Extremely corporate. Your only value as a clinician is how many patients you can see each day, and how many people don't cancel their appointments with you. If someone is sick or was in a car accident, that still negatively affects you in your annual review. You're almost encouraged to NOT get patients better in order to keep your numbers up, because it is seen as a problem if patients don't come to you for a lot of visits. Also since your only value is numbers, and overworking to get them, there is little opportunity for professional development. They argue they will pay for you to become a certified specialist, but only if you sign away years of your life to work for them after you achieved certification (probably without pay increase).
The business model caters so much to the referral sources that it damages the professional reputation of physical therapists- patients see therapists as personal trainers, and sometimes even call them that. It does not at all support the idea of doctors of physical therapy as autonomous practitioners.
In fact, the CEO renounced support for the APTA, and requested all his clinicians cancel their APTA memberships!
They do not compensate for overtime hours worked, and clinicians with often be asked to work through lunch and see patients before or after established clinic hours if the demand is there. This extra time worked is not compensated. Working Saturdays, you're EXTREMELY under-compensated for working 6 days that week.
For the amount you have to do (multi-tasking patient care, endless paper work, answering phones, making calls, marketing), and the amount you bring in for the company, they do not pay nearly enough, since they also like to stay understaffed.
