Physical therapy is a field composed of compassionate professionals. Clinicians, more than most other fields, are largely driven by patient success. Physical therapists spend the most time per patient than any other clinician, standing, and often kneeling, side-by-side with their patient as they strive to help patients return to the activities, dreams, and goals they once had. These are professionals dedicated to the success of their patients.
Unfortunately, as healthcare shifts to a landscape of overwhelming patient quotas and administrative burdens, a discrepancy has arisen.
Physical therapists are often overburdened with patient and productivity quotas, and paperwork.
Khanh Pham, Head of Therapist Network Development at Luna, aims to better understand how to make physical therapy flourish. After talking with hundreds of physical therapists, she shares common themes heard. “Therapists lament that the practice of providing care is snarled by business bureaucracy, healthcare insurance rules that seems to continually compound while the demands to hit productivity metrics create added stress and distract from facilitating care. Some therapists bemoan that it is not uncommon for them to see 12 or more patients daily with little time even to take bio breaks. While it’s unfair to the therapist, from the patient perspective, it’s not uncommon to wait 6-10 weeks to even get an appointment. The challenges are many for both sides of the equation.”
Pham has spoken with many therapists who shared their experience. They worry about the impact this might have on their delivery of care. Many therapists make sacrifices in other areas of their life so that their patients are not short-changed in their rehabilitation and recovery. However, long hours and extra work erode time from therapists’ families. There’s a shift away from work-life balance as therapists become overloaded and overwhelmed by administrative work. At Luna, we seek to help therapists navigate and find the balance they yearn.
Luna delivers physical therapy to patients, right in their home. Luna’s mission is to redesign the patient and therapist experience with a platform that enables convenient and exceptional care. Patients maintain their motivation because the hurdles of healthcare are lowered. Therapists are motivated through increased control, independence and flexibility.
“We sought to solve the challenges in physical therapy and tackle the problems from both the patient and therapist perspectives in order to ensure we addressed the very human issues faced by both,” Pham said. “Our vision was to create a service that empowers physical therapists, allowing them to make the care of their patients their primary goal. In addition, we aimed for patients to be unencumbered by healthcare hurdles that hinder access to convenient care. Everyone achieves their goals.”
At Luna, we aspire to delight our therapists and our patients; we call it being FIERCE. FIERCE is an acronym that is reflective of our journey to redesign physical therapy:
Being fierce means re-imagining what high-impact care can be... for patients and therapists.
