Any physical therapy practice that doesn’t employ systems is less productive and less profitable. At the same time, a practice without systems makes more work for PT owners.
What business owner would knowingly sign on for working harder in order to make less money and serve fewer people? Nobody. But that’s what happens to practice owners all the time. Often, they’re too busy and stressed even to notice.
Automation streamlines the work of your practice. It standardizes processes, increasing efficiency, reducing errors, elevating productivity. It lets you deliver the highest standards of care to your patients and enables the highest levels of performance from your staff.
(In case you missed it: I recently talked about the necessity of automation for PT practices in a video, here.)
Here’s the big trick to creating successful organization in your practice: you need to have a practice culture that supports it.
Practice owners are sometimes surprised—and a little skeptical—when they hear me talk about how important culture is to the strength and performance of systems. I tell them: it’s the single most important factor in organizational success. Think I’m overstating the importance of culture? Research ties the impact of workplace culture to nearly every measurement of performance, from productivity and staff engagement to employee retention and client satisfaction.
When you invest time in creating a practice culture that supports your employees and your mission, your organizational challenges become exponentially easier to master. Implementing systems—the automation that is so crucial to practice growth and stability over the long term—happens faster, with less effort and more success, right from the start. That means more growth, more impact in your community, more revenues—all with less work for you, not more.
Want better organization in your clinic? It’s time to take a close look at culture you’re creating.
3 ways a strong culture helps you build better systems
Connects the How with the Why
Your why is the core of your practice mission, the essential driving force behind everything you stand for and do. In PT clinics with thriving cultures, there is shared understanding and support for the WHY of the practice. Building systems involves a lot of attention to the HOW—how we will schedule patients and respond to cancellations, how we will recruit and train new employees, how we will determine compensation and bonuses. The list goes on. But systems are most successful when they strengthen and support the why of your business. Your culture is the bridge that connects the two.
Designs systems with YOUR people in mind
It’s true that a major advantage of a systems-based practice is that you’re not relying solely on the knowledge, insight, and availability of individuals. Your practice can run at top performance without any one person (ideally, that includes YOU). This changes the game when it comes to things like turnover and absences, and strengthens the overall consistency of your operations. That said, these systems your putting in place are ones your staff need to use every day. Equipped with culture that values and leverages team input and communication, you can implement systems that really work for the real people who use them.
Connects your systems with accountability—the right way
Accountability a pretty loaded word. Your practice culture says a lot about how you manage accountability in your practice. Are your employees afraid to point out errors, for fear of being raked over the coals? Punitive accountability sends employees underground with their concerns and problems (and probably looking for another job). When your practice culture supports learning, communication, and transparency—that gives you the power to create systems with accountability that’s based on trust, and a shared desire to succeed in the mission of your business.
Building a powerhouse practice isn’t about expensive tools and complicated techniques. It’s about knowing the fundamentals of what connects us to our patients and keeps them coming back—and referring others to our doors. Those fundamentals are exactly what I cover in my FREE guide, 3 Simple Things That Will Get You More Patients and Make You More Money Right Now. Get it now!
