Knowing Your Patient Visit Average (PVA)

I’ve noticed that some new therapists have a very low Patient Visit Average (PVA).

In other words, for the number of new patients they see, they don’t see those patients very much. I see some new therapists with a patient visit average of two, two and a half, three, maybe as high as five or six. But, I want to explain something. That’s probably not because you’re getting the patients better. It’s probably because they’re discontinuing care or you’re having them discontinue care prematurely. Now, what do I base it on? You say, “Maybe they are getting better. Maybe I’m getting better.” It could be, but that’s not what’s typical of the profession.

I will tell you that typically the average therapist sees the average patient 15 times over their lifetime, so your PVA should be 15. If you take the number of people that came in this month and divide it by the number of new patients that came in this month, you will have your PVA. So, if you saw a 100 people this month and you had 8 new patients, a 100 divided by 8 is approximately 12, so you have a PVA of approximately 12. Now, I will tell you to go ahead and figure out your PVA and make sure that it’s at least 12-15 because that’s where people are at when they start with Therapist Consultants. I want to make sure that you’re actually where the average person is in their practice as far as PVA is concerned.

Why don’t you do it right now? Take the number of people you had last month and the number of new patients you had last month, divide the number of visits you saw by the number of new patients and see what your PVA is. See if it’s in the range of 12-15. If so, you’re probably doing fine. If it’s higher, that’s good. If it’s lower, it may be that you’re missing some important part of building your practice and helping your patients.

This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.