Nothing matters more!
There is nothing so certain as death. And there is nothing so uncertain as when that will happen.
Wow! That is an awfully morbid way to start a physical therapy blog. Please continue reading, and I promise I’ll share some more quips and quotes that will help you think in a positive way – and might even inspire you.
I opened with that statement to say: Our time is limited and there is nothing more important than how we decide to use it.
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Here’s another popular quote: “Medicine adds days to life. Physical therapy adds life to days.” This is exactly why the physical therapy profession is so powerful. We have a community of professionals that is changing lives on a daily basis by “bringing life to days”; by restoring movement and activity to our limited number of days. I am constantly amazed to see the impact of physical therapists, as they give of their limited time to enhance the limited time of others.
Time is wealth. Unlike money, when it is gone, you cannot replace it.
We all live with some type of regret over the choices we have made, when it comes to how we spend our time. The reality is: We cannot get it back.
There is time that we spend doing things that we wish we did not do. There is also time that we spend NOT doing things that brings regret.
American abolitionist and author, Harriet Beecher Stowe said, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”
Time is our most valuable asset, so we must carefully decide how we use it. At the same time, many of us spend so much time overthinking things that we end up not deciding to do anything at all.
There’s a great quote: “There are people less qualified than you doing the things you want to do, simply because they decide to believe in themselves.” Country music artist Justin Moore explains in a song, if he doesn’t follow his heart to pursue what he wants, “Somebody Else Will“. The time to act is now.
You are valuing your time at $80/ hour (not $200/hour)
I want to go back to specifically discussing the physical therapy community. How are we spending our time? How are we dealing with these regrets?
Author and theologian, C.S. Lewis said, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” Look ahead and control the things that you can control. I think that is really good advice.
I promised to be more positive than my opening statement, so I am cautious to bring up another country music star, Tim McGraw, who encourages listeners to “Live Like You Were Dying“. This song actually delivers an invigorating message; cherish what you have and live without regrets.
Knowing that our time is limited, how valuable is an hour of our time?
Often, I see and talk to therapists and clinic owners who spend as much time (or more) sitting at a desk with paperwork as they do actually helping patients. We should do some simple math: If your time with a patient is worth $200/hour and you spend an hour with the patient and 90 minutes of administrative work, you are valuing your time at $80/hour (not $200/hour).
We know our value and we know our impact. I urge you not to diminish your worth. You invested so many hours, so much effort, and so much of your money into PT school and building your career. You should spend your work hours doing activities that result in the hourly wage that you deserve.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
If you want the cheapest way to manage your PT practice, that’s exactly what you will get: the cheapest way to manage your practice.
I see clinic owners who piece together Google Docs as their EMR and create spreadsheets for invoicing while using stand-alone HEP applications. They fumble through scheduling and trying to remind patients about appointments. They are doing two or three times the amount of work to document and manage patients. Do you remember what I just said about doing activities that result in the hourly wage you deserve? Add to that, they lose some credibility with their patients. Nobody wants a cheap physical therapy experience.
At the same time, there are clinic owners who spend a small fortune on an EMR system whose primary focus is billing insurance companies. Meanwhile, these clinics are out-of-network. Why do cash-based physical therapists pay for an EMR with so many features that they cannot or would not use?
That was a good question until PtEverywhere came on the scene.
PtEverywhere is the only all-in-one system designed exclusively by and for cash-based PTs. Therapists and their patients, alike, have the convenience of accessing everything they need for physical therapy care on their computers, on their tablets, or on their phones. Quite simply, it is PT… everywhere.
Save your patience for your patients.