![]() ![]() ![]() It’s not unusual for this to occur every once in a while after a busy day. After all, if you’re busy treating patients, you might not have much time for things like completing documentation between sessions-and you could end up bringing that work home with you. Striking that balance is often easier said than done. ![]() Nobody likes to sit around the clinic with nothing to do, but at the same time, your work life shouldn’t be so jam-packed that it creeps into your after-work life. So, perhaps a better question might be, how do you know when you’ve hit the sweet spot? Here are some signs: You’re busy, but not burnt out. Ultimately, that number boils down to what you can comfortably manage without sacrificing care quality. But, the number of patients you physically can see won’t always align with the number of patients you should see. How do you know if you’re seeing the right number of patients?Ĭlearly, the number of patients a PT should have on his or her daily schedule depends on a number of factors. For example, a provider in New York City may feel compelled to treat more patients in a day than his or her peers across the river in Newark due to differences in payment and cost of living. Reimbursement amounts vary by state, which means many PTs in one state might feel pressured to see more patients in a day than their peers across state lines. Furthermore, if-as mentioned above-a practice leverages extenders, thus leaving therapists to primarily conduct evaluations, then that could also impact the number of patients a therapist sees in a day, as evaluative visits generally take longer and require more one-on-one time than standard treatment visits do. And depending on the culture of your clinic, PTs may spend more or less time with each individual patient. Clinic Cultureĭoes your team strive for quality over quantity? Does your practice use specialized modalities or treatment methods? That fact is, no two clinics have an identical culture. From sports therapy and pelvic health to cardiovascular and pulmonary rehab, there’s a plethora of niches a PT can pursue, and each one has unique characteristics that can impact a therapist’s daily patient volume. Like many other healthcare professions, physical therapy features a wide array of specialties. And that, of course, can decrease the number of patients a PT is able to see in a day. Some payers even require that patients be seen by therapists only-thus eliminating the opportunity to use PTAs or techs. Payer Rule VariationĮven if your practice is totally cash-based, you’re likely familiar with the restrictions some payers impose on the duration and manner of therapy treatment. So, a PT may technically see a large number of patients in a day, but that volume may not be sustainable or realistic without the help of such extenders. Many practices make use of physical therapist assistants, therapy techs, athletic trainers, and other support personnel. And, of course, the number of hours a PT works in a day will directly affect the number of patients he or she is able to see. (Not that kind of flexibility, although I have known some yogi physical therapists.) PTs can choose to work full time, part time, or per diem. One of the many perks that come with being a PT is the flexibility it affords. While it’s tough to quantify these forces across every PT setting, these are the main overarching factors that influence the number of patients a PT sees in a day: Employment Type There are many factors that contribute to this variation-all of which impact how many patients any given provider can realistically treat in a single day. In fact, if you had a room full of physical therapists, each provider would likely report a very different day-to-day experience. Physical therapy isn’t a cookie-cutter profession. However, there were a few exceptions, including the question, “How many patients do you see per day?” Responses for this particular question were more or less all over the board, and that made us wonder: how many patients should a physical therapist see per day in order to strike a perfect balance? Here’s what we learned: Why is there so much variation? In many cases, we found a lot of consistency in the responses-with some variation based on practice size. In 2017, we surveyed thousands of rehab therapy professionals across all specialties, job roles, and clinic sizes and asked folks about everything from reimbursement rates to frustrations and motivations with their profession. And PTs have to find balance for themselves, too-though maybe not as literally as vestibular patients. As a physical therapist, balance is intrinsic to your job-whether that be striking a balance between motivating patients and not pushing them too hard or treating patients for literal balance issues. ![]()
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