WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, CANADA – When patients go to their physical therapy assessment and follow-up appointments, it is a given that they want to receive the best treatment that you as a physical therapist have to offer.
In patients’ minds, treatment goes beyond the exercises performed in your presence and the exercise prescription process; it’s about the rapport you build with them before, during and after their appointments.
“The areas where physical therapists often have difficulty managing for or don’t like doing are often some of the most important parts of growing their practice,” says Dr. Jay Winburn, president of Prognition Corp., the makers of Mavenlive physical therapy documentation software. “Those time-consuming little extras, such as remembering personal details about patients, sending correspondence letters and checking in with referring doctors or the patients are the things that stand out to others.”
In this first installment of a two-part series, we will share with you the ways in which Mavenlive exercise software can help you build rapport with patients and increase the likelihood that they will refer others to you. In our second installment, we will show you how our rehab exercise software can do the same thing for your relationships with referring doctors.
Mavenlive is like Salesforce- a popular customer relationship management tool for salespeople- for your patients. Just as salespeople use these tools to set reminders and track every interaction when calling their clients, Mavenlive can help you keep track of information on your patients.
Why do these tools exist? It’s all about information management. By using software to track your patients’ progress- every interaction you have with each patient, the treatment prescribed, the progress being made- helps you interact with your patient on a much deeper level.
“This software enables you to take notes on anything that goes on during your appointment, as well as any personal notes you want to make,” says Chris Metcalfe, Mavenlive’s vice president of technical development. “It really comes down to relationships. You can make a note of it when your patient tells you his daughter is getting married, and ask him how the wedding went at the next appointment.”
Referring to more personal information on each patient allows you to start each visit on a more personal level.
“It’s amazing what mentioning something personal that you remember about a patient can do to their trust level for you,” Matcalfe says.
The software also enables you to easily draft correspondence to your patients and set reminders to make follow-up phone calls. All of these things help you build relationships with your patients. Patients who feel as though they have a connection with you are far more likely to refer their friends to you.
“I have a hunch that this is something every practitioner wishes he or she did more of and did better,” Winburn says. “But doing so is one of the easiest things to shortcut because it takes so much time and it gets so difficult to do when you have a heavy caseload. Our tools make these tasks much more convenient and easy to do.”
Patients want to feel like they’re receiving custom care and treatment that is customized specifically to their condition and needs. Mavenlive helps accomplish that, he says.
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