Physical Therapy Patient Surveys - Part 1
By Nitin Chhoda

Physical therapy patient surveys are ways to keep track of what is going on in your therapy clinic. Surveys allow your patients to give you feedback and provide you with valuable information as to how your clinic is viewed, what is lacking and what is working. It is a very important aspect of business development and growth of your physical therapy practice.

Surveys from patients allow you to establish service standards, systems of operations to allow for better customer service, and marketing strategies that focus on successful patient referrals.

Patient surveys are an essential evaluative tool for the owner and how your physical therapy practice is operating. Whether it be the actual treatment itself, the cleanliness of the facilities, politeness and friendliness of staff or the availability of parking.

They allow the patients to give their perspective as to how your business is run and if they are happy with the whole experience at your clinic. Surveys from the patients give you insight into what needs to be changed, what is working and what needs to be done.

An important part of receiving feedback is to be objective and not take things personally. If the patient survey is negative, you should not react to the negativity, step back and analyze what the patient is saying. Then make a plan as to the viability of the complaint and then seek to make changes accordingly. That's why it is also an important process to involve the whole staff of the physical therapy center, so that it becomes a group effort to bring quality service and treatments to the patients.

Physical therapy clinics need to always monitor their service and quality of care, in order to grow and improve. It is also a good method of gathering information regarding age, gender, occupation, etc...and various information that will help give you a demographic picture of your patients. It enables you to spot any trends or patterns in injuries, successful marketing areas, etc...

Information is always key when it comes to surveys. For example, if you notice that the majority of your patients are coming from the yellow pages, you can make sure you keep that marketing tool and either maintain it or enhance the advertisement. Without the information, you may not think the yellow page ad is effective and remove it from your advertising. That is why information is key and it helps you see what is going on in your physical therapy practice.

Surveys are an important part of any successful business. When they are designed and implemented correctly, surveys are a valuable way to view your physical therapy business from your patient's perspective. They should be implemented regularly without any biased results from staff or patients.

The main point in using survey information is how to make your business better so that it thrives and becomes the ideal environment for patient's to recover and heal their injuries and at the same time be a viable, prosperous business for you the owner and therapist.

Nitin Chhoda has a blog on physical therapy marketing. Get a free audio program on how to market your physical therapy private practice at his blog, only available to the first 100 visitors. His physical therapy newsletter can change the way you market your clinic, and is available with an unconditional 30 day money-back guarantee.

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