In the current health care climate, physical therapists (PTs) are experiencing an identity crisis. With the advent of physician-owned physical-therapy practices, many PTs have struggled to keep their businesses profitable. In addition, yoga and Pilates practitioners, chiropractors, and sports medicine fitness trainers are all aggressively marketing themselves as the primary care providers for specific treatments or services. With patients now taking a more active role in their own health care decisions, PTs are suddenly lost in a plethora of health care providers.

In a study published in Physical Therapy, the Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), researchers found that staff PTs working in various clinical settings within medical centers experienced feelings of stress and discontent due to the changes in the health care environment that have taken place in the past 5 years.1 These changes included the reassigning of the roles and responsibilities of PTs within clinical settings, as well as downsizing or merging of departments. Two of their main complaints were loss of control in deciding what treatments to provide patients and disheartenment with their inability to spend quality time administering treatments due to patient overload.  

Some PTs have stayed abreast of the changes and have expanded their knowledge base by specializing in yoga or Pilates, providing community-based educational programs in their clinics, or offering adjunct fitness facilities within their practices. Now, more than ever, PTs need to be motivated to grow their businesses and stay competitive in the marketplace. PTs must also begin a campaign of branding themselves as the preferred physical-health and well-being practitioners.  

In her keynote address at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in San Diego on February 1– 4, 2006, Shirley Sahrmann, PT, PhD, FAPTA, urged clinicians to publicize that PTs are the go-to practitioners for movement and exercise. The key to push physical therapy to that level, according to Sahrmann, is passion. PTs must drive the change in their profession with their own passion to claim their status among today’s health care providers. Educators should demand that marketing classes become a standard requirement for young PTs so that they will gain the skills to effectively promote their specialty in their communities.

The APTA’s campaign, Vision 2020, is one initiative that PTs have launched to help establish themselves as (doctoring) practitioners of choice to whom consumers will have direct access for the diagnosis, intervention, and prevention of functional impairments related to movement, function, and health. However, is doctoring the profession the only way to be recognized as being in the top echelon of diagnostic clinicians? Without the PTs of today promoting themselves to consumers as the optimal practitioners for overall well-being and health, the doctors of physical therapy of the future may get lost among the different types of health care providers available to consumers. A new vision must be embedded into each practicing therapist: to become one strong, established force that is viewed by patients and health care professionals alike as the clinicians of choice for all musculoskeletal problems.

On a separate note, Physical Therapy Products will unveil its brand new Web site, www.PTProductsOnline.com, in early March. Be sure to visit us on the Internet to access articles, product information, and new features, such as Expert Insight, in which industry specialists answer your questions about specific technology.

Reference

1. Blau R, Bolus S, Carolan T, et al. The Experience of Providing Physical Therapy in a Changing Health Care Environment. Phys Ther. 2002;82:648-657.