How Practice Culture Affects No-Shows & Cancellations

Who is responsible for percent of patient arrivals at your private practice? Who is responsible for marketing? Or patient retention? I’m going to give you almost the same answer every time: Everybody in the practice. 

Consider each person who comes into your practice—a patient, child, or parent—what they encounter at your facility is going to influence their impression and patient experience. That impression is built by all these smaller experiences: 

• The appearance of your facility
• Their treatment by your front desk
• How clean the bathrooms are
• The neatness of the waiting room
• Debris or dirty diapers in the parking lot
• Even the politeness of your maintenance man

Teach Your Staff to Be Fully Involved in the Practice Experience

That practice experience has plenty to do with percent of patient arrivals (also known as “arrival rate”). Get your team to embrace their role in creating the right culture. Impress upon them that it is their responsibility to make sure that the place that they work is amazing. 

Neither you nor your staff should ever say, “Well, I didn’t go to PT school to change the garbage bag.” Did you go to PT school to work at a fabulous clinic that just happens to have a garbage can that’s overflowing for whatever reason? This is their chance to be an amazing team member and do what’s not even expected or asked of them.

Building Responsibility for a Positive Practice Culture

If you’re a parent of a child yourself, your expectation for every child in your family is to make sure that your home and family are the best they could be, right? You can use this concept to help your staff understand that they need to be fully involved in building a successful practice. 

If your therapists are not parents, you might ask them: “Did you contribute to your household when you were young?” Then ask them: “How can we all do that here to make sure the practice is the best it can be?”

Practice Culture Shows Up in Every Patient Encounter and Call

The culture of the practice comes through loud and clear in:

• Every therapy session
• Every phone call with an administrator
• Every patient check-in

Every person checking in, every person on the other end of the phone line—they should feel that they are the most important person you meet today. That’s what should happen to give them the best patient experience at your clinic. As the owner, you might want to listen in and see if that’s how it seems to be going at your clinic.

Converting a Poor Culture to a Positive One

Are you struggling right now with a poor culture and a deficient patient or parent experience? You can start turning that around right away if you get the right help. Check out our Lemonade Library to start building better skills for yourself and your staff! 

About Diane Crecelius

Diane Crecelius is a physical therapist and founder of a multi-million-dollar, multi-location practice with well over 3,000 visits per week and 200 staff! In the past several years, Diane has worked tirelessly to support Peds-A-Palooza® Community & Conferences and the success of Private Practice Owners. Diane has presented at nearly every Peds-A-Palooza live and virtual conference since the first sold-out conference in 2018. Her extensive knowledge derives from her decades in practice and from being trained and consulted by Survival Strategies, Inc. She uses this training to help Private Practice Owners learn how to thrive and expand while keeping their stress low.