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November 30, 2007

Referring Clients To Other Practioners

I am closing my practice in a month and moving to another city to attend school. Over the years I have been developing relationships with area massage therapists so that I can refer them to my peers. One person asked if they could buy my client list, and after some reading and consideration, I found that it would be unethical to do so.

First, my practice started before current HIPAA laws were put in place so many of my client have not signed confidentiality contracts with me. This would prevent me from legally selling their names to another practitioner.

Second, I have promised for many months now, that I would be sending people to particular therapists based upon that client's needs and the therapists skills. Wouldn't selling my client list to one therapist imply an endorsement of that therapist? What if didn't agree with their practice habits or believe that they would be the best therapist for a client? I'm not saying that's the case with this particular individual, but it's an important implication.

What is so difficult for me about this transition is that our massage community has recently experienced the loss of two highly experienced therapists that I had planned to send many of my clients to. One has retired after many years of esteemed service and a huge investment into Barnes Myofascial training. The other has been transferred out of state with her husband's job. Their constellation of tools included skills unique to this therapist including Polarity Therapy and Muscle Energy Therapy. Other techniques that overlapped with mine include visceral manipulation and craniosacral therapy. They also had plans to take lessons in Maya Abdominal massage. The loss of these therapists to our community leaves a huge hole in the techniques available to the population here.

One of my clients, who has had several surgeries for endometriosis, needs to be referred to a therapist with training in visceral manipulation. After using the Upledger therapist search, I found only one person who had any training in a nearby city of 125,000. Unfortunately, their training does not include the crucial pelvic class that this client needs. And, in fact, only one therapist in the entire state has taken the full offering of training classes in this modality and works 5 to 6 hours away at the other end of the state. I will be calling the local therapist to find out if they plan to continue with their visceral manipulation training.

tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health

Posted by linda at November 30, 2007 7:40 AM