10 ways Physiotherapy can contribute to a Hospital’s success
Physiotherapy department in most hospitals is the proverbial diamond in the rough. This is how you shine it.

Physiotherapy is very often considered a passive, service department usually unloved by the hospital management. However, with some efforts and when aligned well to hospital’s objectives, physiotherapy department can play a significant role in the hospital’s success. ReLiva has partnered with close to a dozen healthcare providers so far and has been able to shine up the department with some success.
for those who don’t know, ReLiva is a physiotherapy specialist, which does only physiotherapy and does it well :-). Know more about us at our website — www.reliva.in
Our own experience of running and managing physiotherapy department across various hospitals has led to a deeper appreciation of how the physiotherapy department can help achieve various objectives of a hospital CEO. Here I list down the 10 ways Physiotherapy can contribute to a hospital’s success. Lets go through these one by one:
- Improving clinical outcomes for the patients: I would quote Dr. Farhad Kapadia, Intensivist at Hinduja Hospial “Just like exercise is the closest magical bullet in preventing disease, physiotherapy may be our best tool in getting the patient rapidly functional after a critical illness, and it needs to become an integral aspect of Intensive Care”. While the role of physiotherapy for orthopedic and neuro patients is well appreciated, this study conducted in 2012 concluded that the presence of a physiotherapist in the intensive care unit contributes decisively to the early recovery of the patient, reducing mechanical ventilation support need, number of hospitalization days, incidence of respiratory infection and risk of mortality. So it’s important that hospitals provide its patients with better and more frequent access to a physiotherapist for better clinical outcomes.
- Ensuring patient satisfaction: Guess who spends maximum face time with a knee replacement patient (or any other patient for that matter) while in IPD? No points for guessing, its the physiotherapist. Also for many cases, engagement with patient can start prior to surgery and can continue well after discharge through post surgery rehab in OPD or through home care. Given the unique opportunity of spending face time with patients, physiotherapists play an important role in ensuring patient engagement & satisfaction. This study conducted in Australia in 2012 concluded that patient satisfaction with musculoskeletal physiotherapy care in Australia was high and comparable with international data. ReLiva’s own ratings on google for our various clinics average at a high 4.5/5.0 indicating very high satisfaction levels.
- Revenue & profit partner for the hospital: THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT — ReLiva believes that an efficiently run, well integrated and well utilised physiotherapy department can contribute around 2% of a hospital’s revenue and upto 4% of hospital’s EBITDA. As a 4% contributor to EBITDA, physiotherapy department plays a critical role in achieving the financial goals and objectives. ReLiva aims to make the physiotherapy department a partner in achieving these, thus assisting hospital CEOs and administrators in achieving their goals. ReLiva’s typical partnership with hospitals is on revenue share basis, thus ensuring that the objectives and incentives of physiotherapy department are well aligned with that of the hospital.
- Enhancing patient engagement with the hospital: Once the patient has been discharged from IPD, the patient’s relationship with the hospital typically ends there (apart from far & few follow-up OPD visits). Physiotherapy can help in extending this relationship by enabling pre and post admission engagement with the patient.The patient can continue to interact with the hospital services (in case of home care) and/or repeatedly visit the hospital premises for rehab with physiotherapy. This extended interaction allows the hospital more opportunity to showcase and gain bigger part of the patient’s mind space when it comes to health and recovery. If the patient has had a positive experience, then the hospital may become their “go-to place” for all healthcare needs. The word of mouth may likely kick in too, bringing in more patients and of course, revenue.
- Specialized services to cater to different patient groups: Physiotherapy has wide applications — apart from orthopedic and neurological cases, physiotherapists can run prenatal & postnatal programs for pregnant and new mothers, cardiac rehab programs and vestibular rehabilitation for vertigo, balance and falls cases. Sports Injuries, Pediatric physiotherapy for developmental disorders, physiotherapy for onco rehab, Pulmonary rehab and the list goes on… Physiotherapy department has the unique ability to devise programs to assist patients of most other departments and help in improving outcomes and increase engagement (see point 1 and 2 above). However, not all physiotherapy departments may have the requisite skill set and depth/breadth of experience to develop and implement such programs. Unless you are a 500+ bedded hospital with a well developed physiotherapy department, a specialist organisation like ReLiva would be uniquely positioned to build and deliver such programs for a hospital.
- A great marketing tool for hospitals: With increasing awareness about health and fitness, physiotherapy can be used as a great marketing tool by the hospitals — whether it is a RWA/ housing society camp or a corporate event. Physiotherapy events and workshops are huge hits with corporate employees. There is a very high incidence of musculoskeletal pains and aches in corporate world today with back pain being the number 1 health issue corporate employees suffer from (after common cold). ReLiva’s workshops on ergonomics, posture etc. have been highly appreciated at various corporate setups.
- Building a consistent & thriving OPD at hospital: A busy OPD builds a foundation for a hospital’s reputation and profitability. A hospital which is dependent on referrals and consultants for IPD case load can quickly lose its occupancy when a competitor provides better incentives to referring partners. Physiotherapy, given its wide application (see point 4 above) and requirement of multiple visits can help in adding and retaining the OPD patients. This can be achieved through independent marketing and management of physiotherapy department which requires inquiry management, scheduling and follow ups with the patient and monitoring of the physiotherapy team.
- Improving occupancy for the hospital: Regular physiotherapy helps patient recover faster and get discharged earlier. Here, we are talking about inpatient rehab programs (IPD Rehab) where patients (typically stroke patients, TBI cases and post surgical) are admitted for aggressive physiotherapy for faster recoveries. Such a program can help a hospital in utilizing its existing unused infrastructure and add a different service. In USA, most inpatient rehabilitation facilities are located within hospitals and are run in partnership with rehabilitation specialist like Select Medical.
- Home care can provide an additional service for the patients of hospital: Physiotherapy home care not only helps in increasing the time frame for patient engagement (see point 2), it improves the clinical outcomes for the patient thus making treatment delivered at the hospital more effective (see point 1), it also is a paid service which can add to hospital’s revenue. Most insurance policies provide coverage (on reimbursement basis) for treatments pre and post hospitalization. Most hospitals neglect this revenue source as they are unable to provide home care. With a physiotherapy partner with a wide network (like that of ReLiva Physiotherapy) this can be easily accomplished at the same time ensure superior clinical outcomes for patients.
- Physiotherapy for digital marketing: Everybody wants to reach out to millennial and digital savvy customers. While everybody knows that more and more people are searching online for their medical conditions, do you know in India, more people search online for physiotherapy than orthopedic? Promoting physiotherapy digitally can help hospitals reach out to a younger, affluent and more educated audience.
I shall be elaborating on these points in subsequent posts. The message we want to communicate to hospital administrators and CEOs is that with a little love from them, their physiotherapy department can do wonders for them — it can easily (ok, not that easy) be a department with highest ROI.
Should you want to understand this more, please email us. We at ReLiva would be happy to have a detailed conversation with you in complete confidence.
