How A Mobile Physical Therapy Practice in Dallas Treats Its Clients.

Andy (00:00:00) – Andy, tell me, what if someone calls what is the process, the optimal process when bringing someone on board? Yes. So the person who calls in, they’re going to speak to the client liaison or myself, and we’re going to get to know that client, you know, get to know that lead. They’ve come in, you know, from Google, Tick tock friend referral. Maybe they saw one of the doctors and the doctors referred them here. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to still take that time to get to know who they are, why they’re calling us, what their goals are. You know, yes, they may have a mobility issue, but a mobility issue is the diagnosis. Wanting to resolve that mobility issue is why they’re calling. Why do you want to walk again? It’s not just because everyone walks to get around. You have a reason. You know, you’re tired of being sit in the recliner and looking at the same four walls. You want to be able to move around your house with freedom and without having to rely on another person.

Andy (00:00:56) – And so that’s what we get to do on that first call. And that first call can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. And the beauty is, is Optima encourages that. It’s not five minutes and on to the next call. So what’s great is we do get that opportunity. I want to hear your life story. If you want to sit here and tell me everything that has happened to you in the last 30 years, I’m going to listen. What’s really great about that is it shows how much we care about that individual and not just the fact that they have a diagnosis. What happens after that is if they feel comfortable moving on to the next step. It’s called a discovery visit. It’s a free in-home consultation with one of our therapist. We can do these over the phone as well, Zoom, FaceTime as well. But a lot of times our clients really appreciate having the opportunity to have the therapist come to their home. It’s a place where they feel most comfortable. So the therapist will come in and a lot of times this is done in the living room, you know, kitchen table.

Andy (00:01:50) – It just really depends on where the person is most comfortable. The therapist is going to get the opportunity to hear a lot of what I’ve already heard from the client that I’ve shared with them. They get the opportunity to ask follow up questions, of course, and it gives the client the opportunity to ask the therapist questions. This is a one hour session with a trained professional. How many places give you an hour for free with a trained professional where you can ask questions that are tailored to you and your situation as opposed to just generic? To me, that’s a really special opportunity. I always tell people it’s kind of like a two way interview. Are we the right fit for you? Are you the right fit for us? And so if that’s the case and we’re both the right fit, you know, we go ahead and talk to the client about scheduling a initial evaluation. That initial evaluation is so different in in optimal standards than what it is if you’re in a traditional four wall clinic where I’ve been in the past, typically initial evaluations in a four wall clinic, 30 to 45 minutes, give or take a move, we’re going to take our time and we don’t want you to feel rushed and we want to make sure that we’re getting all of that valuable information and giving you the time that you need.

Andy (00:03:06) – So we’re scheduling two hours with you for that, which is really important. We’re going to do a clinical assessment and we’re going to take measurements. It gives us a jumping point. A starting point gives us that frame of reference, shows you where you were when you started. And as we get, you know, ten sessions in ten months in, you know, whatever your course is, we can kind of look back and say, look at where we were when we started and look at how far you’ve come after they’ve done that initial evaluation and they’ve done the clinical assessment, they may begin treatment depending upon what’s what’s appropriate. They may also get something like a home exercise program, things that you can do at home in between sessions. And then they’re going to talk about your plan of care. They’re going to talk about, you know, based on the goals that you’ve shared with us and based on where we’ve seen you today, This is where we’re suggesting, you know, your frequency and your duration.

Andy (00:03:59) – How many times a week are we going to see you? You know, how many weeks is it reasonable to hit this first goal and just kind of talk about that? And and, of course, you know, we work in teams, so if you’re seeing our team two times a week, you’re going to work with two therapist. You’re going to see those same therapist every single week, with the exception, of course, vacation, sick days, something like that. But it’s not going to be a revolving door of new faces every single time. You’re going to get to build that rapport, build that relationship with those people. It’s going to be the same people over and over again for continuity. But the team, because we like that collaboration, collaboration between the teammates. Again, every therapist has a different background. Even if they went to the same school, their clinicals were different, their area of focus was different and that’s important. What’s also really great about the team is that one person can work on one particular issue and the other person can focus on another issue if we’re working with a patient more than.

Andy (00:04:59) – Then, you know, two times a week we’re working maybe 4 or 5 times a week. We have some patients on our calendar for that. They may work with three therapists. And the beauty of that is, is you’re not limited in your schedule and our schedule. We’re much more open at that point. But you also have a team of professionals. I always like to use the analogy of if you were in a car accident and you were taken to the emergency room, do you want one surgeon or do you want a team of ten working on you? To me, I want the team of ten working cohesively as a well ironed machine, a well-oiled machine. After they’ve done the initial evaluation, they’ve talked about that plan of care. That’s where we go ahead and schedule at Optimum. I really love the opportunity to give you a set schedule so that it’s the same schedule week by week if that works for your schedule. I think a lot of our clients really like that because then they know Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00, I’m going to have these therapists coming to see me.

Andy (00:05:55) – They don’t schedule anything else during that time and they know that they can schedule everything else around it. Otherwise, you know, I think when they’re scheduling week by week or appointment by appointment, it gets confusing and then they don’t know who’s coming, who’s going, you know, who’s on first. So I think that that’s something that our clients really like. So that’s something we really try to do at Optimum, which is really different than a lot of places that that we’ve worked at in the past. Beyond that, we’re checking in with them regularly. Obviously, the therapist team is seeing them in their homes. I’m calling them periodically. I’m sending them a text message, Hey, it’s 100 degrees this weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate. Drink your water. It’s really important. Or, hey, you know, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday or, hey, hopefully you have fun at the Super Bowl party you’re going to this weekend. You know, whatever the case is, we get to learn those things.

Andy (00:06:43) – You know, we talk about a soccer tournament that they went to over the weekend. And so really, it’s not just about the stuff that we do when we’re physically in front of them in their home. It’s about reminding them that we’re there and we’re thinking about them even when we’re not.