Physical Therapy Management – How To Survive The Recession

It is virtually impossible for any business not to experience a downtrend or recession.  Small businesses are usually hit hardest as they have limited resources to survive a drought spell.  For small clinic owners, it is vital that they have a well prepared physical therapy management plan that can help them face this challenge.

There are some crucial rules that a physical therapy management must follow if they intend to survive this stage of the economic cycle:

  1. Debt should be evaluated and excessive debt eliminated.  It is always wise to be frugal even before revenue starts to drop.  Shrewd physical therapy management will work towards restructuring debt if they cannot be eliminated altogether.
  2. Downsizing is a prudent way of saving on overhead and salary wages.  Efficient physical therapy management will work to increase productivity of staff instead.
  3. Tracking finances should be done daily, if not yet done.  Micro-managing your finances will let you plug any financial leaks right away and minimize wasted resources.  Astute financial physical therapy management should involve generating profitability reports per staff per day or per week.
  4. Staff should be trained and cross-trained if possible.  Wise physical therapy management like this ensure there is no service gap if a staff is occupied or otherwise unavailable.  This ensures smoother service and greater productivity for patients.
  5. Analyze and review marketing costs.  Reduce and eliminate advertising campaigns that are not attracting clients. Astuteness should be required in physical therapy management to gauge if the marketing expense is paying off or if it is just costing the clinic much needed dollars.
  6. Expand geographically without actually opening another clinic.  You can reach farther market by using the internet.  A smart physical therapy management knows that the internet has greater reach and a much lesser expense.  Using this tool effectively and efficiently can mean huge advertising savings with greater benefit to a struggling small business.
  7. An efficient physical therapy management should never lose track of quality.  In slow times, it is tempting to forsake quality for profitability.  Scrimping on quality might eventually mean a lost patient. Remember it is cheaper to keep an old client than to find a new one.

Surviving a recession is going to be a struggle but it is not impossible. Recession is part of any economy thus it cannot be avoided.  Being prepared for it could mean the difference between closing shop and weathering it for the next economic cycle.

Physical Therapy Management Techniques







Physical Therapy Management When Economic Conditions Are Tough

Physical therapy management is even more taxing in tough economic conditions.









Physical Therapy Management Complexities


Aside from clinical skills which the physical therapist learns in school and practices at work, one of the things he or she must learn when he or she decides to venture to private practice is physical therapy management. This is a skill that will allow him or her not only to start his or her own business but also make it grow and succeed in a very competitive setting.  The ultimate goal of a business owner is to have a profitable business so it is important for him or her to learn and master this skill of physical therapy management.

Now, physical therapy management is rarely simple.  It covers budgeting for the overhead expenses especially at the onset of the business operations, scheduling for clients’ appointment and sometimes putting in more than 8 hours a day, and billing to make sure that you get paid for all clients’ visit especially when it goes through insurance companies.  Physical therapy management also means making plans and strategies to make sure that you stay ahead of trends that will affect your business now and in the future.

But what is physical therapy management really?  It is much more complex than what has already been mentioned.  When it comes to running your clinic on a day-to-day basis, your physical therapy management skills will dictate that you find ways to make sure it is running smoothly with all procedures and guidelines in place.  Having guidelines is important to make sure that there is a structure everyone follows for a systematic physical therapy management.  These guidelines would include patient handling from the time a patient comes in the door, goes up to reception, gets served,  until he or she exits that door.  Good physical therapy management means making guidelines for equipment maintenance, for employees’ compensation, for legal issues, for marketing and getting your presence known in your area, for recruiting and making sure you are hiring and developing the right people.

Physical therapy management is a complex decision but with time and experience, it will get simpler.

Before you do decide to venture out on your own, make sure that you are ready with your clinical and physical therapy management skills, seek the advice of those you have gone and ahead of you and made their physical therapy business a success and most of all, be determined to face head-on all the challenges that will surely come your way once you become a private practice owner.