Is $895 per month a good investment for guaranteed* double-digit growth in your PT practice?
Answer: Yes, read on. No, Click away.
How We Help Physical Therapy Businesses Grow…
The PT Referral Machine (PTRM) is absolutely, the most complete and affordable marketing resource available for PT businesses, big and small. If you are good at what you do, PTRM sets you on a path for double-digit growth in as little as 60 days – guaranteed.*
You need effective marketing, plain and simple. What you don’t need is more “how to” advice from consultants who charge thousands for seminars, workshops, and other traditional agency services. Consultants and seminars can look appealing because you want to learn how to be a better marketer and try and handle the job yourself. But for most PT practices handling the marketing in-house is usually a really bad idea. It’s just too expensive to hire a trained marketing professional, and then they need to outsource most of what you need anyway. Is finding an Industry Solution a better idea? We think so…
So stop banging your head against the wall. There is no need to waste your time struggling with marketing anymore…
Get Your Complete Physical Therapy Marketing Department – A Senior Executive With Support Staff And A Proven Track Record For Results For As Little As $895 A Month.
Services Include: See all this and more on a 60 minute Strategy Session.
• Strategic Planning
• Custom Website
• Search Engine Optimization
• New Patient Email and appointment confirmations
• Blog
• Internet and social media
• Patient information materials
• Physician materials
• Event promotion and materials (seminars, workshops, in-services, open houses, grand openings)
• Receptionist training and scripting
• Direct mail programs
• Results tracking
• Agency services
- Graphic design
- Copy writing
- Media analysis, purchasing, and discounted printing services
*Before ordering your service, sales targets will be set. When we proceed with implementation and you do not meet the agreed sales projections, we will credit or refund 60 days of service.
What Is PT Referral Machine?
PT Referral Machine is a complete resource for planning and executing Fortune 500-Style health care marketing systems on a small business budget.
See our programs and pricing here.
Looking for a complete turnkey marketing solution for your website or other special ailment treatment program? Call David directly at 774-255-1125 to learn more and discuss your unique requirements.
Have general questions about our PT marketing industry solution?
Visit our FAQ page.
Sincerely,
Website strategy first – then design
Simple Principles Help Make Your Physical Therapy and Health Care Website The Hub Of A Patient-Generating Marketing System, Not Just An Online Business Card
Website and internet management decisions grow more and more important for physical therapy and health care practitioners every day. Gone are the days when a provider could get by with a cheap $39 a month website, a picture or two, contact information, and an About Us page. Instead, websites have become the hub for strategic “want or need to know” information about your marketplace that drives consumer choice and influences referral patterns.
Yet while the push to the internet accelerates, we still see large numbers of providers struggle, postpone, and bungle even the most basic website decisions. Why? Perhaps the simple answer is confusion over what to expect from the website and how to sort out all the choices. Once you know what to expect, you can place a value on the site based on the potential impact on your business. With a sense of value in mind the job of sorting out your options should be straightforward.
What To Expect From Your Website –
From The Marketplace To The Backend
In The Marketplace
Think of your website in the marketplace in two categories: Services and Referral Generation.
Services
Your website should provide services that improve the customer experience and ease of doing business. Don’t narrow your thinking about functionality to just “branding” or displaying basic service and contact information. Obviously, the low cost, high speed, large informational-transactional capacity, and extensive reach of the internet make it ideal for virtually all a practitioner’s business functions with the exception of delivering physical goods and services.
As the use of most computing and internet technologies continue to converge on mobile devices, the delivery of all “soft” products and services will converge as well. Patient intake forms, scheduling, appointment reminders, and online payments through mobile devices are all simple examples. Start with the simple basics like online appointment forms, and get your business services online now, don’t wait.
Referral Generation
Referral generation flows from great content. Great content is a traffic generator: Search engines are smart enough to find and rank it, and visitors are engaged enough to stick on your site rather than bounce around exploring other search results.
Great content facilitates the visitor’s decision making process by providing information about diagnosis and treatment options, and then helping them understand how to choose the best provider. Each visitor wants the best care available, not the second best, and usually has no idea how to find it or even what to ask. Good strategic content avoids self-serving platitudes like “most experience” and “caring about you.” Instead, it provides checklists, reports, and other offers for more information that educates the visitor to a point where they draw the conclusion you are the best choice. And, if they can “click here” to chat now, register for an event, refer a friend, request a complimentary consultation, or request an appointment – just the basics, but that’s a GOOD start for an engaging site.
The Back End
Planning & Design
Ninety-nine out of one-hundred people reading this article should not expect (or even attempt) to build, maintain, host, or manage their internet presence themselves. Despite the TV commercials promoting “click-click” and you are done, this is a really bad idea. Most likely, the site will not meet your needs, and you will pull your hair out trying to keep up with the call to maintain it, or worse yet, not be able to publish it without many important pages missing, “under construction,” or just looking awful. Yes, great website building tools exist, but you still need extensive training, expertise, and LOTS of time to work with them.
That being said, even though you shouldn’t be producing your site, you do need to understand enough about the platform choices so you know what to expect for support, development, and maintenance. Avoid proprietary technologies where the website can’t be purchased and moved should you need to do so. To protect your investment, choose a widely supported open source platform with a large community of independent developers who can step in at any time.
Strategic Content
Understand that there is a big difference between the website design and the CONTENT. The most common mistake you can make is to go for a website designer who also masquerades as a content provider. Anyone can post a welcome message, pictures, and other basic information, but the battle is won with good strategic content (yes, this is a competitive battle). A pretty design will not overcome the internet demand and the visitor’s appetite for relevant content.
Don’t be intimidated: Many small practice managers look at what their larger competitors are doing on the web and draw the conclusion they can’t afford to compete. If that’s you, here’s the good news – most of the online applications you will need are readily available and affordable. If you can’t afford or don’t want to lay out the cash to purchase a system, consider licensing with an option to buy. Make sure you partner with a strategic web content provider who not only has a track record for generating and qualifying patient leads in your field, but also integrates the concepts into your offline materials as well.
David and Trent can be reached through their website PTreferralMachine.com, on their blog PTRMblog.com, or at either of their offices in the US or Canada. US – 90 Altons Lane, East Falmouth, MA 02536, 774-255-1125. Canada – 26 Sienna Bay SW, Calgary, AB T3H 2C8, 403-510-7051. Email info@PTreferralMachine.com
Executive Letters From Physical Therapists Now Reach More Physicians
Thanks to technology, snail mail provides a better opportunity to be noticed
What Physicians Will Read And What Gets Tossed
What Gets Tossed: Letters that appear to have no clinical relevance, bury key ideas in the text, or come across as a self-serving sales pitch.
What They Will Read: Problem solving information (about their problem, not yours) that is easy to scan, clinically relevant, and holds the promise of something helpful to them, not simply another plea for referrals.
Physicians are no different than any other business person. They are constantly scanning their environment for solutions to everyday problems. Their problems create opportunities for you to be heard if you have something important to say. If your letter does not immediately seem to help solve one of their problems, then it gets tossed. It’s that simple – no need to over-think it.
Is it really true that the letter should be limited to just a paragraph or two, and no longer than one page?
NO! Don’t worry about the length of the letter, worry about the formatting, flow, and the total Power Level of your message following the results formula you will learn below.
A COMMON MISCONCEPTION is that anything more than a few paragraphs or a single page will not get read. But think of it this way, when you receive valuable information about a solution option to a problem you’ve been experiencing, do you really judge it by its length? Have you ever received that kind of “I’ve been looking for this” information and said to yourself, “Boy, that’s really timely and helpful stuff, but it’s more than a page, so I’ll just toss it away and wait for another letter that keeps it to one page.” Of course not. That would make no sense. But the point is this: If your good ideas and concepts don’t easily shine through without making the reader labor, then the letter will likely get tossed.
Consultants that recommend the “keep it short or it won’t get read” philosophy are correct in one sense: When your information is not that compelling or valuable, the reader will only invest a moment in reading before giving up. This common “keep it short” principle should be restated as follows: Your reader will give you an instant to start building a compelling problem solving case, so make sure you use that moment well.
Finally! A Way To Know If Your Physician Letters Will Get Results Before You Even Put Them In The Mail
The Results Formula –
3 Elements For Your Letters and Other Strategic Communications:
Element 1: Interrupt & Engage. Use powerful headlines and sub headlines to expose the problem and give the promise of more educational problem solving information to come. The most effective headlines tap into the emotion of curiosity and self interest, that’s why focusing on problems in your headline or subject line is so compelling. Everyone is interested in solving their problems, and they are curious about any solution. Good headlines suck the reader in. If you have read to this point, chances are our “Why letters from PTs are now read by more physicians” headline poked your brain on a practical, problem-solving level. You then scanned for additional clarifying information, and quickly found it with simple formatting techniques like bold text, underlines, and indents. Spend as much time or more on creating your feature headline as you do writing the letter.
Element 2: Educate By Case Building. Body copy, text, and other “showables” build a logical case that helps the reader draw a conclusion about your solution option. Physicians and staff are judging you like a jury judges an attorney’s case. Does your letter demonstrate special expertise? How does your information compare to that provided by other “similar” solution providers? Your reader can only compare based on what you teach them in your communication. Building a strong case using charts, graphs, tables, and other compelling information positions you as the expert. Use headings and formatting that helps the reader get the logical flow by simply scanning.
Element 3: Offer and Call To Action. In addition to your invitation for qualified referrals, give your readers other ways to take next steps in learning more about your particular problem-solving process. Most executive letters end by simply saying, “Give us a call with any questions.” This kind of offer is self evident, and lacks the power to spur immediate action. Your offer should include more resources for learning about what you do and how you do it. Your offers need to build confidence in your expertise. Your offer should be formatted and set off from the body copy so it will be scanned even if the body copy is not read. The exception to this would be a “concealed offer” designed to appeal only to the most highly qualified, eager readers.
Red Sharpie Time: See How We Apply The Results Formula To 2 Of The Crummiest Letters We’ve Ever Seen, And Then Try It Yourself On 2 More.
See the 4 Crummiest Letters Now and How We Rip 2 Of Them Apart With The Results Formula And Score Their Power Level (You Can Rip Apart The Other 2).
Register for a 90 minute Writing Workshop, get expert advice, and see examples of KILLER letters that get results. Register here.
Tips For Getting Started Using The Results Formula On Your Own:
1) Pick an expertise to market where you excel. If you are good at what you do, and there is a market for your solution, running this formula gets outstanding, consistent results.
2) Create 50 headlines and sub-headlines that expose the problem and promise a solution from your reader’s perspective. You will need lots of headlines to form the basis of your strategic campaign.
3) Create several valuable “offers” for more ways to learn about the benefits of what you do. Make sure the offers have a memorable marketing “handle.”
4) Gather compelling evidence that can be used to build a case in your body copy.
5) Write the letter making sure to place and format each Element for optimum scanability and readability.
6) Test, Test, Test. Each element of the formula can be tested, but pay particular attention to the headlines and offers. Testing can be done effectively with little or no extra investment.
Finally! A Way To Know If Your Physician Letters Will Get Results Before You Even Put Them In The Mail
The Results Formula – 3 Elements For Your Letters and Other Strategic Communications:
Element 1: Interrupt & Engage. Use powerful headlines and sub headlines to expose the problem and give the promise of more educational problem solving information to come. The most effective headlines tap into the emotion of curiosity and self interest, that’s why focusing on problems in your headline or subject line is so compelling. Everyone is interested in solving their problems, and they are curious about any solution. Good headlines suck the reader in. If you have read to this point, chances are our “Why letters from PTs are now read by more physicians” headline poked your brain on a practical, problem-solving level. You then scanned for additional clarifying information, and quickly found it with simple formatting techniques like bold text, underlines, and indents. Spend as much time or more on creating your feature headline as you do writing the letter.
Element 2: Educate By Case Building. Body copy, text, and other “showables” build a logical case that helps the reader draw a conclusion about your solution option. Physicians and staff are judging you like a jury judges an attorney’s case. Does your letter demonstrate special expertise? How does your information compare to that provided by other “similar” solution providers? Your reader can only compare based on what you teach them in your communication. Building a strong case using charts, graphs, tables, and other compelling information positions you as the expert. Use headings and formatting that helps the reader get the logical flow by simply scanning.
Element 3: Offer and Call To Action. In addition to your invitation for qualified referrals, give your readers other ways to take next steps in learning more about your particular problem-solving process. Most executive letters end by simply saying, “Give us a call with any questions.” This kind of offer is self evident, and lacks the power to spur immediate action. Your offer should include more resources for learning about what you do and how you do it. Your offers need to build confidence in your expertise. Your offer should be formatted and set off from the body copy so it will be scanned even if the body copy is not read. The exception to this would be a “concealed offer” designed to appeal only to the most highly qualified, eager readers.
Red Sharpie Time: See How We Apply The Results Formula To 2 Of The Crummiest Letters We’ve Ever Seen, And Then Try It Yourself On 2 More.
See the 4 Crummiest Letters Now and How We Rip 2 Of Them Apart With The Results Formula And Score Their Power Level (You Can Rip Apart The Other 2).
Register for a 90 minute Writing Workshop, get expert advice, and see examples of KILLER letters that get results. Register here.
Tips For Getting Started Using The Results Formula On Your Own:
1) Pick an expertise to market where you excel. If you are good at what you do, and there is a market for your solution, running this formula gets outstanding, consistent results.
2) Create 50 headlines and sub-headlines that expose the problem and promise a solution from your reader’s perspective. You will need lots of headlines to form the basis of your strategic campaign.
3) Create several valuable “offers” for more ways to learn about the benefits of what you do. Make sure the offers have a memorable marketing “handle.”
4) Gather compelling evidence that can be used to build a case in your body copy.
5) Write the letter making sure to place and format each Element for optimum scanability and readability.
6) Test, Test, Test. Each element of the formula can be tested, but pay particular attention to the headlines and offers. Testing can be done effectively with little or no extra investment.
In the last Business Corner post, we talked about how to turn your special physical therapy knowledge and training into a competitive advantage by communicating your special approach to assessment and treatment in the marketplace. We looked at a quick example, and introduced the idea of featuring offers for additional educational information through your website and information packets. In today’s post, we will take another example, the physician’s waiting room, and show how to make it a continuous source of potential new patients.
To begin with, it’s helpful to think about the typical conversation between physician and patient. How does that “private” conversation go, and how does it impact YOU? Will the physician recommend physical therapy, and if so, what kind of information will the physician offer on the fly?
For the physician, taking as much time as you would want to explain the benefit of physical therapy to each patient is probably not going to happen. Physicians will be short on time, and explanations about treatment options or how to select the right Physical Therapist are routinely reduced to, “Where do you work, and where do you live?” No new insights there, but how do you as a PT turn this age-old problem into an opportunity?
A good place to start is to do what you’re supposed to do, and provide educational materials (marketing) that patients actuallywant, and physicians actually use. If you can accomplish that, then you can be in hundreds of waiting rooms all at the same time, and capture the attention of prospective patients via your marketing materials. When done properly, these materials will position YOU as the expert as well as the standard bearer. These materials should:
- Educate about the basics,
- Review treatment options, and
- Provide standards for comparison.
The idea is to teach prospective patients enough so that they feel more in control of their choices. Once prospects feel more in control, then they seek a way to take the next step in the process, YOUR PROCESS. This is no different than what the drug companies do. They detailed information on how their drugs work, when to use them, when not to use them, and cap it off with free samples. As a physical therapist, when you understand how powerful this strategy is, you can use your EXPERT knowledge as a solid foundation to make this happen.
Take a minute now to look at a set of sample materials on our sample set page, www.PTreferralMachine.com/SampleSet. When offered in a compelling way to the physician, these kinds of materials will become a welcome fixture in many physician waiting rooms. We’ve all been in waiting rooms that have displays of literature on various topics. The waiting room is the perfect point of contact to place your material, but remember, first you must have something physicians actually want to hand out, and that prospective patients actually want to use.
Here’s an example of what I mean from one of my last doctor visits. I was picking out a magazine to read in the waiting room, and while sifting through the pile, I noticed a brochure about acne treatment. Since I have four teenagers, and acne was part of our current set of problems, I picked it up and learned about a special light therapy used for acne. As a health care marketer, I was reminded how really simple and effective this is. Almost every prospective patient will wait around at their doctor’s office, looking for something to read, and that’s a perfect opportunity to provide helpful information on treatment options. If they trust their doctor (which most people do), then the fact that the physician selected that material and placed it in his or her waiting room means they probably endorse it. Now, do you think a significant percentage of people LOOKING for something to read at the doctor’s office will have, or know someone who has, back, neck, or leg pain? OF COURSE! It doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?
But the marketing job isn’t done yet. You still have the job of “closing the deal.” Good marketing spurs the audience to take some action. Once we’ve done the hard work of getting the material into waiting rooms, then what? The informational brochure or booklet needs an obvious call to action. With my acne experience, there was only one brochure laid out, it didn’t say TAKE ME I’M FREE, it had no coupon to offer a FREE screening or trial, no website resources, and no free ANYTHING I could just take and stuff in my pocket. So I just left the brochure on the table. The point here is that after getting your material into the waiting room, you still have the job of capturing prospective patients into YOUR marketing and booking system. In the acne brochure, the chances of me taking the next step would have increased EXPONENTIALLY if I was offered an appropriate call to action. Crafting effective offers or calls to action takes experience. Take this article for example; can you spot all the different calls to action (offers)?
That “call to action” can be the critical tool that keeps the education and trial process going. In addition, your call to action provides you with a way to measure direct response along with the appeal of your message. After seeing the sample set at www.PTreferralMachine.com/SampleSet, you should get a better idea of how your marketing material can be set up to include a variety of attractive offers. Usually, as the sample set shows, this requires a series of materials that all tie together as a system.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for physical therapy and rehabilitation services is growing annually at double-digit rates. While total employment for the 10-year period 2010-2020 is projected to grow at 14%, physical therapy jobs will grow at 39%.
Some providers are keeping pace with the growing demand while others are not. If your numbers are down, the good news is that this can probably be fixed; and if your numbers are trending up, the time is ripe for using strategic marketing strategies to fuel expansion.
Even if your concerned about the impact of uncertainty in the industry such as the impact of emerging Accountable Care Organizations, a competitive marketing strategy for today will position your business well for whatever the future may bring. Well-run marketing operations provide your company with the most efficient tool to systematically educate consumers and referral sources about your special expertise. That’s the thing about professionally managed marketing operations – since the purpose is to produce customers, the business value is fortified regardless of future trends.
8 Marketing Essentials For Physical Therapists
Today’s PT practice (or any healthcare provider) needs to consider 8 essentials to produce measurable ROI with their marketing budget:
- Competitive Intelligence
- Strategic and Tactical Marketing Plan
- Website with strategic content managed and optimized for local search
- Physican marketing materials
- Advertising Plan
- Graphic design and copywriting
- Referral Marketing System
- Professionally trained marketing support or staff
Most businesses use many different vendors for these services, and usually without a coordinated plan. In today’s world this old-school approach is way to expensive and too hard for most providers to manage. For a single location, using the old-school approach, just the marketing staff alone will be a budget-breaker. But what if you could get all 8 essentials for less than $1,000 a month, manage it in less than 2 hours a month, with a guaranteed ROI?
If that sounds impossible, schedule a live 60-minute webinar and see the strategies and systems that bring you Fortune 500-style marketing on a small business budget.
We say all the time that good healthcare marketing requires more educational content, and less of the brag-and-boast “we have great experience, get good results, and care about you” brand-building. Our subscribers seem to understand the difference, but understanding it and executing it as a marketing strategy are two entirely different things.
The big institutions and most marketing consultants have a tough time looking past their logo and cute tag line long enough to provide consumers with anything of substance, and it is the small independent practitioner who can take full advantage of this.
Today Dr. Yoav Suprun shares another strategic marketing success story from the trenches built from good educational content. We hope you enjoy it, and for more ideas you can use immediately to market your practice, we invite you to share 60 minutes with one of our senior consultants on a webinar where you will see live concepts and the results they have produced. See the webinar schedule here.
Thanks for reading, and thank you Dr Suprun.
David C Steinberg
The PT Referral Machine
Simple Strategy Helps Change Referral Patterns
By Dr. Yoav Suprun, DPT, Dip. MDT,CSCS
Tired of chasing doctors in your area for business? Four years ago, I decided something needed to change. Doctors must learn about MDT from their patients via word of mouth. Since opening my clinic in Miami Beach (www.sobespine.com), I chose to focus on marketing to patients and teach them about MDT. Can you do this without spending money? Sure you can!
How do you get your patients to tell their doctor “ I want to see that McKenzie practitioner because I think my problem is mechanical”, well, it starts with “Educational marketing”. Teach the possibilities of where aches and pains may come from and they will often want to know more. The language of MDT makes sense to people. They can relate to it because the majority of aches and pains have a mechanical component.
Coffee shops, a local gym, church sponsored events, farmers markets, bonus affairs for company employees are a great start. In my case, I chose a coffee shop 2 blocks from my office inside “Whole foods”. I posted a sign on their free corkboard titled: “The truth about lower back pain and Sciatica”. “You are invited to join a physical therapist for a free educational breakfast lecture. Learn about common causes and a method that teaches you SELF treatment for back pain and Sciatica”.
On a Friday morning, three people came to my first talk. We each had breakfast while sitting around my laptop. We were discussing mechanical LBP and sciatica. I had with me a PowerPoint presentation, 3 different spine models, a lumbar roll, Robin McKenzie’s “Treat your own back” book and Dr. Donelson’s book “Rapidly reversible lower back pain”.
The coffee shop is located just in front of the registers so people looked at us sitting around my laptop and 4 more joined the conversation. I handed my business cards to prospects and got office bookings and one home care. The following week I had 8 people waiting including the sister of a guy that came to my first talk. She came to see me for neck pain (“I have good and bad days. I saw a chiropractor which helped but it keeps coming back..”).
After resolving her problem in a couple of visits, she was so thankful that she called her physician who is also a friend as well as connected me to a local gym where she is a member. I treated her physician and as a result, I have now 2 doctors (his partner is on board as well) who refer to me although I never marketed directly to his office. Also, I gave a talk to the trainers who started referring clients to me and see me as the “go to” person. I became the Gym’s “mechanic” as I am helping the trainers keep their clients from taking time off due to injury. Exercise program that is built on Mechanically determined directional preference (MDDP) has been proven in the literature to be appropriate (Long et al “Spine” 2004 Dec 1;29(23):2593-602.)
The breakfast talks continue to generate business. Last month I gave a talk to a forum of business women at a local bank that also wanted to know more about the true causes and self treatment options for lower back pains. Other enticing titles are “Pain in the neck?”, “Is your workout making you worse?”, and “Tips and tricks for healthy living”. When the curiosity of the listeners turns on and they start asking questions pertaining to their own problem, I always say, “I owe you a good and solid evaluation which we can’t obviously do here…”
Word of mouth works BEST. However, you must do what is right by the patient and not sell them the old and tired story of “You need to see me 3x a week for 4-6 weeks”.
Important tip – even if one person shows up, you never know how that person can boost your business. Keep pursuing education of the public and they will come. Search in your area for a good opportunity to give even once a month free talk and see what will happen to your business. I am sure you will be surprised.
Dr. Yoav Suprun is the owner of “SoBe Spine, PA” in Miami Beach (www.sobespine.com), He is the producer of Robin McKenzie’s new DVD “Treat your own back © 2012” (www.optp.com), a probationary faculty with the McKenzie Institute International (US branch), a McKenzie physical therapist at Canyon Ranch Hotel and Spa in Miami Beach (www.canyonranch.com), and an adjunct faculty in Florida International University (FIU) DPT program.
Questions or comments on the article above? Post them on our blog here: PTRMblog.com “From The Trenches”. We’d love to hear from you directly- email us at info@ptreferralmachine.com or call 774-255-1125 in the US or 403-510-7051 in Canada.
Balance assessments and Fall Prevention planning – a great case study in marketing. Materials that address the problem and offer educational information on diagnosis and treatment work very effectively. These stories, like the one here in the Globe make great content for FB and website blogs, but the real impact on the practice comes from targeted direct mail, physician letters, and other strategic marketing activities. The typical consumer has no idea this problem is treated by specialized PT. An ROI is possible even on very small budgets. A recent campaign out west spent less than $850 and activated 6 new patients within the first 30 days. You need the right content to pull this off – we know, as we have done this over and over. Other ailment topics work as well.
Another point of interest in this example: In addition to the 6 new patients this client had 49 people request information from the website. This is significant for 2 reasons: 1) it is important to understand the total impact of a marketing campaign not just the immediate response from those that pick up the phone and call. (there is a high probability that many of those who have requested the info from the site will call later to book as new patients or pass the info along to friends or family that may benefit) 2) it is important to use tracking devices in your marketing so you know what your response rate is from both phone calls, web traffic and web requests.
Learning to restore balance – The Boston Globe bostonglobe.com
At any given time, an estimated 6.2 million Americans report a chronic problem of balance, dizziness or both, according to federal data. The problem tends to increase with age, and with the aging population, specialists say the… read more
It’s been six years since we launched PTreferralMachine.com, and we still have the same quote at the bottom of our homepage:
“Physical therapy services may offer the best value in healthcare, and this seems to be the best kept industry secret. Unless the physical therapy industry finds ways to communicate its value to the marketplace efficiently, it’s likely to remain that way. That would be a shame, because everybody loses – therapist, patient, and doctor alike.”
So for 6 years Trent and I have been writing about communication programs and strategies for physical therapists that we use with our clients to fight this battle, but today we get a day off as our old friend and industry insider Jeff Hathaway, PT, DPT shares his thoughts on this critical subject.
Jeff’s thoughts are of special significance in this new year of 2012 where changes with the rules for access to care and payor regulations loom larger than ever.
Thank you, Jeff, for adding to the conversation.
We hope you enjoy Jeff’s article, and thank you for reading.
________________________________________________________
Physical Therapy – Commodity or Value Driven Profession?
Part 1 of 2
By Jeffrey W. Hathaway, PT, DPT
When you hear the word commodity your mind goes to “gold”, “coffee”, “corn” and other commodities bought and sold in the various stock exchanges. What is the definition of commodity then and how does that relate to Physical Therapy?
A commodity is defined as a good or service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. How does this definition and concept apply to the profession of Physical Therapy?
The good news is that we certainly offer a service that is in demand, however the real question is whether the second half of that definition applies – “without qualitative differentiation”. Remember that the important thing is not necessarily how WE define ourselves but how the consumer (MD, Insurance Payer, Case Manager, Public, Media, etc.…) defines and perceives our profession.
Unfortunately, we are seen by insurance payers, many MD’s and the general public as a commodity, similar to “gold”, “corn” etc. One ounce of gold has the same exchangeable value, determined by supply and demand regardless of where you buy it.
In our consumer minds “PT is PT”, “gold is gold”, “corn is corn”; much like an MRI tech is an MRI tech – that is because the MRI machine is the important thing not so much the tech who performs it. Physical therapy is many times seen as “things” that techs (PT’s) do to patients.
How else do you explain common phrases like “they have had PT” or “PT has been tried”? Like it is “an event” or a “thing” that a person gets in the course of their care. Think about that phrase – I am sure we are all guilty of using it. We need to abolish that phrase from our language. Have you ever said to a patient – “have you had doctoring?” That sounds completely silly – because MDs are professionals and if you have seen one MD and are not better, you seek out a more highly trained or specialized MD. Medical Doctor is not a thing – it is a highly trained professional. In our profession, if you went to any Physical Therapist then it can be determined if “it” worked according to our consumers.
Many times accountants are more valued by consumers as individual professionals. You never hear from people: “did you have accounting for your taxes”, but you definitely hear “do you have a good accountant who can save me some money in my taxes?”
We need to create a huge paradigm shift in the minds of the consumers. A shift that can change consumer perception about our profession and ultimately lead to the full meaning of an “autonomous practice”.
First let’s examine how we may have gotten to this place.
Much of this appears to be self-inflicted. For years we focused on new machines or equipment that we were using in our clinics. We marketed the “things” that we use. The “new laser unit” or the “new electrical stimulator” or “kinesiotaping” become fads that we rely on them to appeal to our consumers.
Secondly we tend to market programs (back program, knee program, aquatic program, or the new pilates program etc.…), which are again “things”.
At the same time we seem to be fixated as a profession as to what is “skilled” activities (things) versus “non-skilled”. MD’s never have such discussions. PT’s for some reason want to breakdown our patient visits into things – falling right into the commodity trap. It is no wonder that consumers associate “things” when they think of PT. If most PT clinics have the same specialty equipment, a back program, and provide the same codes or skilled services – then which one you go to doesn’t matter in their mind; “an ounce of gold is an ounce of gold”.
Hence we are seen as a commodity. Instead our value should be related to the expertise of the physical therapist – their ability to assess and direct a treatment plan to reach the goals determined. And if one PT is unsuccessful then another more experienced and specialized PT may get better results.
An environment that does not perceive physical therapy as a commodity; consumers who value physical therapists as the first choice in the primary care of neuromusculoskeletal disorders would lead the profession to unimaginable high levels of value in the marketplace.
What to do about it?
Part 2 of 2
Physical Therapy – Commodity or Value Driven Profession?
(Part II)
In Part I, we discussed how physical therapy has become viewed and treated as a commodity. We defined a commodity as a good or service for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. If we are seen as a commodity then we will be treated as a commodity by the marketplace. In short that means we will be seen as a uniform service and there will be constant forces to pay the least for the service given the supply and demand levels. A car is a commodity. Wouldn’t you shop around for the car dealer who can give you the best possible price for the same car? I bet that sometimes you bargain for the best price. Same thing happens when viewing PT as a commodity.
The results of being a commodity are painfully clear in todays PT marketplace – especially in NY.
How does one fight this commodity trap? It is simple but not easy. The key to getting out of the commodity trap for any business or profession is to move the business model from a demand fulfillment model to a value creation model. Most clinics today work in the demand fulfillment model. This model is the classic “find a need and fill it” approach. However, as the supply reaches the demand level the price becomes the primary differentiator and begins to drop to what the market will bear. In a third party payer system this downward pressure is more dramatic and is not driven down in the classic manner of competition price wars but rather of seeing how much can be squeezed by a third party.
In order to operate in a value creation model the business needs to create a level of value that creates the willingness of the market to pay a premium for the service. Once a business has created that value then the market will seek out that product or service and willingly pay more for it. There are two classic examples of companies that are in the business of selling a commodity who have successfully done this. First is Apple selling technology that has seen the price drop dramatically over the years and the second is Starbucks which sells the commodity of coffee. They both demand premium prices for a product that is in most circles a commodity. How did they do it? They applied the de-commoditization formula. That formula is a three-part formula:
- Understand your customer’s problem better than they do.
- Develop solutions to their problems that they do not see.
- Exceed expectations.
In the case of Apple they took portable music industry and created the i-pod. The i-pod was far and away beyond what any consumer could have possibly imagined to be possible. It solved the problems with portable music that we had (bulkiness, skipping of CD’s, limited content, etc…) but it also solved those at a level that the average customer could not imagine. Starbucks took coffee and built an environment and attachment that was far beyond what coffee drinkers could have imagined. Starbucks created a culture around coffee. In both cases they followed the formula and created such demand that they are not only very profitable but get consumers to pay considerably more for their commodity than their competitors. They now reside in the value creation model.
I believe that PT is at a crossroads. If we do not figure out how to apply the formula to our businesses then we will continue down this road we are headed on, which for private practice is unsustainable.
I also believe we can apply the formula to our practices. It will take creativity, changes in our practice models and the willingness to take risks. It is a completely different mindset. Most, if they were in charge of Apple, would reduce their price as it would undoubtedly increase volume and revenue. But Apple understands that it is in the value creation business not the demand fulfillment business. We must re-think our mindsets, our language, our image and what we really bring to the table. We need to start promoting the profession from the neck up, start becoming part of the solution for payers, start thinking outside the box for ideas that leverage our value in ways our customers (MD, payers, the public, etc…) don’t see yet. Then do it in a way that exceeds their expectations. We must let go of the victim mentality and be bold in how we claim our rightful place in the healthcare system. What say you?
As we continue develop concepts for communicating with physicians about the benefits of the MDT process, we wanted to announce some important updates. A new physician letter is now available that focuses on the centralization phenomenon.
Also, previous versions of the MDT executive letter series included oversized patient guides. Now there is an additional option to substitute 4″ x 9″ patient education service cards for the full sized Guides. This addition to the library reduces mailing and printing costs substantially. We also want to point out that the 4″ x 9″ service cards are ideal for waiting rooms and other points of contact with patients.
The 4″ x 9″ cards are also being made available for all other “ailments.” The designs are customized with your edits (Platinum and Premium clients), logo and contact information (Standard). The cards also present well together as a “family” in your Physician Resource Kit.
Current subscribers who would like to include these new concepts with their current campaigns can post a Task on their Marketing Dashboard.
For those who would like more information on these and/or other concepts, please visit our Contact Us page. Or call us at 888-PT-HELPS (888-784- 3577)
Read More About Planning An Effective Physician Letter Campaign