Today on PT Breakfast Club, Dave Kittle and Tony Maritato dig into hiring, reliability, clinic culture, outpatient ortho, AI, and what happens when one person changes the entire chemistry of a practice.

Tony starts with a question every clinic owner eventually faces: what do you do with a talented clinician who patients love, but who cannot reliably show up? Dave breaks down his interview process, including phone screens, Zoom calls, in-person skills assessments, reference checks, and the tiny behavioral signals that reveal whether someone is actually serious.

The conversation gets practical fast: what does it mean when a candidate takes an interview call while driving? Should employers spell out every expectation, or should they leave room to see what the candidate does naturally?

Tony and Dave also talk about values, ambition, long-term fit, new grads versus experienced hires, and why a person can either elevate the organization or quietly poison the culture.

Then the episode shifts into a bigger question: are we over-prescribing outpatient physical therapy after joint replacement? Dave shares a LinkedIn post from an orthopedic surgeon who says he prescribes less formal PT than he did 10 years ago, and Tony pushes into the uncomfortable future of outpatient ortho, bundled payments, AI, home exercise programs, cash pay, private practice, and premium versus scalable healthcare models.

This episode features Dave Kittle and Tony Maritato.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:18 Tony and Dave go live
00:27 The value of reliable people
02:05 Talent versus availability
03:05 The ace pitcher who ghosted the team
05:08 Interviewing for reliability
06:02 Building a business around someone’s limitations
06:48 Dave’s interview process
08:00 The lunch test
09:00 Candidates are never better than the interview
09:51 The missed phone screen
11:13 Interviewing while driving
13:35 Should employers spell out expectations?
15:37 Filtering for seriousness
17:20 Hiring for culture versus hiring for output
18:20 AI gets better, people get comfortable
20:38 Finding people who improve with responsibility
22:55 Reference checks that actually reveal something
27:34 Do you train clinicians or hire finished products?
31:14 Hiring clinicians who reject high-volume care
32:20 Tony’s old “new grad residency” model
34:19 When candidates stop wanting to learn
35:43 What made Jeremy the right long-term fit
39:24 Interviewing for values
41:47 Ambition and lifestyle fit
43:06 Surgeon says he prescribes less PT
45:14 Bundled payments and joint replacement care
47:31 Home exercise, AI, and outpatient ortho
49:16 Should insurance pay for most outpatient ortho?
50:59 Premium PT versus scalable PT
52:24 Private equity and premium service models
56:20 Parting shots
56:57 Equinox, Planet Fitness, and wallet share

Follow:
Tony Maritato: Total Therapy Solution
Dave Kittle: Concierge Pain Relief / The Dave Kittle Show
Jimmy McKay: PT Pintcast

This livestream is for conversation and entertainment only, not medical, legal, hiring, billing, investment, or business advice.

#PhysicalTherapy #PTBusiness #HealthcareHiring