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Introduction Letter to Healthcare Providers
Establish a relationship with healthcare providers to obtain referrals.
According to recent AMTA Massage Therapy Consumer Surveys, more than 70% of those who had a massage in the past five years did so for a medical/healthcare or fitness reason.
One way to reach these prospective clients is to establish a relationship with health care providers.
Make Your Introduction Stand Out
Before you email, call or visit a healthcare provider for the first time, make a realistic assessment of what you have to offer their patients. Two important areas to consider are:
- How can your training address their patients' particular health problems?
- What data can you cite that describes the efficacy of massage for certain health conditions?
Introduction Letter
The most efficient way to make initial contact with a health care provider is to send a letter describing your qualifications and state what you want to do, and then follow up with a phone call to make an appointment. Your letter should include the following information:
- Your qualifications as a massage therapist. This includes your professional credentials (for example, that you are licensed by the state, Board Certified and a professional member of AMTA), and a description of your training, with emphasis on your anatomy, physiology and medical terminology knowledge.
- Description of your specialty areas, such as headaches, sports injuries, infant massage or geriatric massage.
- Citation of a few key research studies that demonstrate the efficacy of massage for certain health conditions matching your specialty.
- The methods you use to measure the success of your work.
- Description of what you would like to accomplish. For example, "I am interested in supporting your patients' health care by providing massage therapy for [EXPLAIN WHAT HEALTHCARE ISSUES YOU CAN ADDRESS]."
- Description of how you will follow up. For example, "Please let me know how I may best work with you to receive referrals. I will call you in two weeks to discuss this potential integrative collaboration." Another example is, "Please contact me to discuss how I might provide massage therapy to any of your patients."
- Enclose a brochure that describes your practice and the efficacy of massage.
Download sample Introduction Letter
Follow Up
After you promise in the letter to follow up, make sure you to do so on the date you have stated. Once a physician or other healthcare provider has agreed to work with you, make sure you thank them for the professional relationship you have established.