Addendum: Staring a Rehab Practice Q & A # 1:
Hey Laurie,
I have been monitoring your videos and I am very impressed. I haven’t signed up quite yet due to cost of getting my own place up and running but I have a few questions and was hoping to get some feedback.
I am trying to figure out pricing – now, I know we are not supposed to compare but you are in Canada and I am in SC so I don’t think we will dominate the field with the pricing. My questions are pretty generic so I was hoping to get your ideas.
I am thinking about doing packages instead by the hour because I don’t want people to pick and choose which treatment they would want.
So I am wondering about how long an “average” post-surgery patient stays with you – is a just a daily thing for a few weeks, do they stay in the facility, or do they just come SIW/BIW for a few weeks?
What would be the “average” total cost of their rehabilitation at release point? I understand it depends on the surgery type but just a guesstimate.
Do you have prices for:
¥
- educational consultations
¥ general consultations
How about medical patients – again, how often do they come, do they stay, etc.?
What would their “average” cost?
Do you have different levels of conditioning for athletes?
Do you have “packages” for OA and obese pets?
I have a ton of questions and I respect the knowledge you have of the whole process so I am picking your brain – trying not to lead you to distraction. I would appreciate any insight you could give me because eventually the contractors will get everything done and I will have to walk through those doors.
Thanks,
D
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My Reply:
Hi D.
At my clinic, we bill by time - vs 'buffet cart' style - paying per modality. For two reasons; 1) as a PT, that's how we deliver services to humans & 2) I only once had a client try to 'tell me' what she would pay for, despite me saying that I thought a different direction / selection of therapies would be more beneficial. And it was such a terrible situation to have the client being the one to pick and choose & dictate therapy - it was maddening!!
So, I am very upfront about prices. I charge $215 for the initial assessment/treatment - which we book 1hr 15 mins for. It is a whole body assessment - and more thorough than any other assessment they would have received before, includes some treatment, a written home program, and communication with their vet (referral acquisition and assessment report sent back). We do offer Fitness/Performance Assessments for sporting dogs who are NOT lame, injured, post-operative, but rather having performance issues or the owners just want their dog assessed in order to avoid potential problems in the future. For those, we charge $120 and book off an hour of time - no vet communication occurs with these.
Follow-up 'physio' visits (with the therapist) are $78/30 minutes, $93/45min, $103/1hour...
We bill for the UWT separately and have it divided into Rehab UWT (dog is concurrently under the care of a therapist / on a rehab treatment program &/or needs a modality treatment in addition to 'water')... These start at $35 for 10 minutes and go up a $1/minute. For Fitness/Conditioning cases (no rehab concurrently, no modalities utilized) it is $10 cheaper.
We have also created just some modality session prices that our assistants can conduct - so the animal is not seen by a therapist that does a re-eval or any manual therapies - the dog just comes in and gets modalities as prescribed by the therapist and administered by the assistant. I honestly, can't remember the price... but it's cheaper than a 1/2 hour PT session.
As for a package system. I've not gone there and whenever we have got to thinking about it, we've backed away. Here are MY reasons for not going with a package system - Every dog / rehab event is different, and cannot account for set backs, complications etc. - We didn't want to have to deal with 'refunding' of unused portions. - Others in the rehab community have mentioned that they have had cases where clients stop therapy at the end of their 'package' (i.e. set # of treatments) b/c they didn't want to buy another package and didn't want to pay full price for a handful of additional sessions. We have developed an approach that seems to resonate with our clients. I tell them upfront that we can do as much or as little as the would like or can feasibly fit into their lives, schedules, finances. Generally, we find that a really good client can come twice a week (more than that is RARE). So I tell folks that twice a week would be ideal, but that there is lots we can do with once a week, and if that's not feasible, then I can create an extensive home program for them and monitor progress every second week. I have found that giving the owners control in this nature, builds trust, rapport, and dedicated clients that tend to see their dog through to completion of therapy. We now even have referring vets promote our services in such a way by telling their clients to discuss with us what they can manage financially and that we will work with them. It's great because some vets are referring any and all cases b/c they know that we will do our best to work with them regardless of their finances.
So... to your real question.
Rehab tends to last for 8 - 16 weeks (some dogs get better faster than others). so if you are wanting a generic time frame - I'd shoot for the middle - 12 weeks. 99% of our patients are brought in by their owner. We don't do any overnight boarding...but we have had a handful of patients that are dropped off in the morning. I have found that the majority of our clients want to be there with and for their dog. However, a colleague of mine in Florida finds that her clients want to drop their dogs off. (I'm not sure if that is a geographical ideology thing - or what - but I don't think I could actually sell a drop off service to my customers!!!)
I am smiling because your questions are very 'vet'. By that I mean that a PT would answer that no two cases are the same, and that each case needs an individually created therapy program. For example with an OA case - you can go two ways: 1) Get the animal exercising in the UWT and go with building muscle and exercising in a buoyant environment, or 2) modalities & one-on-on hands on approach using modalities, manual therapies, acupuncture etc. Or 3) start with modalities for pain relief and progress to exercise. Therapists tend to approach different cases differently. So, until you see the patient for the first time, you might not know what you will choose, or how the animal will respond. There is a rule of 3 that many PTs use - if within 3 treatments the patient is not improving to the degree that you would like or expect, then you need to 1) change your approach or 2) revisit your diagnosis. (Thus another reason why I dislike packages - they tend to remove 'individuality' from the program design).
We are actually working on an Obesity program at the moment... but I have to put in more work into it to flesh it out completely and deal with the 'what if's' / 'individual differences' that might arise!
Educational consultations are just paying for my time... no different than if I use modalities or manual therapy. I think of it as the client buys my time: Me, my brain, my hands, my knowledge and what I choose to do with them.
As a big picture strategy. We have come to recognize that because rehab takes time... the price cannot be exorbitant (as with surgery) for each session... if you want them to come and see results. Therefore, the ticket to success and survival is volume. Plenty of satisfied, regular, returning clients... coming not only through their active rehab but afterwards for tune ups and check ups on a semi-regular basis. ('Build your herd' mentality.)
Hopefully this gets you thinking & I'm open to more questions... which I'm sure this line of discussion with produce!
Cheers,
Laurie