How to figure out what patients really need - How To Sell More Therapy
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[00:00:00] If you're an occupational therapist and you have an outpatient therapy clinic and want to see more of the kind of patients you want to see, one of the most important things or the most important work that you could be doing is to figure out what your patients actually really need. And I know that most of the time, We're, we're trained in the university to all the jobs that we have to really think that patients will only be willing to use their insurance or only consider opening our business if, um, we can get into this network or that network when it comes to insurance.
But believe it or not, if you really take a moment to think about what your patients really need, and figure it out. You can have a really great business. My name is Hoang. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And I had all those same thoughts and ideas. When I first went out and started my clinic over 10 years ago, my questions were what insurance do I need to get into?
How do I do [00:01:00] the, the paperwork to get a network? How, how much would they pay me, you know, and things like that. But I failed to realize that if I could figure out what my patients really wanted for me, then my My clinic can be even more successful than I ever dreamed possible, and I could start to hire more people and I could train more therapists.
Um, so I wanted to share a little bit of that with you because it's something that's really important that I go through with myself over and over and over because we we do tend to forget, um, about what patients actually really need because we're so focused on. Well, you know, insurances and insurance that, and yes, that's a very important question.
And it's a very, very important answer that you can have with your patients. But I think before we can even get there, we really have to think and figure out what our patients really need. It's not range of motion. I promise you, it really isn't range of motion. And I think that if you're thinking about, you know, as an occupational therapist, I [00:02:00] think that I am in my most OT.
in in my business because I can really think about what patients really need and I can think about their not just their ADLs, right? Not just their activities of daily living. Um, but I can think about their hobbies. I can think about their work. I can think about when someone comes to me and says, Hey, Hoang, I'm a drummer and my elbow hurts me.
Um, I need to work. I need to be able to hit this gig and do that gig. I can figure out what they really need. It's not the elbow pain. It really isn't the elbow pain. If I'm just only talking about the elbow pain, I can lose them because they can go on YouTube and watch a ton of videos. They can, um, go get an injection, right?
And They can wear straps on their arms, right? But if we can sit there and figure out what patients actually really need, we have the [00:03:00] potential to have a really successful business. And so here's the three questions that I generally ask my patients. And when I train my therapist, I train my front desk. We need to have these answers.
And here are my three questions. So right, you can write them down if you want. Um, I always ask my patients, what have you tried in the past? You know, from what you've tried, what works and what doesn't work? And then what's most important to you? What do you want? I know it seems so simple and there are some nuances around it, but like, figure out what do they really want?
Some people, I actually had a guy let me share the story. Um, he came in, he's tried physical therapy, um, chiropractic massage, he's done injections, he's done PRP, and he came in for One of our free discovery visits where I'm like, let's figure out what's really going on. And that way I could figure out like what you really [00:04:00] need.
So we have this new service called Shockwave Therapy. And so he wanted to try it because he wanted quick and fast. And in the session, I was just like, your problem isn't a quick and fast problem. You know, and I was like, well, what do you really, you know, what has works in the, you know, what have you tried?
That's how I knew he tried all these things, what has worked and what hasn't worked. None of those things have worked. Like, why hasn't any of them worked? And I was like, the reason why none of those things have worked is because you haven't gotten to the root cause of the problem. And it sounds to me like you want quick and fast and your problem isn't a quick and fast problem.
You know, if no one has gotten to the root cause of your problem, you, you just want to come in and out and you want injections. Like I can't give that to you. Like that isn't, um, that isn't. possible for me. The shock wave session is a quick session, but it needs multiple sessions, right? It needs more [00:05:00] than one session.
And if you really need a therapy, which it sounds to me like you need therapy to see, like, well, you have all the motion, but you still have the pain. You have all the motion. Um, you can do just about everything, but there's a reason why you still cannot sleep at night. Something is going on. I think I know how to, you know, I know how to figure that out.
And if sleeping is really important to you, I can help you. Right. But what he wanted was quick and fast. And I cannot, I'm not a magic bullet where it's just like one and done kind of thing. And every time he was looking for that, um, everyone has failed him because he wanted just a one stop shop, you know, um, and he didn't want to put any effort into it.
And I'm just like, well, that's not going to work for my model. So I was able to figure out what to do. [00:06:00] What he really wanted or what he really needed didn't match with my services that I have to offer. And I think that we have an opportunity to figure out what patients really need and then be able to deliver it to them.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with insurance. Right. And I want to encourage you to think that way because now in this day and age insurance reimbursements are lower and lower Most insurance networks aren't even open to taking on new providers And I want to encourage you that there are other ways to go about it And it doesn't have to involve like always working with insurance When you're working with insurance, you're working with high volumes of patients with very low reimbursement rates But I think that when you can figure out what patients really need from you, you'll be able to charge higher prices and see less people, but actually deliver on the thing that you say you can deliver on.
All right. So why don't [00:07:00] you, I want to encourage you that that is totally possible. And there's a lot of Um, cash based businesses and you don't have, you know, you can be a premium service. Um, or people are willing to pay. People are willing to come and, and go out of their way to see you. I own a therapy clinic in a very big city.
And I don't have, I'm not, I'm not what people would consider a local business, meaning like I don't have a lot of local people coming to me. I actually have a lot of people who are willing to drive in. You know, we always make fun of people on Miami beach because people who live on Miami beach hate coming off the island to the mainland, but I, yet I have people who come.
And it's because I have figured out what the That person specifically need it. And then I'm, because of my, my specialty, I'm able to deliver. Right. And so I think part of your job, if you want to open a successful lucrative business that actually makes money [00:08:00] profit and allows you to do it your way. You just have to figure out what your patients really need and then ask those questions over and over and over and again.
And then don't be afraid of someone saying no to you because they're probably not a good fit for your business anyway. Now I'm saying, I'm not going to not follow up with this guy cause I really do think I can help him. Um, but he's looking for a quick fix and I don't have that. So if I can share some value over time, like, Hey, um, you know, watch this video or, you know, let me at least educate you a little bit on like what might be wrong.
Right. So I create a lot of videos on, on my clinic side on, you know, why shoulder pain isn't always at the shoulder. Or if you have elbow pain, why elbow pain isn't always at the elbow. We have to look and see like in your activity, what's happening in your, In your positioning, what's happening, [00:09:00] right? I mean, how OT, how much more OT can you be?
Um, activity analysis like one on one. It's funny. I had a patient who, um, his son came in for wrist pain, but he's a sailor and he's, I'm trying to get him back to sailing professionally before the summer because he's got a big, you know, competition and camp that he's going to. And, um, you know, you know, he's coming in, he's coming in once a week to, you know, to work on his, on his wrist pain on his shoulder.
And I'm like, we're breaking down what that, that activity needs to look like so that he can, you know, get better. So, you know, part of it is just, you know, educating and asking the questions based on, you know, based on their. Based on what they want. And I think that if you can break that down, you'll be able to get more and more patients that are willing to come pay for your services.
And it won't matter whether you're an OT [00:10:00] or whatever, um, what specialty you have, because you, your specialty is in figuring out what patients want. I hope this video helps and encourages you, um, that you have all the skills that you, you know, that you need to ask the questions and to be able to charge premium and to be able to grow your business.
If this video has helped you, definitely like and subscribe, and until next time, thanks for watching.
