what differentiate us from

other health care providers. As Martha would say, “That is a good

thing.”

There are other aspects of patient interaction that are also important.

These include issues such as patient attendance in therapy, cooperation with

home programs, motivation to participate fully in the therapy and level of

value that the patient puts on the therapy itself.

I call this group of issues non-clinical patient management. Think of them

as the rest of the patient management picture for successful therapists.

The easiest way I can describe how important these skills are is to compare

us to golfers. I am not much of a golfer, but I enjoy playing, so if I say

something that is contrary to what the “real” golfers would say – they are

probably right. This example works for me – I hope it works for you too.

When you golf, you need to have all the basics down – a good swing, the

right club, knowledge of the course and conditions. It is not, however,

enough to just get up there and whack it as far and as straight as you can.

Good golfers work on something they call “course management”. This is the

concept of playing smart. It includes such concepts as hitting the ball to

a specific location to give yourself the easiest next shot, sometimes

intentionally leaving a shot short or long, sometimes playing to one side or

the other of the fairway or green to set things up for success with the next

shot.

Therapists need to practice patient management much like golfers practice

course management.

For therapists, this includes the things that you do to encourage patients

to attend therapy (I suspect few things are as closely related to functional

outcomes as attendance at therapy), the things that you do to facilitate the

patient being able and willing to continue working toward their therapy

goals on their own in home programs and aftercare, the practices you have

that involve the patient’s care partners and helpers at home, and all the

things that you do to successfully collect co-payments, deductibles and

other payments due from the patient as out of pocket expenses.

These out of pocket expenses often indicate how valuable the patient

perceives the therapy he/she is receiving. The co-pays and deductibles are

often a substantial component of the financial success of your clinic, too.

As you develop your own methods to manage these non-clinical aspects of your

patient care, you will want to be sure to measure the results.

What are your attendance rates?

What percent of your patients complete the full bout of therapy as you

anticipated in your plan of care?

What is the rate of compliance with home programs?

Do the care partners of your patients feel involved in the therapy?

Do they facilitate patient compliance with home programs and aftercare? What

percent of the potential co-pays and deductibles is collected up front on

your patients?

What are the barriers to higher collection rates of these up front revenues?

Developing good strong patient management skills in both clinical and non

clinical areas, will definitely make you a better therapist, a better

manager, and more successful in your practice.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, please feel free to comment to

share what works for you.

Kovacek, PT, MSA, DPT