For the past 15 years, Measurable Solutions’ team has helped all types of businesses expand by offering outstanding consulting services, numerous training programs, and a variety of management courses. We’re focused on teaching applicable techniques owners and managers can implement to achieve tangible results. One of our most popular products is the New Patient Course, a program designed to help medical practices bring in new patients (and therefore, new profits). 

In many ways, the New Patient Course is the cornerstone of Measurable Solutions—our President and Co-Founder, Shaun Kirk, created it based on his experiences while building his own physical therapy practice. Mr. Kirk took the everyday business lessons he learned through his own struggles and refined these principles for success. He then shared his new wealth of knowledge with others so they, too, could achieve outstanding results. In the next two blog posts, we tell the true story of the New Patient Course so that you can better understand the origins of our unique company. 

22 years ago, Mr. Kirk opened his private physical therapy practice with high hopes. He’d previously run a successful hospital clinic and partnered with a fellow PT whose relationships with orthopedists in the area could easily drive an abundance of referrals. For the first year, everything went smoothly. With a steady flow of referrals, the practice grew so quickly that Mr. Kirk and his partner could hardly keep up with the demand. However, everything wasn’t so rosy by the second year. Since they had disparate visions for the practice and disagreed about how to proceed, Mr. Kirk and his partner made the mutual decision to split and closed their joint practice. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Kirk definitely got the short end of the stick in this deal. In attempting to build his own practice (and fill his 4,000 square foot clinic with patients), he got rebuffed by his former referrals. On one particularly scarring day, he went for a meeting with a partner orthopedist, who bluntly told him: “I want you to know that I’ll never send you a patient for as long as you live.” Most of these doctors believed the negative things Mr. Kirk’s ex-partner had said about him and remained loyal to her. He lost a whopping 68 percent of his referrals, more than cutting his patient prospects in half. 

Mr. Kirk managed to find five doctors who preferred him to his ex-partner and sent over referrals. However, even this setup quickly turned sour when he questioned his primary referring doctor’s unethical business practices and instantly lost 80 percent of his remaining leads. This left Mr. Kirk barely breaking even—he couldn’t afford to pay himself or his mother-in-law, who helped run the practice, and his one paid worker was a lackluster receptionist. 

Desperate for help and just about ready to give up on his practice, Mr. Kirk got a call about a seminar on practice management and decided to attend. His business was in such a poor condition that even getting someone to meet with him after the program was a challenge. When he finally nabbed a consultant, she asked a tough question: “Why aren’t you successful?” He gave her his list of reasons: there were 26 competing practices in a three-mile radius (14 on the very same street), insurance providers wouldn’t partner with him, and his former partner seemed to be turning physicians against him. Things just weren’t going his way. 

The consultant didn’t pull any punches with her response: “Your success or failure in your life or business is your own doing, and the sooner you really understand that, you’ll be able to take your practice precisely where you want it to go.” This completely changed Mr. Kirk’s perspective on his business and put him on the path toward measurable solutions. 

Like the consultant who transformed Mr. Kirk’s outlook so many years ago, our team is here to empower you with the skills and confidence you need to grow your practice. Contact Measurable Solutions today to learn more about our services or enroll in The New Patient Course. Don’t forget to check back next week for Part 2 of our story!