I attended two amazing days of the program at the OT Australia Private Practice Symposium 25th and 26th May 2018. What stood out to me was the diversity of practice and experience.
My presentation centred on the opportunities for therapists to leverage their intellectual property, knowledge, skills and interests to pitch ideas to prospective clients through proposals and tenders. It’s an area I am passionate about- moving away from the concept of having to market to individuals and marketing to groups or marketing to organisations who control referrals. I had the opportunity to show therapists where they can access information about tenders that have been awarded and the value of tenders to assist them to price their own work. Pricing in private practice is always tricky and it’s great to have external benchmarks.
I reminded therapists that money is not a dirty word- providing high quality, ethical and evidence-based healthcare needs to be priced accordingly.
You can download my presentation here and also receive three free templates to assist you to start developing a suite of standard documents that may be useful if tendering opportunities arise.
There were OT’s just starting out, some in the exploring the idea phase, right through to one OT who has 80 contractors. I was surprised by the number of OT’s who were not embracing technology and were using tired, manual, paper-based systems. There seemed to be a reluctance to believe that their business could be improved by technology and that it “wouldn’t work” in their business. Many conference papers and workshops focused on systems to improve practice whether free graphics programs to produce quality patient education information, electronic patient files, scheduling, project management and electronic team communication tools. I wonder if these presentations have changed their minds?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme was seen as both an opportunity and a headache for many. Getting information, finding the right people to speak to, the lack of timeliness re communication and non-billable time spent dealing with issues were common frustrations.
I felt excited I had taken the move to progress Praktis Partners as there was overwhelming evidence that business owners need help to implement systems, they need emotional support and the back-up and a community of like-minded professionals.
