Tag: Physical Therapy

Is Your Practice Location Hurting Your Bottom Line?

Posted on by VettersEnt

What is one of the keys to a successful medical practice? It’s all about location, location, location! When you are trying to find the perfect practice location for your office, there are many factors that you must consider to ensure long-term profitability and success. Whether you’ve been in the same location for a decade or are finding space for the first time, here’s what you need to know about choosing the right location. 

Why Does Location Matter?

Three recent studies found a single common factor in what matters to patients—location. 6 out of 10 patients choose a practice primarily based on location. In fact, convenient location is twice as important to patients as your practice’s success rates or outcomes.

Competition Isn’t Always a Bad Thing

In neighborhoods and cities where medical practices are on every street, it might seem like you have no chance to succeed against already-established doctors with a reputation in the community. Don’t be intimidated by competition, as there are many clever ways to differentiate your practice from the crowd. Check the population-to-professional ratio for the area around you. In areas with low numbers of professionals, there won’t be much competition. However, in busy areas marketing, reputation and customer service can make a huge difference.

Demographics Make the Difference

Another key to a great practice location is staying on top of ever-changing demographics. Is the population declining or growing? In many cases, it’s easiest to gain traction in newer communities than tight, well-established locales. Pay attention to numerous demographics including household income averages, age distribution, the types of jobs and population growth.

Look Around You

The most successful practice locations are often those surrounded by other popular things. What else is located within 5 miles of your potential practice location? Are there banks or grocery stores? What traffic patterns are there? In general, a location that is passed by 40,000 or more cars in a 24-hour period is considered to be a retail location. If you set up shop in a smaller town, you might have higher visibility thanks to less roadside clutter, but you also won’t have access to as many potential patients.

Partner with Vetters Enterprises for a Great Practice Location

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

Alternatives to Narcotics for Pain

Posted on by VettersEnt

The opioid crisis is affecting every state and every practice across the country. Every day, over 90 Americans die from opioid overdoses. This national crisis is growing in severity by the second, as prescription pain killers, heroin and synthetic opioids grow in popularity and availability. The need for non-narcotic pain killers is becoming more apparent.

The Dangers of Prescription Drugs

Prescription opioids like Vicodin, Percocet and Oxycontin are the leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States, as they account for a whopping 44% of overdose deaths. These drugs were designed to be slowly released in the stomach for extended pain relief, but abusers crush the pills for an immediate and intense high. Even attempts to reduce the crush-ability of Oxycontin by manufacturers did nothing to curtail drug use.

Difficult to Abuse

One of the current priorities of drug companies is creating prescription pain killers that are effective at pain relief, but more difficult to abuse. There are many different ways to treat pain that are harder to abuse. Topical medications are growing in popularity for arm, knee and hand strains. These creams can be applied direction to the skin and have been shown to provide the same level of effective relief without the extreme possibility of abuse.

Compounding pharmacies can custom-produce topical pain killing medications to meet the needs of your patients. These medications are harder to abuse, due to their form, and can provide a great deal of relief for patients with arthritis, who are recovering from surgery and who are recovering from an injury.

In addition to topical medications, you can encourage your patients to explore other pain relief alternatives including:

  • Physical therapy for the treatment of post-surgery pain or chronic pain
  • Acupuncture, particularly for managing chronic pain
  • Regular low-impact exercise like yoga or walking

Increase the Efficacy of Your Practice with Vetters Enterprises

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, revenue cycle optimization, and private practice business support. We can perform detailed assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

Utilizing Rock Steady Boxing to Combat the Impact of Parkinson’s Disease

Posted on by VettersEnt

It’s no secret that exercise is a critical aspect of maintaining overall health. For patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a regimen that includes boxing may spell more relief than ever. The signs and symptoms of PD may include tremors, slowed movement, rigid muscles, impaired posture and balance, loss of automatic movements, and changes in speech and writing abilities.

“Of all the pills I’ve taken, Rock Steady Boxing is the finest and most effective.”– Pete Stewart

 
 
 
 

A Medical Breakthrough That’s Knocking Out Parkinson’s Symptoms

Rock Steady Boxing, a boxing program designed with Parkinson’s patients in mind, is a medical breakthrough in terms of targeting symptoms specific to the diagnosis. Boxing tests balance, agility and hand-eye coordination, which can all be impacted by PD. Utilizing a “whole body approach,” the program encompasses not only boxing, but squat jumps, heel walking, agility drills, raised-knee walking, trampoline work, jumping rope and skipping. There are:

  • 60,000 people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease annually
  • 360 Rock Steady programs around the world (operating in 89 sites around the country)
  • 18,000 people training with the Rock Steady program

Rock Steady Boxing Results Inspire Hope in the Fight Together Against Parkinson’s

The professionals at Rock Steady promote the community aspect of the full-body workout, reminding patients that they are all “fighting together against Parkinson’s.” A 2011 study in the journal of the American Physical Therapy Association revealed that Parkinson’s patients who participated in two to three 90-minute Rock Steady training sessions per week for nine months found “short-term and long-term improvements in balance, gait, activities of daily living, and quality of life the boxing training program.”

Get Local with Rock Steady Boxing Charm City

Through her a passion for movement and dedication to the Baltimore community, Head Coach, Patty Wessels developed a plan to open a boxing gym for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease, in cooperation with Mind Body Physical Therapy. There is now a gym that functions solely as a boxing space at the Mind Body office, located at Coppermine Fieldhouse. Patty couldn’t be more thrilled to bring Rock Steady Boxing to Charm City!

Learn more about Patty or sign up for a class here!

How Boxing Helped One Man Get “Unstuck” In Response to His PD

The Washington Post reported on the Rock Steady program last year from the point of view of Dan Kiefer. The author stated, “Let’s be clear: Boxing, even when the opponent is only a heavy bag, is a brutal sport. But brutality is needed, even welcome, when you’re facing a progressive, incurable neurological disease. I have Parkinson’s disease, and it causes my body to just freeze up. Weirdly enough, boxing helps me get unstuck.” Kiefer credits Rock Steady’s goal-oriented training program with giving him the confidence to perform the regular, hands-on movements that come easily to those without PD (such as selecting an object from the grocery store shelf).

In this first-person account of his experience, Kiefer goes on to say, “So I pound away on the heavy bag, not training for a fight because I am already in the thick of one. It’s a fight for my life, and as long as there is no cure for Parkinson’s, the disease ultimately remains undefeated. But I and the other pugilists in my twice-weekly boxing class — all with the unmistakable tremors and awkward gaits of Parkinson’s disease — can at least make it an interesting, and maybe even fairer, contest.”

You can read Kiefer’s full story here and take a look at Rock Steady testimonials if you’d like more information about how current fighters are utilizing this method to maintain and improve their freedom of movement in response to PD.