Change the course of your practice from hit-and-miss or ups-and-downs by fine-tuning your method of practice management

The perfect practice has a waiting list. This illustrates perfectly the controlled nature of patient and practice management. Imagine, new patients calling for an appointment and having to wait for an opening. This would describe your practice with active patients opting to follow their initial therapeutic schedule with elective supportive care using adjunct services such as rehabilitation, nutrition, and maintenance care.

A practice in complete control of every aspect of patient management has confidence that their skills are desired and irreplaceable by others, as they assist every patient with the utmost care and compassion. When the practice can handle additional patients, more are added. Quantity never replaces quality. The potential loss of some new patients, in order to assist those you presently have, actually makes an opening to see more patients. If you turn some away, others will replace them. Patients committed to challenging their present point of view about health will follow your guidance and care schedule toward increased potential and less physical restrictions and focus more on health and wellness rather than sickness and disease.

Full and Void
The first step is to create awareness and a void. Consider your file cabinet: if it is full of old files, there is little room for new ones. Purging the cabinets of older files creates a void to be filled with new files. Analyze your patient flow; are there certain times that are usually busy and times that allow you to nap? It may be necessary to balance your practice with creative scheduling or train your staff to set the practice pace.

Focusing your marketing efforts toward specific time periods will help attract a morning or afternoon patient flow. For example, mornings can be an attractive time for retired individuals or stay-at-home moms or dads. Lunchtime may be perfect for nearby office and retail complexes, and the usual after-work crowd will fill the time remaining in the evening. Offering special programs, such as lunch and learn or nutrition and exercise classes as well as posture and stress screenings, will help with community awareness. Community centers, church organizations, corporate offices, municipal complexes, local libraries, and assisted living facilities are always looking for speakers or educational programs.

Maintaining focus and setting goals will complete the new-patient cycle in a professional and controlled manner. You choose to share your expertise and fill your practice with patients whose concerns coincide with your interests. Time management is crucial for a productive day without losing your quality edge.

Control Issues
When was the last time you had a staff meeting? During your staff meetings, are you managing staff disappointments or tweaking your practice toward perfection? Are you using statistics or managing by guesswork? Can you provide, within a reasonable time, the number of patients seen within a specific timeframe and comparisons for day to day and week by week? If you have active internal or community marketing programs, can you provide specific statistics showing whether the time, money, and effort were cost-effective?

You should know all this if you want to control your practice, rather than allow it to control you. Let me make this very clear; chiropractic is a business and, like any business, savvy goes a long way. In fact, the doctor voted most likely to succeed in school probably did not, and the one with the best grades may now be floundering through his professional life. The doctors who paid attention to detail concerning business, and marketing, and maintained their excellence in technical and diagnostic areas succeeded. They have the ultimate respect for their profession, with its art, science, and philosophy, and therefore leave no stone unturned to reach their professional goals.

The first question doctors ask when attending a practice management seminar is, How do I get new patients? What magic potion or scheme is the idea du jour? The veteran DC knows that an idea is as effective as the emphasis they place on it. Rather than ask about how to get new patients, the questions should be, Will I follow through on what it takes to acquire new patents and follow the guidelines of the instructor? Will I allocate the time, funds, staff, and material to educate the community? And most importantly, Will I follow proper practice procedures to keep them? Will new patients be handled correctly from their initial phone call to release from active care and their elective choice to support your care to date? Only when these questions can be answered in the affirmative will you be truly in control of your practice.

Go With the Flow
Predicting where your next new patient will be coming from may be difficult, but your goal is to create a practice like a faucet, controlling the flow of new patients by opening and closing your efforts as needed. It may take changing office procedures to adapt to the flow of new and existing patients with programs ready to handle an increase or decrease in patient volume.

Programs such as patient reactivation, patient educational workshops, patient and community appreciation days, and corporate ergonomic classes will boost patient flow as well as provide a venue for you to meet more people. Your staff must also be more attuned to the variances of patient needs. Staff bonuses, if used correctly, is a form of profit sharing ,allowing each responsible member to be a critical component toward practice success. This is crucial for practice control.

Many among us have the gift of correcting subluxations as their central and only theme. Others may pride themselves on their skills at diagnosis and intertwining chiropractic, adjunctive therapy, nutrition, and rehabilitation. Regardless of your philosophical and technical training, your power of commitment and reaching for the ultimate in patient results provides you the confidence to feel free to add more patients. Our strength is derived from knowledge, and our power comes from results. It is far easier to ask for a referral when you feel assured that the person coming from the referral will benefit greatly from your care. Therefore, technical skill and the ability to provide a quality service are paramount to success. A practice built on skill and commitment is foremost and at the forefront of practice control—there is no short cut.

Servicing patients in a timely and effective manner with room for new and established patients must be your ultimate professional commitment. Running patients in and out just to increase the numbers is unfair to patients, irresponsible, reduces positive outcomes, and relegates the profession of chiropractic to that of a mere technician.

Although time providing an adjustment is short, preparation and careful thought must be taken into account. Patients have every right to expect your utmost attention; and your treatment plan outlined for them must aim toward success. New patients must not feel overwhelmed with paperwork, and the staff must show them utmost respect. Your attention should always be primed to their concerns.

Patient homework should be assigned, such as stretch exercises, nutritional changes, altered lifestyle habits, ergonomic considerations, reduction of physical and emotional stress, sports awareness, and whatever you feel necessary for their ultimate success.

Inculcating an expectation of success on them also creates a bond necessary for compliance. People tend to try harder when offered the opportunity to be active partners with their health care. This is even more so with chiropractic. We are hands-on, a physical component of the health care team, and any extra attention away from the office is seen as an extended office visit. It will also place a share of responsibility for their results with them. Your recommendations, followed by a careful plan, including your treatment and rehabilitative protocols, only enhances your control of your practice.

A skilled and well-trained staff following productive and service-oriented guidelines will assist with practice growth and sustenance. Responsible marketing efforts will continue the flow of new patients, and office-oriented programs will provide the education and care necessary to obtain patient compliance. Attend many technical and practice management seminars offering advice and ideas that you feel comfortable implementing. Always increase your technical knowledge, as there is no excuse for offering poor service. To be in control of your practice, you must first be in control of your skills, staff, and procedures. CP

Joel E. Margolies, DC, has been in practice for 25 years in Atlanta and is the author of four books: Smart Start, Workshop Workbook, Chiropractic Marketing and Public Relations, and Personal Injury Workbook. He sends a free weekly chiropractic email newsletter concerning practice management, public relations, and philosophy to more than 10,000 DCs in 31 countries. Margolies can be reached via email: joel3639@aol.com,  or website: www.chirosmart.net.