How do you define a relationship? Is it by mutual respect? How about trust? When you get a group of people together driven by mutual respect and vision for personal and professional growth that relationship takes on a different term—community. Is there mutual respect, trust and common values in a community? Absolutely. Why? Because it’s necessary for the success of the community. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending WebPT’s Ascend business summit in Chicago (awesome city if you’ve never been).
Let’s get a few things out of the way first. WebPT is a sponsor of our podcast, Therapy Insiders, but this is not a long winded promotional post. WebPT does not even know this is being written. Speaking of podcasts, there will be a podcast for the event as well in which I asked several attendees “how do you build a relationship?” I think you will like their answers. Now, back to Ascend. Let me give you a quick background on the summit. WebPT hosts this business summit with the intention of introducing business oriented rehab professionals to speakers and instructors on the forefront of various business topics. Of course, they also had their software out and employees are easily accessible to assist with WebPT EMR questions. Majority of people in attendance were already WebPT customers. There were a few sponsors with tables set up to show off their products such as Redcord suspension system, Sols 3D printed insoles and STAND Haiti project to name a few. It’s a healthcare business conference on the rocks with a dash of networking, shaken not stirred.
I had an agenda going into the conference. I needed to get audio for the aforementioned podcast, which was successful. Actually, that was part of the agenda. If you’ve listened to the Therapy Insiders podcast, you know we discuss business…a lot. One of the groups that is not very good at business is the healthcare crowd. Majority of clinic owners are clinicians that opened their own business and focused on tried and true business principles such as bookkeeping, payroll, and very basic marketing. Clinicians running a business are just that. I wanted to see if a group of business oriented clinicians that attend a business summit would be any different. Will these owners develop new marketing strategies such as social media integration, seek new revenue streams such as selling products in their clinic, or focus on collecting data (which is the big buzzword)? What I found out was a mixed bag of yes, no, and hopefully so.
Awareness is a step before acceptance, which is a step in the right direction. Majority of business owners seemed aware that they need to progress their business thinking and integrate new strategies to remain relevant and profitable. Now, they need continued support and guidance to make the right decisions and prevent reversion to a comfort zone of business lunches, dropping off business cards, and reliance on word of mouth. WebPT is on the right track hosting a business event for their customers; it’s a valuable event for everyone involved. My recommendation: let’s start to take the training wheels off and build higher level business thinking into rehab healthcare. Remember, a community protects its members allowing for calculated risk to be taken for necessary growth. Are you ready?
Co-founder, UpDoc Media
“Content you NEED to know, delivered with clinical precision”
s: www.updocmedia.com e:gene@devbox.updocmedia.com
