KristinMcNealus, DPT, MBA

Here is a segment that aired on CBS in Los Angeles. Check it out! #marketing

Can your family members explain what you do for a living? My father underwent open heart surgery last week. I have a per diem job that I have worked for the past six years treating this patient population in the ICU/critical care units, and yet the following arguments actually happened: While trying to instruct my father on how to correctly progress the use of his incentive spirometer, he did not trust that I knew what I was talking about. He finally understood how to inhale

How can you promote the profession on social media? Here is a sample video I made after reading an article published that day. https://youtu.be/h3stnyf8WfQ You could do this with current events, ask your patients what these stories mean to them, and ask them what physical therapy has done for them. #socialmedia #marketing

Listening is a big part of customer service, but do not underestimate the value of sharing your knowledge. Educate your clients, no matter how simple it may seem to you. Explain what you have found, and why you are doing what you are doing during the treatment. People like to understand and be part of their care. They may not always get everything, but do your best. Tie in how lifestyle choices impact the impairment you are treating. Use the sessions to help your clients bett

No successful business model is built on getting rid of customers!

We're getting closer to October - which is Physical Therapy month! Although we should always be marketing our profession, this is a great time of year to step it up! I posted this hashtag idea last year, and hopefully we can keep it going! The general public still does not have a good understanding of how we can help them. I saw this interview this morning on MSNBC, which had me shaking my head... start at 2:00. http://www.msnbc.com/craig-melvin/watch/house-cmte-talks-va-vete

One way to promote the profession, as well as get more clients, is community outreach. Being a part of local races is always a great way to do this. Have a booth that helps provide gait assessment, or other screen. Participants and their families now know your local clinic is one to call when they need services. Another avenue to pursue is reaching out to local corporations. As a business, they are trying to contain their health care costs – offer to give an inservice to thei

Over the past couple of decades, the practice of medicine has expanded, and now there are specialists for nearly every diagnosis. This is true for physical therapy, and yet we have not been as successful with letting the public know. I do not hesitate to tell poor schmuck #1 that he should certainly seek physical therapy for his knee, and that it is not my area of expertise. I go on to explain that there are physical therapists who specialize in orthopedic issues, and there a

With a plea from the Surgeon General for physicians to make an effort to address the opioid epidemic, timing could not be better to promote our profession! In previous posts, the importance of educating both patients and other health care professionals about how the goal should not be to be pain-free, but to get better – and that is what we do! Using this to initiate the conversation, the door is open to educate the public about all the ways that physical therapy can be benef

Let’s take a look back to how we got here. The “pain as the 5th vital sign” started in 1996 due to people with chronic pain not receiving adequate care. I know this may sound shocking, but the campaign was written with the help of pharmaceutical companies (more than a dozen that produced pain relievers.) And the prescribing of opiates began to increase, as did the American intolerance for discomfort. Doctors were taught, as was I in PT school, that “opioids are not addictive

Now is the time to promote physical therapy as THE profession to help manage pain! The Surgeon General has asked every doctor to help fight the opioid epidemic. That means we need all physicians, as well as the general public to know that physical therapy addresses the cause of the pain, thereby leading to less need for pain medications. We need physicians to know that they should refer their patients in pain to us before giving a prescription for an addictive narcotic. It is

It is important for all of us to promote our profession! The general public does not know our level of expertise, or all of the goals that we can address! We need to get the word out that physical therapy is not just for back pain, and we certainly do more than massage! Help spread this social media campaign! Get your patients and your colleagues to post - here is a video to help you. #physicaltherapy #marketing #socialmedia