Our employees are people and as we all know; people, in general, are resistant to change. I read an article last week about how more now than ever before people are being labeled with having Neophobia. Defined as “the fear of anything new, and it can be an especially persistent and abnormal fear. In its milder form, it can manifest as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine.” How do you get your staff on board to make necessary changes in your private practice when they’re afraid of change? 

After having spoken with hundreds of practice owners over the years, it’s what they don’t know that’s typically holding them back from the success they desire. When you went into physical therapy, you went in to be a clinician, not a lawyer, or an accountant, or a bookkeeper. We tell physical therapy owners time and again to stop wasting time and mental attention on tasks that you can outsource to others. This week, we have a panel discussion with Jon Repka, VP of Sales from Paro – an accounting and bookkeeping service company, and Denise Muncie, COO of MEG Billing Solutions who manage their respective outsourced services to physical therapy practice owners across the country.  These outsourced solutions allow practice owners to stop wasting time and mental energy on tasks that they aren’t trained to do so they can focus on what really matters when it comes to being an executive.

If I had to say what the top three reasons are that people call me it would be: marketing, personnel, and billing related issues. Almost everybody believes that they can do better in business if they have more new patients. Unfortunately, these people don’t know that almost all problems associated with the practice can be traced back to lack of leadership, lack of knowledge in that area, and/or the inability to confront others. 

In podcast episode 49, I laid out the four types of owners and made the case that how you approach your practice and the people associated with your practice is what will have the greatest impact on your practice’s success. Every successful practice owner that I’ve ever met understands that they have four main responsibilities and everything else outside of that is simply a distraction. 

Consider outsourcing your accounting services, legal services, and billing services so that you have more time and attention to spend on the four key elements to running a successful practice. Getting stuck in the weeds of billing and collections, tax write-offs and deductions when you can hire somebody else to do that for you take your eye off of all of what’s truly important. That is creating the ideal practice for your staff, patients, referral sources, and the community at large. 

Knowing when it’s time to hire additional physical therapy staff is a challenge we hear about a lot from the practices we work with.  If it’s not well thought out, you could wind up paying more in payroll than you are getting in return for the services being delivered. This is especially true when you are a new startup practice just starting out; you cannot afford to spend more money than you make. To combat this, you need a proven hiring system that tells you when and who you should hire based on the numbers. You should never be guessing or hoping that your new patient numbers will sustain the new physical therapist you just hired. You should be driving those numbers and hiring based off a sequential plan of growth that you are in control of. This week, we’ll dive into the strategy to know when to hire the next therapist that your practice can sustain that will contribute to the growth of your practice. 

In order to become a private practice among the top 10%, there are several factors that need to be met. These key factors of success cannot be attained without the right mindset.  This week, Brian is talking about the factors that make the top 10% of practices and what YOU as the physical therapy owner can do to reach those goals.