The 3 Things We Learned at PPS This Year That Paid for the Trip
Paul recaps the Private Practice Section conference in Aurora, Colorado: hiring and retaining professional staff, new technology in the clinic, and where acquirer multiples may be headed.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good morning. Welcome to another episode of the Martin Rehab M&A advisory and Paul Martin's guide to finishing well. This morning, what I want to do is a recap of the most recent private practice section conference that was held in Aurora, Colorado. First, I just want to say to the private practice section, what a phenomenal job they did. The exhibit hall show was a great opportunity to go and see all of the different things that are happening in this industry. And some of the presentations and sessions were extremely informative.
And again, they just put on a great show. It was the most well- attended show in the history of the private practice conferences. You know, some of the takeaways that we had from the show, I think there were three biggies. The first and I think one of the most talked about and discussed topics was the difficulty in hiring professional staff and when you're able to provide hire that professional staff the cost costs are going up for that staff and that's making it harder and harder to generate a profit on your business.
You know, as we talked to business owner after business owner, I think almost 100% of the companies that we talked to that have very wellestablished student programs as well as participate in their local universities physical therapy schools. Those companies seem to have much less issues as it pertain to getting available professional staff. So, if you don't have a student program, that's something you can do immediately. Hopefully, there's a school nearby. And even if there is not a school, you know, very close to you may have students that at the closest or nearest school to you may live in your area and may be looking for opportunities to have their internships at your company.
So, I urge you if you're having trouble finding staff, that's a great place to start. Secondly is I talked to a few companies who have really defined that career ladder so that when a professional comes into your company they can see very clearly where their opportunity for growth is and I think that's really important especially for young folks in our industry today really want to have a clear vision for where they're going and you need to have a clear vision on where you're going in order to give them that vision as well.
So I think those are the most two important aspects of hiring professional staff in this current market which is one having a student program. Two is be a being able to truly define what that career ladder looks like and what those opportunities are. I think one of the second most talked about topics was technology. Younger physical therapists coming into these businesses are looking for opportunities where technology is at the highest level. You see some of the newer very slick EMR companies that are seem to be are seem really are taking off and a lot of companies are taking opportunities with some of the newer tech some of the newer EMR companies that seem to have maybe a slightly higher level of technology.
Some of the more legacy companies now that they have merged etc. They are also working on creating new and more developed technology for our staff to utilize. We also talked to a couple companies that are actually utilizing a virtual front desk. So, you walk into a screen, a touchscreen to pay your copay, to set your next appointment, to do a lot of the things that typically would be a person at the front desk. I'm not advocating that. I'm just telling you that you we are seeing that and it is being talked about by a lot of companies especially at this private practice section meeting.
So take a quick look at your technology. Talk to some of your younger staff who may have attended the conference. See what they saw and see how you can maybe elevate the level of technology in order to make things more efficient for your staff. You don't want to do anything just, you know, as I always say, it may be cool, but is it really truly helping you treat patients and treat patients more efficiently? And that's the question that needs to be answered. The third discussed topic at the private practice section meeting were multiples.
What are happening to the multiples that acquirers are paying for companies that are in this market today? And I think you know we talked to a number of CEOs prior to getting to the conference. We also talked to many CEOs of the large the large strategic companies that are backed by private equity. And what they're fairly consistently saying in what our M&A group is saying within Martin Healthcare Advisors is that we've probably reached our peak. We're gonna still fight and still work to get the best price and structure available on the market today, but based on our conversations, we've probably hit our peak and we could start seeing some decline over the next coming months.
How far that would will decline, it's hard to say. Most CEOs are saying that the decline will probably be fairly minimal and maybe come back to a little bit of reality. The the multiples over the last 6 to 12 months have been off the charts. So again, if you have an interest currently in potentially looking for a larger partner, click below. Let's talk about what opportunities are out there today and how we see that there may be some changes coming in the near future. You know, some of that is market by market.
Some of that is company by company. So, I don't think we can speak to the entire industry. We really have to get into the specifics of what stage of private equity are these companies in, when's the last time they have, you know, put together a line of credit to support the capital that they've raised. A lot of that has a big impact on again the multiples and the structures that these companies are able to provide in this current industry. Well, if you didn't attend the practice the private practice section conference, please consider doing it next year.
The conference is going to be in Austin, Texas, which should just be a phenomenal place to have a private practice section conference. So again, if you want to have a conversation with me, click below. Let's talk. And it was great talking to you today. Thank you.
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