By Slava Blokhin
Physiotherapists are positioned in a unique situation. We can make a massive difference in a person’s long term health, and it all starts with the first assessment. As Jim Millard, a physiotherapist with over 20 years of experience said, “we are not in the business of physiotherapy. We are in the business of people.” I could not agree more. That is why the first assessment is so crucial for your success with your patients. You could be gaining a loyal lifetime fan, and that is worth putting some effort in for. Read below for 5 tips to rock your first encounter and assessment with your new patients!
1) Make Them Feel Comfortable
The person needs to feel like they are in the right place from the start. Greet the patient in the waiting room with a smile and introduce yourself clearly to ensure that the patient knows who you are. You are not a stranger who will walk them from the waiting room to the treatment room in silence, which feels like semi-kidnapping. Instead, you are a professional who will solve the patient’s problems and make them feel at home. On the walk to the room, ask them how their commute was, or if it was easy for them to find the clinic – this demonstrates that you care about their wholesome experience as well. Prior to starting the subjective portion of the assessment, always inquire if the patient is comfortable. This continues to reinforce a positive image for you as a practitioner and alleviates patient’s unwanted pain from being in a specific position.
2) Build a Therapeutic Alliance
Therapeutic alliance is the relationship between a health professional and a patient. When I first heard of this concept and the research behind it, it blew my mind. The research by Jim Millard, Jasdeep Dhir, and David Walton shows that building therapeutic alliance leads to your physiotherapy interventions having a much more positive impact on the patient, rather than without the alliance. Witchcraft, am I right? So, why not take advantage of this fact? If you do the following 4 things (3 researched and one bonus), you will be on your way to success. Asking open-ended questions during your subjective assessment, listening actively to what the patient has to tell you, and showing empathy for their experience are the three main pillars of therapeutic alliance. You will also get bonus points for inquiring about the patient’s passions (hobbies) or things that they enjoy most in life (children and grandchildren). Bring up these little details in the follow up visits to continue building rapport with your patients.
3) Set Expectations
Setting expectations is very important because this will define the patient’s overall satisfaction with the entire experience from assessment to discharge. Describe the plan of care that you have in mind, as well as the approximate expected rate of recovery. Right now, you might be thinking – predicting the rate of recovery is impossible and it’s highly individual. You would be correct. However, this is one of the most important points of information that the patient expects to hear. When will they get better? You could use the milestone approach to avoid talking about timelines. Once your pain decreases 3-4 points, or once your range of motion improves to a certain level – we can start the next portion of the rehab. This gives the patient concrete goals to achieve and eliminates time as the point of reference.
4) Provide Value from the Start
Providing more value to our patients than they give back should be a cornerstone concept in our profession. Give them a helpful piece of advice or a little bit of extra attention consistently and they will be your loyal patients for life. Dedicate an extra minute of your time to explain a concept, rather than using that time for your own charting. This wins over the patient because they know that you care about them and their recovery. Looking at their long term health also provides more value than just treating the specific injury at hand. These are little things that would come easily to you but your patients will be forever grateful.
5) Enable the Patient to be an Active Participant in their own Destiny
We are dealing with people who have hopes and dreams. Rehab is meaningful for them because it helps to achieve their personal goals. Make these patients active participants in those goals. Get more dedication from the patient as an active participant in rehab by having them share their thoughts on what is happening. Honesty and open communication provides a lot of value. The patient will be more involved in their care and you can obtain honest feedback about your services. I like to use the concept of being on the same team. This helps to ensure that clients know that you have their best interests in mind, and that you are supporting them in achieving their goals.
Once you implement these 5 tips into your daily practice, you will retain more patients, have a more focused treatment approach, and increase patient satisfaction, . On top of that, your relationship building skills will allow you to create loyal customers for life and enhance your reputation for referrals as a bonus.
