A patient leaves an appointment told to get a support for her knee and some bands for her exercises. She stands in a pharmacy aisle looking at four braces at four prices, none of which mention her injury, and buys the most expensive one because it looks the most medical.
It is the wrong type. She wore it for six weeks and it made no difference to anything.
The checklist
Publish these and the aisle problem stops happening.
1. What the clinic supplies at the appointment
Tape, basic supports, bands or anything provided as part of a session. Patients assume either everything or nothing is included.
2. What the clinic sells
Items available to buy on site, with prices. Many patients would rather buy the right thing from you than guess elsewhere, and almost no clinic publishes a list.
3. What patients should buy themselves
Named items, with approximate costs and what to look for. Specificity is the entire value, and a general suggestion to get some bands helps nobody.
4. What is not worth buying
The expensive devices that do little, the supports that are wrong for most conditions and the gadgets patients ask about. An honest list builds more trust than any recommendation.
5. Why fit matters more than price
Sizing, measurement and what an incorrectly fitted support does. Explain that a fitted item at a moderate price beats a costly one bought by guesswork.
6. Whether fitting is available
Whether the clinic measures and fits, whether an appointment is needed and what it costs. This is a service patients want and rarely know exists.
7. What is a clinical decision
Whether a specific brace suits a specific injury is a clinician's judgement at an appointment, never something answered from a website or an automated reply.
8. How long equipment is needed
Patients assume a support is permanent and worry about dependence. Explaining that most are for a defined phase changes how they use it.
9. The insurance position
Whether equipment is claimable, whether a receipt or a letter is needed and what insurers typically require, which sits alongside physio insurance and self pay questions.
10. Home exercise setup
What a patient genuinely needs at home for a typical programme, usually far less than they expect, and what can be substituted from things they already own.
11. Hire rather than purchase
Crutches, larger devices and short term needs. Where hire exists, publishing terms and deposits saves patients considerable money.
11b. Where to buy the things you recommend
Patients want a named product and somewhere to get it today rather than a description they have to translate in a shop. Listing two or three sources, including one that delivers quickly, turns a recommendation into something acted on that evening instead of something forgotten by the weekend.
12. Class and group equipment
What is provided in a group setting and what to bring, which is the practical ground in class and group rehabilitation questions from patients.
13. Answer the admin questions in the same place
Costs, parking, what to wear and appointment length arrive together, as in clinic websites and the admin questions patients ask first.
Getting started
Publish what you supply, sell, recommend and advise against, then answer equipment questions at any hour rather than at reception, which is the arithmetic in an AI receptionist for physiotherapy clinics. Build the page quickly with the AI FAQ generator. SpideyChat for physiotherapy clinics answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.