As a practicing otolaryngologist for 19 years, Dr. Dan Deems is keenly aware of the balance challenges many of his patients have. None more so than Dolores M., who came into his OTO practice using a walker because she had recently broken her hip from a fall.
Dr. Deems discovered that although she was receiving physical therapy to rehab her hip, she wasn’t receiving therapy to fix the balance issue that made her fall in the first place. Tired of constantly seeing their patients in life-threatening danger from falling, Dr. Deems and his partner Viengsouk Phommachanh decided to do something about it and shared their experiences since opening their balance center:
We opened a balance center inside our Otolaryngology practice
“It just made sense to me and my partner, Viengsouk (Vien) Phommachanh. There is such a huge need for it among the elderly population who suffer from disequilibrium and balance challenges. And for us otos, otology including study of the vestibular system is a significant part of all of our training. So who better than Otolaryngologists to provide balance therapy? As surgeons, we like to “fix stuff,” and you can’t always “fix” a patient suffering from imbalance, they may come back 2, 4, 8 weeks later with the same complaint. Not only are they unhappy, but their primary care doctors are unhappy, too. If you can’t offer them a treatment plan, what can you offer them? But now, I can offer them a treatment plan; for patients with vertigo and those patients who need balance retraining,” explained Dr. Deems.
You can help so many more patients
“The death and injury rates from falls continue to increase – and it’s absolutely treatable! We know now that neuro-regeneration can occur in the nervous system, losing one’s balance and falling is not an inevitable result of aging. Instead of just diagnosing and sending my balance-challenged patients away for therapy, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, now I can offer treatment for them in my own facility and see their progress for myself – it’s very rewarding. For example, a patient of mine, who is 90 years old, hunched over and incessantly falling, within two weeks of balance therapy our PT has him doing the ragtime jazz dance sidestep. It’s amazing!” said Dr. Deems.
It’s a direct benefit to your practice
“It never occurred to Dan and me before we knew of FYZICAL’s turnkey balance program that we could even do balance therapy. But now we see the opportunity to grow our practice and help our patients without the burden being placed on our backs of learning how to run a new business.
FYZICAL’s business model, support staff, and balance experts make it easy. And the benefits are enormous: Medicare reimburses for balance testing and therapy; the increased foot traffic will likely lead to more hearing testing and hearing aid sales, and with this type of ancillary business, the majority of the work is being done by others in our employ, which means whether I’m there or not, or Dan is on vacation, our practice is still generating income. It’s a great opportunity for boosting our revenue,” said Dr. Phommachanh.
Substantial Growth… Immediately
Dr. Deems explains, “We’ve been open only 4 weeks and have already seen 62 new patients just for balance therapy. The phone is ringing off the hook. And we haven’t done any marketing yet! Within one hour of becoming part of an insurance registry, we had a referral for PT from a physician who doesn’t normally refer to us. Unbelievable. But most of the referrals come directly from our current client base. For instance, I had a follow-up patient today who was a candidate for balance therapy, and his wife, who was with him, wanted to sign up for it as well. I also had a young woman who came in for a thyroid issue, she didn’t need balance therapy, but her mother did, so she signed her up!”
“A concierge physician I know wanted us to host a balance seminar for her patients. We hosted the seminar in our practice two weeks ago and it was attended by 30 people— and every one of them wanted to get back in here and be scheduled for balance therapy! There was no cost of acquisition; we just gave a fun lecture from the heart about our passion for balance. There is such a huge need for this that there is certainly no shortage of patients,” according to Dr. Phommachanh.
How Much Space Does it Require?
“FYZICAL has a variety of different sized models to meet the individual needs of each practice. With as little as 500 square feet, you can start providing a valuable, in-demand service and build a very profitable ancillary business. Our balance center is 1,400 square feet.
FYZICAL’s team of balance experts has extensive expertise in the design, layout, and build-out of balance centers. They also help with which equipment to buy, how to hire a PT, balance education, training, support and the resources you’ll need for having the optimum balance center for your space to maximize patient care and revenue,” says Dr. Deems.
Non-Competitive Marketplace, Exciting Future
“Nobody else is really doing balance therapy in the area. If any of them are, they’re most likely doing the antiquated “foam and dome” balance therapy. That’s old school. FYZICAL is the future. FYZICAL uses state-of-art, proprietary technology and programs to effect real change in patients.
We’re thrilled to be able to provide this type of service to our patients and the older community in general. It is an absolutely untreated patient population; 27,000 people last year died from a fall. That’s more than gastric cancer and esophageal cancer combined! So providing balance therapy for fall prevention is like curing cancer, and it doesn’t take hundreds of thousands of dollars of chemotherapy. It’s people dancing. It’s people getting out and going back to the lifestyle they used to have.
For us, it’s rejuvenated the practice, and it’s rejuvenated me. Most of us as physicians, we started to despise medicine because of the EMRs, PQRS, and government regulations, and so we weren’t enjoying practicing. Now, I’m loving practicing, and Vien is just giddy with excitement,” Dr. Deems stated.
Dr. Phommachanh laughs, “That’s true! It’s just so exciting and rewarding to be doing this for our patients. Every otolaryngologist should be in the business of balance. It’s the perfect complement to your practice. You’re saving lives, helping people regain their lives and remain independent, all while also making passive income. It has literally been a Iife changer; for my patients and for me. I welcome any otolaryngologist to come and visit our practice and see our balance center. This is what changing healthcare for the better looks like… and we’re loving life!
Otolaryngologists are poised to play a major role in saving lives and addressing a growing epidemic that is mostly going untreated in America. With the aging of America, fall-related deaths and injuries from balance and dizziness issues are continuing to rise.
Recognizing the devastating consequences of this epidemic, a collaboration of healthcare professionals have invested over 15 years developing an evidenced based proprietary balance program. This turnkey program is called FYZICAL Balance & Dizziness Centers.