Florian Savaris, Manager of the Mon Kiné network in Luxembourg, explains:

“Without this software, I would never have launched home physiotherapy services”.

A physiotherapy or physical therapy appointment lasts at least 20 minutes. If you spend 30 minutes on the road between each patient and struggle to park, it’s hard to be efficient and profitable.

Yet these home visits are essential for many patients who are unable to travel because of their condition.

So what can you do? Florian Savaris has found the solution.

He is a physiotherapist and osteopath and runs the PES company in Bascharage, Luxembourg. In addition to his practice activities, he has opened a home physiotherapy service in June 2023. But for him, there was no question of launching these activities without finding an effective solution for organising the journeys. So when he launched this new service, he opted for AntsRoute’s route optimisation software and online appointment booking service.

Il nous explique tout au détour d’une interview :

Florian Savaris,

Why and how did you set up these home physiotherapy services?

“I opened the Luxembourg practice Pôle Équilibre et Santé in Bascharage in 2018. And I added home services in June 2023.

We currently have 9 practice-based physiotherapists, 2 osteopaths and 5 home-based physiotherapists.

Most of our business is still done in the practice, but home care is expanding. Our 5 mobile physiotherapists work exclusively in patients’ homes.

And we’re starting to help other practices, accompanying their patients home when necessary, before they can return to their original practice.

We launched these homecare services in response to a real demand that had not previously been met in our area of operation. And as our practice is not expandable, this care allows us to help more patients, without being limited by a lack of practice space.”

Home physiotherapy services are increasing.

Why is it so difficult to organise physiotherapy services at home?

“The time spent on the road is a waste of time and money for physiotherapists. And in Luxembourg, traffic is very complicated. If you add to that the difficulties of parking, it’s clearly not an attractive situation. Not to mention the delays in appointments, cancellations and patient requirements. It’s the same problem as for nursing.

Each trip involves complex logistics: from transport to follow-up and making appointments.

Ideally, physiotherapists should only do this, because it’s not the same management or the same care. That’s the choice we’ve made at the practice. But when that’s not possible, I recommend at least reserving half-days for appointments at home, with at least 5 slots of 25 minutes each. Otherwise it’s unworkable and unviable.”

What have you implemented to ensure effective home care?

“Even before I started this business, I was looking for software to optimise travel and provide a link between patients and the practice. It was out of the question for me to launch this business without this essential tool.

I studied the market for route optimisation software and decided on AntsRoute.

This was the obvious choice, not only because of the ease of use but also because of the quality of the customer service. It wasn’t necessarily the cheapest. But I was convinced by its proximity and its meticulous after-sales service. It allows us to plan our journeys efficiently and monitor our work in real time.

It also has an API, making it easy to synchronise with our own software. For example, AntsRoute’s software links up with our physiopro.lu application: a tool we have developed to monitor invoicing, manage patient files and appointments, and send prescriptions to the Luxembourg’s health care insurance fund. It also adapts to the Doctena online medical appointment booking system, which is similar to Doctolib in France.

We have also signed up to AntsRoute’s online booking site. It can be customised, and makes it easy for our new patients to book a first appointment at home: https://mon-kine.lu/”.

The AntsRoute appointment booking site.

How do you organise your home physiotherapy routes?

“Our routes are planned automatically by the software. Patients tell us their availability, in 2 or 3 hours time slots. The software then selects the best routes to reduce distances and journey times, depending on traffic and time constraints. This is essential in high-traffic areas like Luxembourg. Patients are then informed of our visit the day before and just before our arrival via an automated text message delivered by the AntsRoute software. The application also tells us the start and end, and therefore the duration, of each operation. This allows us to make sure that the care we provide is compliant, and to readjust it if necessary.

The software takes into account our specific needs:
We have hired a physiotherapist to operate in the north of Luxembourg, where there are fewer patients. The other 4 share the southern area. The software distributes the routes to optimise the itineraries for each physiotherapist, taking into account their starting addresses. It is possible to change these addresses temporarily, if the therapist leaves from another location or if he has to stop for a visit to a doctor or any other obligation encountered on his route.

The software also allows us to indicate a preferred therapist, when requested by the patient, or to prevent the patient from choosing a particular therapist. This helps us to support patient choice, ensure better continuity of care and protect our therapists if necessary. We can add the specific skills of each therapist, to better match the needs of each patient. This feature could well become essential with the increase in home care.

We also have the option of adding comments from patients on any parking difficulties. This data, together with the estimated parking times (2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.), is taken into account by the software when calculating journey times. And it’s possible to adapt these indications, by increasing the time even further, for more accurate routes.”

The schedule of home physiotherapy services generated with AntsRoute.

Do your physiotherapists have their own cars and equipment for home visits?

“Our physiotherapists use their own specially adapted vehicles and transport the essential equipment for each operation: measuring devices (blood pressure meter, dynamometer, goniometer), small rehabilitation equipment (balls, elastic bands, weights), etc. And we also have a partner for renting heavier equipment such as electro muscle stimulators or cold therapy machines from the Game Ready range.

We also currently have two fully-equipped vehicles available for physiotherapists who have been working with us for longer.

And as our home service continues to grow, we’ll probably be upgrading our fleet of vehicles and equipment even further.”

Optimisation of home physiotherapy routes with AntsRoute.

What is your overall feedback on this homecare software and what are your next projects?

“We’re really happy with this application, we couldn’t do without it. It’s a real time and money saver. It simplifies our work so much.

Its API is very easy to use and allows us to synchronise easily with our in-house software. Our requests for improvements are listened to and taken into account, even if not everything is adaptable.

In the future, we are likely to recruit more independent physiotherapists.

They will act as intermediaries for other practices that do not offer home care because there is no suitable solution. It’s a win-win situation. Thanks to AntsRoute, this organisation is not only possible, it’s profitable.”

“Thank you very much Florian Savaris for this very enlightening account”.

veral physiotherapists’ practices, notably in Luxembourg. The use is therefore already well established. Customers operating in this field generally have more than 5 AntsRoute licences and equipped vehicles. But the tool is perfectly suited to the needs of practices consisting of just one physiotherapist. You can book a free demo to learn more.