National Academics 'Relieving Pain in America' report considers chronic pain as a national challenge because it affects 100 million American adults.
Number of sick days taken due to chronic back pain has seen a dramatic increase from 7.7 million days in 2013 to 9.6 million days in 2014 resulting in a loss of £1 billion.
34 percent growth in the employment of physical therapists from 2014 to 2024 does not surprise because of the growing demand for physical therapy services.
Are we tackling the issue of chronic pain in an efficient manner?
The answer is no.
The report by National Institute of Drug and Abuse reveals that the number of opioid prescriptions for pain relief has gone up from 76 million in 1991 to 207 million in 2013.
From 1999 to 2014, more than 165,000 people have died in U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids.
Delayed discharges cost £900m a year to National Health Service (NHS) in England. As per a report by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, in 2015, an increase of 36 per cent was seen in discharge related investigations.
Apart from the economic costs, discharging delays become painful for patients and their family members. Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) recommends investments in earlier rehabilitation, such as physiotherapy, and social care for minimizing discharge related failures. It helps in bridging the gap between hospital and community services.
Every five years, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) collects data on complementary health in which interviewers visit between 35,000-40,000 households to ask adults about their health and illness-related experiences and also ask them about the health of their children.
In 2012, as in 2007 and 2002, Chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation came at the fourth spot for adults and second spot for kids (age 4-17) out of 12 complementary health approaches.
In 2012, 8.6% of adults and 3.3% of kids chose chiropractic as their complementary health approaches.
According to Australian sports injury 2011-12 report, netball injuries resulted in 1262 hospital admissions. Netball Australia's head physiotherapist, Alanna Antcliff, developed a KNEE program which reduced injuries by 40-70 percent.
Here are five strategies for chiropractors and physiotherapists for attracting more patients:
Educate Your Readers
What's the use of providing services when the information is not accessible to the patients?
So, what is the best way for educating your patients?
Start a blog for achieving these results:
•Strenghten your bond with the prospects.
•Authoritative building in the market.
Blog content Ideas for practitioners:
•Share the case studies of your clients. It acts as a guide for the patients to understand your services in a detailed manner.
•Ask specialists in your team to create a video series on a topic. For example, sports massage therapist can start a series on 'Sports Injuries'.
•Don't miss out any recent scientific study. Go through the research carefully and create a blog post by sharing the highlights of the study.
Gather Testimonials for Credibility
Testimonials encourage patients, who are seeking out specialists, to explore the possibilities of getting relief from pain.
•While asking for written testimonials, don't forget to ask for headshots. Text with images gives more wings to your services.
•Never use fake video testimonials because it is easy to differentiate between an actor and an actual patient.
"Testimonials are stories which come straight from the heart of the happy clients. Their stories put stress on the value from the services. It boosts up the confidence of those people who are in need of similar services. Without being pushy, it helps providers to convey others that people are getting great results from them," says Mark Saunders, Senior Chartered Physiotherapist, Physio 4 Life.
Use the Power of Social Media
Most of the practitioners set up their business page on various social networking sites. After building the pages, they are enthusiastic about sharing different pieces of information.
Unfortunately, they don't practice this strategy for an extended period. It takes some time to build a social credibility.
Apply these tips for engaging the audience.
•Create an image quotes by including the reviews of your patients.
•Instead of suggesting random solutions, ask people about their issues.
•Don't hesitate in sharing the link to other site articles. Just focus on providing top notch quality articles in providing hope for those in chronic pain.
•Keep your readers informed about your special offers.
Embed an Intro Video on Your Home Page
Digest this harsh fact:
Human attention has fallen from 12 seconds to 8 seconds due to smartphones.
What does it signal to the website owners?
They must adopt some strategy for grabbing the attention of first-time readers landing on their homepage.
Let us understand the success elements of intro video by going through Physio Cambridge's home page intro video.
In less than two minutes, they have explained their working by answering these four questions:
•What problems are their clients facing currently?
•Why their physiotherapy services are different from other providers?
•How are they going to work with their patients?
•How their services impact the lives of the patients?
Tap the Power of Email Marketing
If you think email is dead, you are completely wrong. Every $1 spent on email marketing, generates a $38 ROI (rate of investment).
To get the email address of your clients with permission, provide these free options:
•Free E-book Download: 'Workplace Exercises to Stay Away from Neck and Back Pain.'
•Whitepaper download: 'Shocking Report on Opioid Prescriptions.'
•Webinar: 'Why your 'Chronic Pain' will not be a pain anymore.'
•Networking Events: Meet your prospects and listen to their issues and provide free advice.
When someone subscribes to your mailing list, don't talk about your services in the first mail.
Build the relationship by asking this simple question:
Are you suffering from any pain?
If yes, we'd love to hear from you and solve your problems. If not, we'll tell you how to protect yourself from any future pain.