As a practice owner, you may already measure your practice’s success by tracking critical, easy-to-digest metrics. Although it’s easy to rely on data alone, understanding the total productivity of your physical therapists can present a real challenge.
While metrics like no-shows, patient discharges, and PTs’ vacant hours are a great place to begin, they don’t always give you the full picture of an individual’s performance. Intangible factors – like a therapist’s attitude, punctuality, and patient satisfaction scores – also contribute to your practice’s success and efficiency in a meaningful way.
What does that mean for you? It’s time to step back and look at the bigger picture. By combining key metrics and considering the soft skills and traits that define your PTs’ success, you’ll be able to get a more developed idea of how your teams are performing. And that, in turn, will help you lead your practice with a data-driven approach, while also providing better guidance and feedback on an individual level.
Metrics Used to Measure the Productivity of Your Physical Therapists
Let’s start with the numbers. They say “numbers don’t lie” for a reason: data can provide incontestable information about your practice’s performance. And there are several metrics that can help you understand how each PT in your practice contributes to (or, sometimes, reduces) its efficiency. Starting with the stats can highlight performance trends that might not be obvious at first glance.
But of course, if you’re just switching to a data-driven approach, you may not know which metrics to look at first. Look no further!
Patient Visits
When assessing a physical therapist’s productivity, calculating the total number of patients visits per week is an obvious place to start. Of course, PT case loads depend on several factors, including:
- The size of your practice.
- Your location.
- The number of staff and techs available.
A typical minimum for the PT industry is one patient visit per hour – approximately 8 per day, or 40 per week. At this rate, your PTs should be making the most out of their patient interactions by moving effectively between appointments and allowing sufficient time for documentation and follow ups.
That said, make sure that your patient visit expectations are equitable and sustainable. Even though the goal may be “growth, growth, growth,” it’s crucial to make sure that therapists aren’t overwhelmed by their caseloads.
For one thing, burnout can lead to your therapists providing lower-quality treatment, delivering poor bedside manner, struggling to keep up with documentation, and receiving bad reviews. They may need to call on other staff to assist, which can reduce their peers’ efficiency as well.
By breaking down the number of patient visits per PT, you can identify whether your staff are meeting basic expectations, and if there is the potential for improvement.
No-Shows and Cancellations
We all know the frustration of a no call, no-show. Of course, there are valid reasons why a patient might choose to cancel—everyone has an emergency once in a while—and many no-shows can be attributed to forgetfulness. In fact, over 70% of patients miss at least one appointment in their course of treatment.
Even though occasional absences are normal, you can use productivity metrics to identify whether certain PTs have a higher rate of cancellation than others.
How do I calculate no-show and cancellation rates for individual therapists?
Thankfully, the formula is simple! For each therapist, divide the number of no-show appointments by the total number of appointments and convert the decimal into a percentage. The result is each therapist’s no-show percentage, which you can then compare to your other PTs.
Is this percentage high, low, or within the average? Once you have determined this, you can set goals for each therapist. Remember to offer encouragement and incentivize those with high no-show percentages to improve.
According to a 2015 national survey, the no-show rate for physical therapy appointments in the U.S. is 10.4%.
What if everyone is performing within the average range?
If your PTs are performing well, your practice can also play a role in encouraging patients to show up. This includes having an effective appointment reminder and waitlist management tool. Additionally, your practice should consider charging a penalty for missed appointments. These measures should lower the no-show percentage and cancellation rates significantly.
Patient Satisfaction Score
Patient satisfaction surveys are valuable tools for assessing your practice’s success, and they can also provide helpful feedback about your therapists’ individual efforts.
Why is this important? According to a 2017 survey conducted by Kelton Global, “88% of patients would switch their healthcare provider if they were unhappy with their care.” It’s sad but true – and many of these unsatisfied patients not only ditch their providers, but also leave the practice for good.
So, if you’re not already collecting patient satisfaction scores – don’t wait a moment longer! And if you are, ask yourself: Do I have a way to isolate the data for each of my providers?
When you compare scores for each PT, you can see if and how your therapists are providing a quality experience. This will help you set performance standards and decide which PTs need extra attention, coaching, or review.
Soft Skills
Numbers alone don’t determine your PTs’ and OTs’ total productivity. Several intangibles play a huge part in increasing or decreasing their productivity.
Here are a few intangible qualities that contribute to your therapists’ productivity:
Mindset
Okay – we know that you’re not a mind reader. But even if you can’t read your PTs’ minds, the attitude they bring to their work – and the satisfaction they receive from it – will have a huge impact in their success.
According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Labor Economics, there may be a neurological connection between a worker’s happiness and productivity at work. If they’re feeling satisfied, they will be more productive. If they’re feeling productive, they’ll be more satisfied. It just makes sense, right?
How do you know if your staff are bringing a positive mindset to work? Therapists with a consistently positive mindset will often be more efficient, find creative ways to solve problems, have higher patient engagement, and uplift their team members. It’s also likely that you’ll see their positive attitude reflected in employee satisfaction surveys or performance reviews – more on that later!
Values
Core values consist of the professional ethics and the personal conduct encouraged within your practice. In physical therapy or rehabilitation practices, examples may include: accountability, altruism, compassion, excellence, and integrity.
These core values have everything to do with the way your staff uphold their professional and social responsibilities within the medical field.
A productive PT will deliver exceptional care by acting in their patient’s best interests. You’ll see this in the way they provide evidence-based, safe, and effective care, as well as collaborating with other healthcare professionals to ensure the best possible treatment outcomes. You want to hold on to these high performers!
Furthermore, a fully engaged PT will often represent your practice’s values by contributing to the betterment of the physical therapy field. They may be proactive in advocating for policies and practices that promote health and wellness, and engaging in activities that promote public health and education.
Punctuality
Everyone has been late to work at some point. When tardiness is the exception, it’s easy to address and move on. However, chronic lateness to work has far-reaching implications on the productivity of your PTs. It’s a snowball effect, creating untold delays in your schedule over time. It could be why patients cancel their appointments or your PT receives poor survey results.
Understanding why one of your employees is always late to work can help you collaborate to boost their performance. For instance, if their daily work schedules are tightly packed, forcing them to work late or burn out, there are a few solutions. Practice admins can step in to identify a more efficient documentation software, opportunities to streamline providers’ workflows, or make adjustments to the patient visit schedules. To identify whether the issue can be solved, all it takes is a conversation.
Bring it All Together with Performance Reviews
You probably have a regular process for checking in one-on-one with your PTs — if you don’t, it’s not too late to start.
A performance review can either be good, bad, or neutral. These judgments should be based on key metrics and intangible qualities. You should have a way of measuring these performance reviews over time, to identify upward or downward trends.
If you’re conducting reviews, here are some ways to encourage improvement:
- PTs with a track record of good performance reviews should be acknowledged and rewarded, because their productivity is already at a level compatible with the goals of your practice.
- If your PT has a bad performance review, you need first to sort out the root causes. Pinpoint the exact aspects of their performance that have derailed their productivity over the course of time. This will enable you to set the correct course of action to improve their performance and productivity in the long run.
- PTs with a neutral performance review should be incentivized to put in the extra effort which will pump up their productivity.
Track the Productivity of Your Physical Therapists with Automated Reports
With these metrics and intangibles, you can create a comprehensive picture of any PT’s performance.
The simplest way to start keeping track? Choosing the right software solutions. For example, here at Raintree, we offer reporting dashboards and business intelligence tools so you can access your clinical data insights with ease. Our solutions for the physical therapy and rehab specialties include therapist productivity reports for each of your providers.
Schedule a demo with us to find out why the most efficient practices run on Raintree.
