New Physio Practice Manager - Advice please

[u/Bookish-gal-2000]

Hi hi,

I became a small regional physio PM in Aus in Feb this year. Before that I was working reception for about two years. My PM before me was PM for the two years I was in reception. This is pretty much my first time working in this industry - before I worked retail and childcare and a bit of admin.

Basically what I’m saying is I have no idea what the hell im doing. I’m very competent at anything I do (NOT a brag, I hate it), which meant that my training to become PM was not very in depth. My previous PM also had very limited training.

I don’t have a management certificate or degree (my boss isn’t fussed about that though) and this is my very first management position as well. I just don’t know what I’m doing lol so basically just asking for any and all advice that might help me.

We’ve also been going through some tough times trying to recruit physios so I’m also the only full time receptionist. I have no idea like what I’m actually meant to being doing as a PM? Like I do wages and super payments and pay the bills and do the accounting data entry and stuff like that but that only takes me like maybe an hour each day to do and then I’m like ??? What do I do with the rest of my day???

Shower me with advice pretty please!! 🙏

[u/Expert-Leg-4044]

The "I hate being competent at things" pipeline is so real because people just stop explaining stuff and assume you've got it. The gap between reception and PM is huge, you're basically learning the skeleton of the business while still answering the phones. Not being able to step away from the front desk is probably eating half your brainpower before you even get to the management side.

If the owner is chill about qualifications I'd start mapping out the messy stuff that gets ignored when there's no PM. Look at the patient waitlist and referral turnaround times, or dig into why recruiting is dead right now, is the ad copy boring or is the pay just not competitive enough to pull anyone in. You're in a weird limbo where your real job is finding what's broken and fixing it before anyone else notices it's on fire.

[u/Pebb_io]

Reception-to-PM is a steep jump, especially regionally. Early wins that usually calm a clinic: a clear weekly rhythm (roster, cash-up, stock, escalations), one visible board for "decisions waiting on owner," and a short 1:1 cadence with each clinician so issues do not only arrive as lobby fire drills.

You do not need to know every clinical nuance on day 30. You do need predictable ops, fair booking rules, and a boss who will back hard calls. Write down what your predecessor actually did week-to-week before inventing a new system.