Referring Patients

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you. You need to know when to refer patients. You know, the old gambler song, you need no when to hold them, no when to fold them. You need to know when to accept patients and work with them and when to refer them to someone else.

See, one of the best feelings you'll get in your life, in your practice life, is when you suddenly realize you can refer to people that don't fit your criteria, refer them out, and still have a good practice. That's a good feeling. I can refer anybody that I don't feel fits my criteria for somebody else, and I'll still have a great practice.

Sometimes patients come to you and they come to you again and again and again and again. We want them to depend on you without becoming dependent on you. So if you feel people aren't really getting progress with you and they're just coming in because they're becoming dependent on you, that would be another reason why you would want to refer and notify that therapist that that's why you're sending them there.

The other thing you can do is if they're coming to you and they don't feel like they can get away from you, you schedule them for two weeks and they come back in one week every time, they won't go longer than a week, then maybe you should suggest some other types of treatment and refer them for the other types of treatment. The point is this, you're going to have patients that you're better off referring than keeping in your practice.

Make sure you do a professional job. Don't keep anybody that you don't think that you can help as well as someone else. And then make sure that everybody that you refer gets to somebody good of quality. And you'll be happier than you've ever been in practice when you realize you can refer out anybody that needs it and you'll still have a great practice at the end of the day. This is Dave Kats, thanks for listening.