What is the one word many physical therapists dread the most? Marketing. As an owner of a private practice in a small community, I would become discouraged following marketing lunches with physicians and staff as I would feel my time was ineffectual and futile.
I took a moment before I started writing this to look up the definition of Strategic Alliances. Wikipedia defines a strategic alliance as “an agreement between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon objectives needed while remaining independent organizations.” Looking at this definition, I was able to reflect on how my company has pursued and benefited from strategic alliances both within and outside of our community.
In today’s private practice world there is much talk about decreased payment, increased administrative burden, and difficulty finding good employees. We have seen a marked increase in the sale of therapist-owned practices to larger corporations and even the closing of some small practices. A generation of therapists who have owned their own practices are now wondering whether to sell their practices. In short, private practice ownership comes with considerable challenges.
Now that your compliance program is up and running (is it?), the next step is having a method for measuring compliance effectiveness. Dan Levinson, the Inspector General of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Health and Human Services, annually gives the keynote at the Compliance Institute. I have had the opportunity to interview Dan following his keynote address on several occasions for a live podcast. Something always sticks out for me when I recall those interviews. Dan described an effective compliance program as one that “detected a problem, corrected a problem, and prevented the problem from happening again.” So, you have never had a problem? The OIG and other federal authorities are likely to determine that you don’t have an effective compliance program. Let’s look at a few mini–case studies.
I got started listening to podcasts after my final clinical rotation. My clinical instructor, who was an expert clinician in the field of sports medicine, told me that “The best way to sound like an expert is to listen to experts.” Up until that point I had been reluctant to search out and find podcasts. With his encouragement and prodding I found myself downloading my first podcast, an episode by the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) on the clinical diagnoses and management of acute and chronic tendinopathy. At the time it was very relevant for my caseload, which was part of a rotation in the training department of a university. We were just starting to see athletes who were ramping up their track season while at the same time managing the residual injuries in athletes from the football season. As a student on a clinical rotation, I liked that I could listen to the various topics being covered and then compare and contrast how I would answer the questions posed to the guest as opposed to how they answered them. It was a great way to see where there may be differences in approach and really helped me to develop my clinical confidence.
