Perhaps you’ve read the testimonial from our wonderful client Tim about his thoughts on how we compared to what he was getting from his health insurance network. If not, here’s part of what he had to say:
…What was being offered by my regular health care providers was very substandard in comparison.
Tim, T
Reading this, you might be thinking “were Tim’s other therapists not good for some reason?” Well, not likely! We are positive that Tim’s insurance network successfully paired him with a therapist who did what EVERY insurance-based therapist does well: properly evaluate and treat a patient’s diagnosis in an efficient time frame. Sounds ok, right? Yes. We think it does sound ok, but…
Is ‘OK’ what you really want when it comes to your health?
We believe your expectations for an excellent physical therapy service should match our own: that “standard” healthcare doesn’t cut it. You deserve treatment that is shockingly amazing, miraculously effective, wonderfully successful, etc…we could go on and on. Elevating your standards sets your level of expectation where you can best assess how we are better.
Did you know that healthcare institutions utilize standardized testing and surveys to guide their decision making when it comes to delivering better patient experiences? It makes sense to use an objective tool before making widespread changes, but that’s not the point here. Here’s a few words from our President, Geoff Fong, about his time spent working for a major hospital-based clinic.
So we had this staff meeting about how to improve patient satisfaction and [management] really wanted to us to memorize and follow an acronym called “AIDET,” which stands for acknowledge, introduce, duration, explanation, and thank as a way to satisfy what patients were apparently wanting most. Icing on the cake was that we were coached to say at the end, “is there anything else I can do for you? I have the time” to everybody, everytime. Guess what? After a few months of following the script verbatim, patients reported in their surveys that we indeed followed the script. Did that mean care was better or patients were more satisfied? Not really, but it showed how trainable the staff were!
I’m still floored by the idea that patients were wanting to be spoken to in a normal and courteous way, nevermind what they were actually there for: improve their health!
Geoff Fong, PT & President
If you’re looking for a therapy provider that isn’t needing to practice basic manners and common sense communication, you might consider redefining what your standard of care should be.