Motivated Staff

By Kim Stamp

Ask yourself this question: Is your staff motivated to engage with patients?

If you think your staff struggles with being “all in” on patient engagement, consider running quarterly engagement campaigns to help spur their excitement. Something we’ve had success with is a 30–30 campaign. The goal is to capture the first 30 seconds and the last 30 seconds of a patient’s visit by engaging with them in specific ways. For the front office that meant smiling, acknowledging the patient by name, and asking them how their day was going. For the therapist it meant taking a moment to personally connect with the patient before going into treatment-based interactions. Then, at the end of the visit, we encouraged our staff to specifically engage with the patient regarding their next visit. The therapist would mention what they’d be doing at the next visit, and the front office staff would remind them of the day and time of their next visit and tell them we were looking forward to seeing them again.

This simple campaign helped our staff to see their role in the care team and also helped our patients to be more compliant in showing up for their visits. It also served as a reminder to our staff that we were there to relationally engage, rather than transactionally engage. We gave the campaign a start date and an end date and celebrated our staff for doing a stellar job along the way. If you’re looking for a way to boost engagement in your clinic, consider running some creative campaigns that will motivate your staff.

Kim Stamp is a PPS Certified Administrator and the Regional Business Manager for South Sound Physical & Hand Therapy in Washington State. She is also the president of the Washington State Physical Therapy Managers Association. She can be reached at Kim.Stamp@irgpt.com.