There is an old saying that says 'you can't manage what you don't measure'. This holds true for PT clinics everywhere – there are certain pieces of data that should be monitored in order to determine how well the practice is performing. Let's take a brief look at some of the most important metrics that every PT clinic should be tracking.
One of the biggest sources of business for any physical therapist is from referrals. In fact, the majority of clinics depend on them as their 'bread and butter' patients that they know they will always have to build upon. Given how important referrals are, it is sensible to track them in order to keep a close eye on who is making the most referrals and sending patients in your direction! It is important to ask every new patient where they heard about you so that you can accurately monitor referral sources for your clinic. When we talk about referrals we automatically think about physicians, but there are a number of other referral sources that you will want to monitor including online reviews, patient referrals, advertising and even other physical therapists. As well as tracking the sources of your referrals you should also take the time to monitor the total number of referrals each month, who your top referrer is from month to month and even the reasons for the referrals.
In any business, one of the factors that is going to make it or break it is productivity. This is especially true in a service based industry like physical therapy. It is fairly easy to monitor the productivity of staff simply by checking how many patients are seen each week in the clinic and how many each physiotherapist sees in that period. However, there are other productivity metrics that you could be tracking as well. One example would be looking at the number of new patients coming in during certain advertising campaigns or promotions in order to determine how effective they are. If you see little change during a promotion then it has not been particularly effective. You can also monitor how effective your reminder process is by checking how many patients come in for their appoints both with and without a reminder from you. These are just a few of the ways that productivity metrics can be of use.
If your clinic is to be a success in the long term, then you do need to look beyond the dollar signs when it comes to billing. It is important to look at your revenue cycle and there are a number of metrics that you need to track in order to do that. Tracking the total charges that have been billed is going to help you to forecast your income in coming months allowing you to get a better grip on income and expenditure for the clinic. It is also wise to track the average charges per visit and per patient as these metrics are useful in forecasting, budgeting and even looking at pricing structures.
All of this information can be used to get a clearer picture of how your physical therapy clinic is performing. These metrics can be key when it comes to planning, budgeting and forecasting where your business is going. When you examine the data collected you can usually see fairly easily which areas of your clinic need work – for example, if patient counts are not going up during a particular promotion, then you will know that it is not worth spending money on in the future. All of these metrics and more can be easily using a system like PatientSites. Get in contact with us today to discuss how we can help.