In the healthcare industry, burnout is a widespread issue, and it’s only worsening in the physical therapy industry due to the rising demand for services. (And, the emphasis on efficiency and productivity.)
This isn’t some arbitrary observation, either!
Since 2010, there’s been a 186% increase in graduates for accredited physical therapy doctoral programs — and yet, the PT profession still can’t keep up with the demand. The American Physical Therapy Association estimates that 26,000 physical therapy jobs will remain unfilled in the year 2025. And with the graduating PT classes averaging approximately 10,000 students a year, it appears that deficit will only continue.
Additionally, since Covid-19, many physical therapists have reconsidered their job roles and have begun to question the high volume productivity requirements of standard, insurance-based physical therapy. With insurance reimbursements decreasing on a regular basis, the only weapon private practices have is to increase volume and productivity.
The result? More treatments, higher productivity quotas, and less personalization of care. That model of treatment isn’t what physical therapists signed up for.
Physical therapists, by nature, are empathetic, caring, driven, and motivated to be a positive influence in the lives of their clients through innovation and creative treatment approaches.
The problem is that those characteristics don’t line up with much of the profession today… and the profession is in major jeopardy of being erased with the corporate medicine takeovers who care more about shareholder distributions than client outcomes.
Well-meaning and hard-working therapists are caught in the ever-growing wave of demand vs. productivity, with no clear line of sight out.
To solve PT burnout, the industry must look to innovative solutions that give power back to physical therapists and away from insurance companies and corporate medicine.
There is an emerging physical therapy franchise brand that is aiming to do just that.
Competitive EDGE Physical Therapy Franchising is the first entirely cash-based physical therapy franchise.
Their corporate location, which was founded in 2015, has operated without insurance company involvement since its inception, and they want to help other aspiring entrepreneurial physical therapists to do the same.
Without reimbursement limitations from insurance companies, Competitive EDGE has been able to significantly reduce client volume while providing concierge and cutting edge biomechanics services. Their model has reduced physical therapy workloads by 50% while still growing top-line revenue.
Additionally, they’ve invested in state-of-the-art biomechanics technology — like instrumented pressure treadmills, 3D motion sensors, high speed cameras, force plates, and muscle EMG — to provide a truly differentiated treatment model that clients want.
By dramatically reducing physical therapist treatment volume and creating a cutting edge treatment model, Competitive EDGE stands to be a leading force in reducing physical therapist burnout.
With the rising demand for PTs (and not enough graduating therapists to meet it), the profession is in dire need of innovation and creative solutions to complex problems.
The cash-based, low-volume, concierge, high-tech solution that Competitive EDGE Franchising has created is geared to be a force of change in the industry.