Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
Hello and welcome to this week of growth without risk. My name is Dr. Janice Hughes, and I’m excited to be one of your hosts for this week’s show. Um, my role is to support ChiroSecure and particularly to bring cargo secure, some ideas input, and you as the listener, some concepts related to practice management, you know, or an essence growth of your practice this week, coming up to the end of the year, already thinking about our goals and looking into 2021, I really want to support you to have potentially this incredible year. Now I say potentially, because what happens is if we keep doing the same things we’ve been doing, we’re obviously going to get the exact same things, the exact same results that we have now for many of you, if those results are excellent. Terrific. The issue though is if you don’t continue to grow, if you don’t keep expanding, what tends to happen is even doing the same things.
We often, suddenly aren’t getting as much impact, but for many of you, I really want to focus this week’s episode on the fact of how do you lead a patient? How do you guide a patient? We might call that management of a client. So client management, and how do, how do get them through what we know is the full potential of their chiropractic care, because I know what happens after coaching thousands of chiropractors for years, I know that unfortunately, in North America, as an example, that we still tend to have a very low PVA. Some years we statistically see that is that a typical PDA or patient visit average is eight visits. So what that is telling us is that a lot of you, you start working with a patient. In many cases, you do really, really excellent work. And yet you’re not really sharing with them or guiding them through all the opportunity that chiropractic can provide them.
Now, what are the ways then that we do? So I want to share with you today, what I consider our three different pieces or categories of this patient management, or I would prefer to call it even patient leadership. So, number one, I like to call that your education number two is multiple scheduling and number three is consistent and regular re-evaluations. So let me go through those and break those down. So number one, talking about this concept of education, a lot of that, and there’s lots of different, phenomenal practice management groups and coaches and educators out there. And what I want you to know is that all of the different systems work, actually, it’s really finding what works most authentically for you. And because I prefer to say, what are some things we can work on right now? The one thing I want you to understand with this educational piece is share why, why chiropractic?
What is your objectives over a certain care plan? Where are they now? Where are you trying to move them to? So that’s a key piece instead of this going week to week to week, or let’s schedule you for a couple of weeks and see what happens. You know, you’re not languaging it like that, but in essence, I want you to see that that’s what happens if we don’t really educate someone, you know, if we don’t say, look at, you know, working with us, here’s our objective. And here’s the timeframe, the period that we’re going to work on that for some of you, it’s as simple as starting with things like the language that a typical case like yours is going to take anywhere from two to four dozen visits. Having people understand that it’s not a quick fix. Now, I’m not saying that you have to suddenly run a practice where you schedule all of those appointments.
But what I want you to know is if you don’t share from a leadership perspective, really where you’re going to try to take them through their care. You’re not even going to get them really being congruent or consistent with six, eight, 10, 12 visits. So it’s really imperative that you start to share what you’re doing and why you’re working together. Almost like, you know, in a business world, we call that kind of your, your objectives. And then your review of have you hit your objectives in practice. That’s kind of the same thing. You know, why are you working with them? What are you looking for? And then how will you measure that? Now it comes time that you’ve shared this idea, this plan, and then we now want to take them out front. So part of, for you as the doctor, your report of findings includes and frequency of care so that they understand the necessity of the repetition.
So I asked you, you know, why can’t you just get adjusted once or twice and have that all change. Now, I’m not gonna say it has to be set in a certain way, but you really want to make sure that you’re having that patient understand that sometimes we talk and talk and talk in a report of findings around a whole bunch of issues. But the reality is, is that to make change from where they’re at and you clinically have gone through that, here’s where they’re at to get to a different place. What’s that going to take? So the consistency and the repetition of the visits is imperative to make that change. So I want you to make sure that you’re really defining and helping your support team, your amazing chiropractic assistants, that someone walks out of the report of findings up to the front, or you’re taking them up to the front and that they even understand why they’re here for a series of visits.
So let’s talk about now we take them up front or you’re trying to schedule them, or you’re asking your team to multiple scheduled them. Let’s face it. If you are in a full active clinic, a lot of times the front is saying, well, wait a minute. I can get there next couple of weeks, nailed out, but that’s sort of it well that if we’re not careful has us go week to week to week, or we’re now showing a patient that we’re not even really taking serious, the recommendations that we’ve just made to them. So I would prefer that we all learn some strategies around the second point, which is how to multiple schedule people. So the same thing, I’m not suggesting that you need to schedule out a year of care or even those two to four dozen visits. What I’m going to suggest though, is that you think about that first piece of their care plan and make it more than four or five visits, because what honestly are you going to completely change in such a short period of time?
So let’s take this idea of even moving from eight visits to 12 to 15 visits, because we do, we need the consistency and the repetition of care. Now, many people are going to be out of say pain or challenges that brought them into your office, even before that. So communicate that we’re going to get you out of some of the intensity of this acute phase, and we’re going to move you then into what we call reconstructive. We’re actually going to get to the root of what’s really going on and what has created this acute exacerbation. So now we want to be able to multiple those people out. So I know even some of you, well, how’s my team going to do that, or how am I asking them to do that? Well, there’s things like, again, recognizing that, you know, is this the better time of day for you?
What we’re going to do? I noticed the doctor has recommended that we do three visits a week over the next six weeks, including a re-examine let’s nail down the time of day. And then we’ll get your appointments in for the rest of this week or your next appointment. And then I will have for you, or even email to you the entire list of your visits. So I’m not suggesting that you also need to do that with them right in front of you to schedule out that eight, 10, 12 visits. But I like that they’re in your calendar. Number one, it’s just, it’s more complete. It’s also showing the patient that you’re working with them through that whole first phase. So there’s ways that we can help for you to be able to communicate this in the report, use your education and the report of findings to show people why help your team understand the second point that I’m talking about, which is multiple scheduling those appointments.
This is also so much more powerful for you because then you’re automatically including when you will do the re-evaluation. Now, when I see a re-evaluation again, every one of you runs a different kind of practice. It might be that if you use some technology scans or different, you know, test results from pieces of technology that potentially you’re scheduling them the visit before you would sit and just spend a couple of moments anchoring back to the progress, you could have those tests redone. Particularly if you have someone on your team that does that work for you, then you’ve got that all pulled together on that reeval. And re-evaluations again, they do not have to be a long period of time. You’ll notice in the sessions that I tend to do, or some of the things that I talk about, it’s just a lot more clarity of your communication.
So from my perspective, every one of our re-evaluations is talking about here’s where you started. Here’s where you are now. And here’s the next state. Even if you’re a little hesitant to say, talk about, you know, care for their lifetime, it’s still moving them into what is the next stage of the care and the possibilities for them with their health. This is more imperative now than it has ever been coming out of all the crazy pandemic phase. People are looking for health options. They’re looking for who can help guide me to make incredible health changes. I hope many of you are experiencing the boom that a lot of people are looking for. Great health advice. That’s puts you into a coaching role, you as a chiropractor, not just the physical adjusting, but guide them and lead them through these stages. So that’s where a reeval is so critical.
It’s not about an amount of time or that you have to spend an incredible amount of time. It’s that I want you to think about what is your key objective it’s to anchor the changes that have been made, where they are now and what your recommendations are. Even heaven forbid, someone isn’t going to follow those recommendations. You’re still clear on showing them what are next stages for them. Why is that important? That there’s next stages. So then point number three, I’ve kind of encapsulated into all of this, which are though consistent. Re-evaluations, you know, so remember the three things I’m talking about and I’m kind of weaving them all in together are incredibly strong. Education is imperative for really good case management. It’s a given from my perspective that each of you listening is an incredible practitioner. You deliver an amazing adjustment. I know you make great changes for people.
A missing piece in many cases is the strength of this education sharing. Why chiropractic plays such a key role at multiple phases of their healthcare plan. So we’ve talked about the education and then literally multiple scheduling people through a first phase of care up to, and including that first re-evaluation it’s interesting years ago, I used to talk with practitioners a lot about how you even move from say that first phase of care into multiple phases. You know, people that are with you for a lifetime care practically is that you then even have to be able to, you know, build in or plot out on paper. What would I do at multiple re-evaluations? So let me ask you this question. What would you still do or educate me on if I was going to be with you for 60 visits this year, just take a little time and think through, you know, instead of overwhelming people in the very beginning with almost too much, because I know how much expertise you have, but could it be that, that first phase that I’ve just talked about is really moving them from acute care into reconstructive care.
Then during this reconstructive, which is a big opportunity of care, can you start to talk about the other things that you love that you’d love to expose them to is that stress factors is that impacting their nutrition. Some of you have products or other services that you could include and then engage in those care plans. So what are the things that you would do through say six or seven or eight days as of care, so that you could almost have a better plan, a better structure to the kinds of care that you’re delivering and it’s those kinds of things then on a re-examine that you can also talk about the next piece or over the series of the next few phases of care. Here’s the pieces that we’re opening up still a big challenge for us chiropractically is what we’re often doing is still talking that pain, get them out of pain, dysfunction, and we’re not finding the language to communicate or educate about all these other opportunities that are available.
You know, it’s interesting because for another project I’ve been working on a book project with some great chiropractors, we’ve really been talking about the sort of whole industry, the longevity industry, and already, currently there are 1 billion people on the planet that are in retirement. And it’s interesting to start to study, you know, what are those people looking for? They are honestly looking for health and wellbeing. They’re looking for the kinds of things that you as a chiropractor offer and provide think about over the next 10 and 20 and 30 years, how many more people are coming into this retirement. You know, people are looking for longevity, not just, how do I get myself out of pain. I’d really love that we help you. Chiropractically position yourself more for that. Now in the short term in 2021, I’d love you thinking about this case management or leading the patient, guiding them through this initial phase and then into the subs, subsequent phases of a care plan.
So again, number one was great. Education. Number two is even working in getting your team support to multiple schedule people so that you’re not having to every week at the end of the week, talk them into next week’s care or after a couple of weeks set up the expectation that now they’re out of pain. We don’t have any other visits scheduled and we don’t have any further plans for them. And then the third piece was the regular consistency of these re-evaluations. I share a lot of this because let me give you an example that myself, even in practice, I was a really strong educator and communicator, but I made a lot of mistakes where I even forgot with some of my incredibly long standing patients to build in some re-evaluations people who’ve been with me for a number of years. You know, I use scan technology, the insight millennium people who had great clear scans, and now we’re still under what you would call really, you know, that wellness phase of care.
And what I started to find is all of a sudden you lose those people. And it’s like, well, where, how did that happen? If they’ve already been under care for several years, what am I not doing? How am I losing them? So I did a little survey. I called up a couple of my previously phenomenal patients and, and really asked that question, you know, how could I have served you more effectively? Why were we all of a sudden not having you in the clinic? And what I found is that a lot of them were languaging it in different ways, but sharing with me that I’d stopped sharing the vision with them. I hadn’t done a rescan. I hadn’t done re-evaluations after someone was under care for a couple of years, what was I doing? I guess in my mind, I thought that going back to some of the basic baseline tests was actually pulling them maybe more back to symptom care.
But what they were telling me is that I was losing them because I was no longer sharing the vision. So I want you for 2021, you know, growth is already available to you even within your existing patient base. How do we maximize that by multiple scheduling people and reevaluating your people? You know, the new year is a great way to talk about what are their health goals? How could we help you have that conversation about new goals for 2021, even asking a patient to on their next visit, you know, talk about their goals, have them go away, think about it, write down two or three goals and bring those back. Another thing, right, even in your visit is saying things like looking at this whole upcoming year, would you prefer to do the next simple kind of change that we’re going to talk about in the area of your physical health, your mental health, you know, nutrition, what area can I help you the most with?
It’ll be interesting for you to see what patients say because you and I both know you have a lot that you can be sharing with people. So growth without risk is that you already have people in your practice. You don’t have to go out and always think about the next new patients. Let’s help you educate within case management is actually case leadership. So I want you to think about that. And I want to just take this opportunity at the end of our session today to say thank you again to ChiroSecure for the opportunity of being one of the hosts Dr. Hoffman and his team support myself, other leaders in the profession, but more importantly, they support you. They provide phenomenal services and resources like these shows. So please don’t hesitate to reach out my wish for all of you is an incredibly happy, healthy, you know, holiday season with your family. No matter what way that you celebrate, please celebrate in great health and let’s look forward to an amazing and incredible 20, 21 have a wonderful day
Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/Chirosecure) Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/chirosecure/), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiropracticmalpracticeins/) Periscope (https://www.pscp.tv/ChiroSecure). Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChiroSecure) If you have any questions about today’s show or want to know why ChiroSecure is still the fastest growing malpractice carrier for over 27 years, then call us at (866) 802-4476. or find out just how much you can save with ChiroSecure by visiting: https://www.chirosecure.com/quick-quotes/malpractice-quick-quote/.