Laurie's Blogs.

Hi Laurie,

I have another question.  I am having difficulty convincing our surgeon to send me cases.  He fitted a down dachshund with no deep pain for a cart, but did not talk with him about seeing me for rehab. That is just one of many instances.  The cases he has sent me have gotten better, so I do not know why he won't send them to me.  I have asked him, and the answer comes down to money most of the time.  For post-op TPLO's he won't sent them to me because he wants them to save their money for the other leg when it goes.  To get him and the other doctors to send me more cases, I need to provide them with facts and studies showing the benefits of rehab.  Can you give me suggestions of papers that I could use to make my point?

Thank you,

LW

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Hey LW

So frustrating about your near-sighted surgeon...

1) Print off each of the FourLeg Newsletters and leave one on his desk every couple of weeks...  

More papers are coming out... but it's slow, and as per research, you can't get to the big juicy, high quality papers, until the groundwork is done with the little ones that are easily measured and have little confounding variables.  (Rehab / Physio is never just a 'do one thing and see if it makes all the difference'.  We always incorporate a multitude of things!  AND, when people are paying for services out of pocket, you can't very well put them in a 'placebo' group... and if you are a clinician, you can't afford to give away time and treatment for free to do such a study either!  ARGggghhh!)

2) Go above or around.  Make the clients ask for it, demand it.  Facebook page, Newsletter info, E-blasts, Lectures, Big poster display in the waiting room, etc.  Make the clients light the fire that forces him to refer... make THEM demand it.

3) It reminds me of a story I read about the beginning of physiotherapy in Canadian hospitals.  The 'indominable' Enid Graham would go on rounds with the doctor, and point out in each case what things she could suggest or provide for each patient.  She was relentless (or so the story goes...), to the point that the doctor would just let her do her thing... and slowly she proved herself (and the concept of physiotherapy).

4)  Pubmed is my best friend to finding abstracts.  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed  

Type in searches like "Dog physiotherapy rehabilitation hip"  (or something like that... try different words & combinations.  After a while it's like a game to see how you can 'outsmart' pubmed into showing you something that it hadn't shown you before!)

5)  "Fugget about im"... i.e. concentrate elsewhere!  Get referrals from you existing clients.  Make a poster for in your rehab room that talks about referrals.  Have a newsletter for your rehab clients & ask them to share it!  Collect e-mails of your rehab clients (check out my Marketing Manifesto e-book for other ideas).

I hope this helps… hang in there!

Cheers,

Laurie