From First Visit to Last: Mastering Patient Retention & Outcomes with AI-Powered Workflows

When patients stay engaged in their full plan of care, they achieve better clinical outcomes—and that success fuels business growth. Yet, too often, patients drop off after just a few visits. Even with the best intentions to move better and reclaim function, life’s competing demands—financial concerns, busy schedules, and shifting priorities—get in the way, and their commitment to you and their plan of care moves further and further down their priority list

The full webinar is available below. Here's the "too long; didn't read" (TL;DR) summary:

TL;DR Summary

This webinar, featuring Jerry Durham and Pedro Teixeira, dives deep into patient retention in physical therapy and how AI can help optimize the plan of care, reduce drop-offs, and ultimately drive better patient outcomes and business growth.

Key Takeaways:

• The Problem: PT clinics often focus on visits rather than completed courses of care, leading to high drop-off rates (~60-70% industry-wide).
• The Root Cause: Patients drop out because of poorly set or managed expectations, whether they feel better or worse.
• The Solution: Shift from a "visit mindset" to a "course of care mindset" and focus on arrive, stay, and pay.
  • The patients plan of care, a map from where they are during the initial evaluation to how they'll achieve their recovery goals, is critical to "arrive, stay, and pay." Though we live in a digital world, printing this plan of care and handing the hard copy to the patient has been successful in helping communicate the value of the treatment plan and drives better patient retention and completed plans of care. 
• The Role of AI: AI tools like Sidekick free up clinicians to focus on patient education rather than documentation, making it easier to:
  • Build better patient relationships.
  • Set clear expectations during the plan of care discussion.
  • Generate a printed, patient-friendly plan of care that keeps patients engaged and accountable.
• Actionable AI Hack: Use AI-powered documentation to automatically generate a customized plan of care summary in seconds, ensuring patients understand their treatment journey. Then select the plan of care, right-click, and print. Done.

Final Thoughts:

• Clinics should focus on preventing cancellations rather than managing them.
• Cash-based practices naturally sell value, while in-network clinics must shift their mindset to emphasize patient commitment.
• AI can significantly improve retention by automating documentation, freeing up time for critical patient education.

This conversation was packed with insights, strategies, and actionable tips to increase patient retention, reduce churn, and boost revenue—all while improving patient outcomes.