Feel Better, Pay Less

Over the years, I have collected dozens and dozens of quotes from physicians who I have talked to about physical therapy services.  I often use them in my presentations and some are funny but most show a complete disregard for our profession.

Perhaps my favorite is from several years ago from an orthopedic surgeon who told me that his favorite type of physical therapist is one “that does not have any hands”. 

I was reminded of this when one of our blog subscribers sent me a link to WebPT. Perhaps this same orthopedic surgeon is funding this site.

For only $45 (ironically about what UHC pays in many markets), you can get a “personalized” evaluation and treatment plan.  No, I am not making this up and yes, this blog title is their tag line.

I wonder if the recert period is 30 or 90 days?

Thoughts?

Larry@physicaltherapist.com

Comments

[JW Matheson]

Larry,

Your post intrigued me, so I went to www.godaddy.com and checked out who the registrant of the WebPT site is. It gave me a name in Norfolk, NE. Norfolk is located about 120 miles north of Omaha and 75 miles west of Sioux City, IA. The city has a nice Wiki site which describes it as as a micropolitan area of 23,500 people. The registrant is listed as a PT and is in the APTA member directory. His office address is next door to the website registration address. The actual web server is in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

I found this information quite depressing. I am tempted to put in all the signs and symptoms of a spinal tumor, pay my 45 dollars and see what happens. It is just that I have been saving up for my Wii. I wonder if I can TIVO my PT eval and watch it later. The good news is that he won’t be able to prescribe Ultrasound. I also think the webPT PT and the www.homeprograms.net guy need to get together. It would be a match made in heaven.

All the sarcasm aside, I think that this idea, albeit inventive, is a very bad idea. Our profession needs professionals that create strong relationships with human beings face to face. We are more than personal trainers with our training websites and we each need to act like the professionals we want to be. Enough said.

JW

[Bob Schroedter]

JW, thanks for the Whois info. Nice x-ref with APTA.

I was spurred to action when I read Larry's post, and sent Mr. Spier an incensed comment through his website. Wonder if I'll get a response. This really is pathetic. It's not bad enough we are scrambling for "room at the table" with other professionals, but to have one of our own put forth this garbage?! Very sad.

B

[VPC]

My favorite part:"Go to a licensed massage therapist and tell them to work on your specific area of injury. The massage will increase blood flow to the injured area which provides oxygen to the damaged tissue to promote healing and to relax the muscles involved. It is important to expect soreness after the massage and to drink lots of water afterward to hydrate the body to decrease soreness and cramping."

So in addition to paying for your $45 exam, spend an extra 60 to see a Massage Therapist as opposed to seeing you local PT for a more skilled service

[Brian Boyle]

A few years ago, companies started trying to distribute software on ergonomics to large business clients in hopes that it would make money for them and "save" their clients money from not having to have an actual person come onsite.

Well much like lifting-belts in the 90's these companies are now realizing that a one-size fits all approach doesn't work and not only that people don't always use things the right way even when provided with some education. Also the reason why we hear our clients often times say the doctor gave me some exercises to try, but I didn't get better.

People like having people in front of them to answer questions and to show compassion (placebo effect just from having someone to listen to their needs). My guess is that this site will either not get much activity or the market will demand it change the way it does things. Unfortunately it doesn't take much money to keep a website up and I am sure the thought is if we don't do it someone else will.

To take something away from this and for the good of all they may be better served using this website WebPT as a referral source to local clinics. Perhaps local clinics could pay a small "finders fee" to the website in return for the website sending clients their direction based on the needs of the client and the skill set of the PT clinic. We had a chiropractor group doing that here in Charlotte, NC. This group was made up of over 25 independent chiro offices and would host community events at local museums. (Look at that no waiting around for the ACA to come hold their hands and do their marketing.)

Why is it that we let the bad apples do our marketing and the rest of the apples sit around hoping someone will pick them? Anyone that owns a company can easily put on their own website the benefits of having contact with an actual physical therapist. Drive business to your own website by updating the content and by increasing its appeal in search engines. If enough people did this, when the public did do a google search for physical therapy they would have to really be bored to see these "bad" websites because they would be on page 170 instead of 1 or 2.

[Bob Schroedter]

Great thoughts Brian. I particularly like your story about the chiros in Charlotte. Hmmm. May need to borrow that idea.

And your colorful metaphor of bad apples doing the marketing is on point.

I do web design and development on the side and would find it interesting to work with some of you to put together an intitiative like this in your community. Who knows? It might just work!

B

[Peter Szymanski]

Any thought on whether this is legal? Could it be legal to purport to give PT "evaluation" and "treatment" (for money) in states where you're not licensed (or even present)?

[Peter Szymanski]

Any thought on whether this is legal? Could it be legal to purport to give PT "evaluation" and "treatment" (for money) in states where you're not licensed (or even present)?

[DanB]

Am I missing something? Is WebPT more than just a docmentation tool? I have been looking at it as a possible documentation tool to go paperless in my clinic. I searched for some blogs to find some feed back and came upon this site. Any insights? Thanks Dan

[Matt W]

This is an old comments string. The comments refer to WebPT.net, not WebPT.com. They are not affiliated and the .net site used to give out treatment advice while the .com site is an online documentation tool for PTs.