Everyone wants to make a good impression, and all PTs aim to help their clients effectively and efficiently. But there are stumbling blocks in a typical day at a PT clinic that can greatly reduce your employees' effectiveness and, in turn, lead to dissatisfied clients and a reduced cash flow for your business. Some lapses in performance are unintentional, and many are simply the result of a lack of structure or accountability. One solution is to invest in a physical therapy software package that includes a program tailor to the needs of PT offices.
The How, How And How Many Of PT
Putting physical therapy scheduling software in place in your professional offices can immediately give you the right tools for tracking the therapist performance, streamlining the check out and organization of client records, improve billing cycles and even promote deferred, long-term commitments from patients so that they will follow through with their treatment for the doctor-prescribed duration.
But the most important function of physical therapy scheduling software is that it allows managers to quickly get a snapshot of how each individual is using his or her hours at work. Are the therapists spending the bulk of their time working with patients and tracking the details of their progress? Do they spend a lot of it in the break room or at the front desk fielding phone calls rather than actually doing rehabilitation work? You can quickly find the weak spots in your system by reviewing each day and each week of your employees' days and improving the process as needed. Perhaps you need a different system in the front office, or one of your therapists needs to learn how to manage his time more effectively.
If you're concerned about the performance of a particular employee, look for blocks of time that are not accounted for, then do some additional investigating. Is someone at the front desk simply not scheduling enough patients for this person, or is this person not willing to take on any more work? Physical therapy electronic documentation of hours, duties and details of each PT session will arm you with the information you need when you're ready to review each employee's contribution to the clinic as a whole.
Using The Right Physical Therapy Software Tools
Another way to ensure your clinician will make a profit and satisfy clients at the same time is to make sure every employee is using the available tools in your physical therapy software arsenal. Talk to your employees on an individual basis and ask questions:
Do they schedule multiple appointments in advance? Are they confirming availability of resources? (If you have three treadmills but four clients scheduled to use the treadmill at the same time, it's money down the drain) Do they provide patients with appointment reminders? Are they documenting patient performance?
PT software can lower your overhead and raise the performance level for your staff, but only if they know how to use the system. When shopping for physical therapy scheduling software and documentation programs, find one that balances flexibility with ease of use for results that can turn your clinic into a successful venture for everyone.