Education Committee Report
By Jason Sanders, PT, DPT, OCS, GCS
When Private Practice Section (PPS) members are surveyed, the number one reason for membership is their desire for education. This desire covers a broad range of arenas within our profession, including public relations and marketing, finance, government affairs, technology, and payment policy just to name a few. It is with this in mind that the PPS Board develops its strategic plan and tasks its volunteer-based committees with meeting the needs of the organization and its membership. The portions of the strategic plan tasked to the Education Committee span several realms important to the PPS membership. As we strive to develop content that will meet the needs of our membership, it requires development of independent projects within our committee as well as collaboration across multiple other committees.
This year the committee continues to develop and manage our ongoing initiatives to provide and promote educational opportunities that advance business aptitude for the physical therapist–owned business. In this realm we continue to coordinate the “Essentials to Starting a Private Practice” and the “Taking Your Practice to the Next Level” courses being offered as a pre-conference course at the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM). Additionally, in conjunction with PPS staff, we continue to offer monthly webinars on hot topics pertinent to the private practitioner. Perhaps our most important ongoing initiative is working with PPS staff to develop and launch the new learning platform. It is nearly up and ready to go. However, a couple of technical challenges are still being addressed.
The new initiatives in the past year are what excite our committee the most. In the past year, we have developed a series of entry level and beyond videos across a broad range of content areas that will be shared with PPS membership via the new learning platform. The first set of videos on public relations and marketing featuring Scott Wick and Lynn Steffes has been completed and is being prepared for release. The second series of videos, on the topic of finance, is scheduled for recording in August and features Chuck Felder and Jeff Ostrowski. The final installment in the 2016 series is to focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your practice and will feature Eric Sacia and Mike Osler.
Our largest and most exciting initiative for 2015–2106 is the development of the Peer Advisory Groups. These groups are similar to Mastermind groups, which are present across our country and serve a broad range of professions. These groups of similar businesses from noncompeting markets will meet twice a year to discuss hot topics and share expertise, analyze operations, build lifelong friendships and work toward helping each other improve their bottom line. The beta test groups have already met and given rave reviews. The first group of open enrollment practices (nearly 40 practices) had their first meetings in April.
I would like to thank the outgoing chair Zoher Kapasi, outgoing board liaison Jeff Ostrowski, and incoming board liaison Mike Horsfield for their leadership and guidance. I would also like to recognize our ongoing committee members Rob Worth and Amy Gulledge, and would like to welcome new members Yogi Matharu, Tim Vidale, and Thomas Carlton. We look forward to working together both within our committee and in collaboration with other committees and individuals in an effort to continue to provide and promote educational opportunities that advance the business aptitude for physical therapist–owned business.