Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.
There’s one office procedure that I’ve noticed that therapists often fail to do that other health care practitioners do and that is therapists often fail to do a progress exam or a progress report. I think about every 10 visits, you should sit down with a patient and say, “Let’s talk about the progress we’ve made over the last 10 or 12 visits.” You should pull out the report that you gave them at the first of their care. When you talk about the goals that you have for them, you should go over those goals, and see which ones you have accomplished, and which ones you have not yet accomplished. What that will do is two things. Number one, it will re-enthuse the patient in their care, and they will see the progress, and they will get re-enthused, but just as important is it re-enthuses you about the care that the patient is getting. You both become more interested in the care again, you’ll do a better job, and that welds the patient to the practice. Make sure that about in every 10 visits, you just stop and take about five minutes at the beginning of your session and say, “Let’s review what we've accomplished over the last 10 weeks.” I think that you’ll find that if you do that you’ll have much better patient compliance and you’ll have the ability to correct any problems that you have before you move into the next 10 sessions. Why don’t you think about doing a progress exam and a progress report on a regular basis, about every 10 or 12 visits, with every patient you have?
This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.
