As private practice owners, you must realize that growth is a choice.
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham Maslow
So, as you embrace growth as a target for your business, what is the best company structure you can have in order to set your practice up to grow? It’s a question that the coaches at MEG Business often encounter while laying out the best-fit practice management services for physical therapy startups or existing clinics looking to expand.
Well, to start you need to have a system for measuring your company metrics and your individual personnel stats to ensure that you indeed are experiencing growth.
Why Does Your Physical Therapy Practice Need to Grow?
“We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” – Oprah Winfrey
Beyond the aspirational side of being a successful practice owner, you want to grow because your expenses are going to go up – if not only marginally. From rising taxes, to increasing rents, to growing salaries, benefits and office supplies.
Essentials you will need to run your business will routinely go up over time and, without a business structure that allows you to outpace your increasing expenses, viability will be in jeopardy.
You need a growing volume of patients, but you don’t have to become the Walmart of physical therapy. We are not advocating a PT mill. Our goal, instead, is for you to become the Nordstrom of physical therapy with a fantastic clinical experience for employees and patients alike.
In order to get there, you have to be delivering that exceptional patient care experience from the first phone call. You need to effectively establish a sound practice structure. You need to have your staff fully aware of their products and how they are being measured for success.
To start, you as the owner should not be doing things that other people can be doing – such as treating more than 20 hours per week, changing light bulbs or other types of administrative work that someone else can step in and complete.
What Does “Structure for Growth” Look Like?
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” – Steve Maraboli
The most advanced practices in the country are set up with command channels and communication lines that create systems of efficiency and control which results in greater productivity. When you have the proper structure, your physical therapy practice is capable of scaling and expanding while remaining viable when doing so.
You can learn more by listening to this episode of Brian Gallagher’s podcast: “Building Your Ideal Practice.” As an overview, the ideal structure would have 5 divisions complete with primary products supported by sub-products measured by stats so that the individual members can manage by performance.
Physical Therapy metrics are typically run monthly, while personnel stats are managed weekly with a forward facing management system called a MAP. With a Management Action Plan (MAP), you as the owner will have full accountability from all your staff members and a higher degree of certainty with expected outcomes.
Fast Track Your Physical Therapy Practice Growth!
Want someone to walk you through what practice moves to make, and when?
To learn more about how you can develop a fully accountable management system that has a five division structure complete with defined channels for personnel efficiency, schedule a free practice assessment call with the specialists at MEG. In the meantime, you can learn more tips with our latest resource guide for 2021!
