Back to Basics: Perks of Therapist Productivity

Therapist productivity is a topic that’s discussed at great lengths within the rehab therapy space. Unfortunately, not everyone has a crystal-clear definition of what therapist productivity actually means.

Contrary to popular belief, a productive therapist isn’t spending the most time with patients. Rather, a productive therapist is spending time with patients the wisest. Think: work smarter, not harder.

This differentiator is often lost in translation — meaning many clinics schedule therapists to run from one patient to another rather than fine-tune a process to spend time with patients more efficiently.

Today, let’s go back to basics with the proper definition of therapist productivity as well as how productive rehab therapists can benefit the entire clinic, patients included.

What is Therapist Productivity? 

Therapist productivity is a formula to quantify the return on investment (ROI) of staff time. It can be calculated in various ways; however, therapist productivity is almost always expressed as a rate of productive, valuable units performed or generated per a given amount of time.

For instance, rehab therapist productivity can be quantified by billable hours per total available hours or visits per day.

Therapist productivity metrics break down how much value your clinic receives from your therapists and the time they spend with patients. Of course, therapists are inherently an essential resource to a clinic.

The purpose of the productivity formula is to better understand the efficiency of therapy staff and identify areas of improvement to add more value to the clinic as a whole. 

Who Benefits from Rehab Therapist Productivity? 

When a clinic prioritizes high therapist productivity and commits to properly improving the drivers of productivity, two major things happen. For one, its providers become happier and more efficient.

Secondly, these more efficient providers spend more time treating patients and less time completing time-consuming manual or administrative tasks, which makes patients happier. 

In other words, when clinics prioritize high therapist productivity, everyone wins: 

• Therapists and Clinic Staff. A highly productive clinic allows for better tools and equipment for improved caregiving, more time with patients (and less time on admin tasks), and advanced career opportunities.
• Therapy Patients. Practices focused on productivity can reduce patient stressors, like long wait times or extensive paperwork, as well as optimize time with patients to increase overall engagement.
• Clinic Owners and Managers. An emphasis on productivity creates a more efficient staff who directly improve business performance to drive profit that can be reinvested into the growth of the practice.

Improve Performance with the Ultimate Guide to Therapist Productivity 

The more productive your practice, the more you can do to provide results-driven care. Now is the time to ramp up your business with an emphasis on productivity.

Learn everything you need to know, from how to calculate therapist productivity to which productivity models to adopt in your clinic in the new e-book, Net Health’s Ultimate Guide to Therapist Productivity.