Practice Tip - INCREASE COMPLIANCE WITH EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION

Perceived indifference is the number one reason for patient drop out - AND - the number one need of each of your client's is the perception that you have heard and understood their biggest concerns. A major shift in consumer power is the demand for self-help advice. While most MDs THINK that their patients come to them for a prescription; and most DCs THINK that their new patients have come to get their backs cracked; One of the first questions in your patient's mind/s is "what can I do to help myself?"

I still remember one particular new patient who consulted me. He was wanting help with his chronic recurrent Low Back condition and had already seen his MD for an "expert" opinion. The GP had given him a sheet full of exercises as his prescription. This sheet had actually convinced the man that he was in the wrong place! You see, the copyright symbol at the bottom of the page was 1965! The guy said to me - "if that's how up to date the MDs are then I figured I needed to find another profession".

A lot of chiropractic treatment programs are very "front-ended" - That is the new practice member gets a lot of attention and information in the first 1-2 weeks of care: And then they become part of the daily schedule - Arrive, wait, guided into the adjusting room, face down, adjustment, "powers-on, see you next visit", pay and make an appointment, leave. And as each visit passes they develop a growing dis-ease that they might just be a number.

Here's one technique to help your practice members feel like you continue to see them as individual, important and cared for: It's called drip-feeding. People respond and comply much more effectively to your educational inputs when they are in small bite-size chunks, instead of a huge plate full of stew that exceeds the appetite. You can apply this to any aspect of your ongoing systems and procedures but let's use the example of exercise prescription:

Many DCs have given up on prescribing exercises because of perceived poor compliance and persistence. The primary cause of this poor outcome is the way in which the exercises are taught, delivered and reviewed. Instead try these guidelines...

1) Only teach 1 and never more than 2 exercises at any one visit.

2) Demonstrate the exercise by assisting the person to perform the exercise there and then - it's fine to give a sheet but these are just visual reminders - NEVER expect a client to perform an exercise from a still picture without demonstration, and DVDs will rarely make it into the player more than once.

3) Let them know that you will be teaching them another exercise next week, and that you will be reviewing their progress.

4) When you teach them the next exercise, get them to quickly show you how they are doing the last one you taught them.

This process should only add 1-2 minutes to that consult if you do it effectively - if this is too long, this can be delegated to a tech CA who you should have assisting you if you are seeing high volume anyway.

This process achieves a number of things - implementation because they will remember the exercise, compliance because they know you will be checking on them, persistence because they have been made accountable.

When we teach the Super Posture program I show a set of 12 simple exercises which are very effective for improving postural habits, and can also be used to improve response to your adjustments. Click Here To Learn More About Super Posture...

Now the challenge for you is to review the information that you currently bombard your new patients with, and take some time to trim it down into smaller bite size pieces, to mix into your drip-feeding recipe...

CHIROPRACTIC PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMES TO YOU

Are you involved in a group practice, mastermind meeting group, or regional chiropractic group? You could have CPD come to your group instead of you traveling hundreds of kilometres to further your professional development. And when you calculate the cost of traveling, extra time out of your practice to get to and from a program, the costs of accommodation and meals, and, time spent away from family and leisure - this can calculate to a saving of hundreds of dollars and large amounts of YOUR time...

Below is a list of training programs that we can provide to your group:

Torque Release Technique Seminar - A 2-day technique program that upgrades your analysis and adjusting skills to 21st century chiropractic...
Click Here To Find Out More...

Advanced Torque Release Technique Hands-On-Workshop - Follow-up to the TRT Seminar: A 1-day technique program that converts your TRT skills from competency to mastery...
Click Here To Find Out More...

"ADHD, To Drug Or Not To Drug" - A 1/2 day program which teaches the truths about ADHD and related behavioural disorders and gives you clear and effective strategies for managing the number one paediatric crisis...
Click Here To Find Out More...

Super Posture Workshops - A 1/2 day program which shows you the skills, strategies and solutions to one of the biggest causative and aggravating factors for the Subluxation...
Click Here To Find Out More...

Auriculotherapy Seminar And Workshop - A 1 day program that trains you in the principles and application of the most congruent ancillary modality for chiropractic practice...
Click Here To Find Out More...

Click Here To Email Me An Enquiry About Any Of The Above...

Practice Tip - HELP YOUR PRACTICE MEMBERS TO FIND ONLINE HELP

The Internet has now become one of the primary ways that practice members and prospective customers find out answers.

Do you help to direct them to congruent health related resources?

65% of people report access to the internet. A total of 74% of those with access use the Internet to find health information for themselves or family members. Disease-specific information is most frequently sought, followed by medication information, and then information about nutrition and exercise. Did you know that as a health care professional you can significantly build your relationship and loyalty with your customers by referring them to useful and helpful web sites?

Here are some short cuts to assist you to point your patients in the right direction...

1) Collect your patients email addresses and offer them a periodical email update service: Send out a periodical group newsletter with links to interesting health articles that align with your philosophy and services. Nowadays you can even remind some patients about their appointments via email.

Click Here To Find Out How To Send Powerful and Impacting Emails...

2) Get a web site: Not just an online business card - but one that has significant amounts of health related and even self-help information, which is regularly updated. There are chiropractic specific services that can help you with this.

3) Have a list of health sites that you regularly refer to yourself - link to these from your web-site, and try to set up reciprocal links from their site to yours.

Click Here To Visit My New Health Blog Suitable For Anyone To Read...

CAN YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

Many aspects of chiropractic practice have evolved - there have been so many modern developments from within our profession, and from complementary professions - many of which make daily practice simpler, more efficient, more effective, more objective, and even more profitable... Whether we talk about the computerisation and even automation of our front desks, technological advancements in our investigative tools, online education and marketing tools, new and diverse technique systems, in-house entertainment and educational multimedia, online and electronic banking options, and I could go on...

But at the same time could it be that as we utilise more and more technologies, and become more dependent on machines to make decisions and record memories for us - That our own innate and intuitive recording, analysing and comparative skills may be withering and vanishing?

How seriously and consciously do you control what you are seeing and absorbing in your mind's eye, as you are working on each and every practice member, on each and every visit? This was named INTENT by our pioneers.

While you are leaning over and assessing your patients: Are you thinking about what you are going to have for lunch, reviewing your golf swing, planning your next holiday, worrying about your debts, or even rewinding the last patient who was complaining that you hadn't fixed them yet?

Make a commitment to include the following steps as you examine and treat each person...

1) Become One: When you enter into someone's field of intelligence (their personal space), you are being allowed into a very privileged place - AND you also enter into a dimension where you can gather enormous perceptions about the state of mind and body of that person - IF you are willing to perceive and observe them! The way to take this to its full potential is to comprehend that when you enter into this "zone" you and your patient become one. Have you ever started to feel angry, sad, frustrated, or agitated while adjusting someone - guess what - it might not be you feeling it - it may be them. See if you can develop this skill of knowing more about your clients than they know about themselves...

2) Visualise: As a Chiropractor, you are extremely blessed, because you have done some of the most comprehensive anatomical, physiological, biomechanical, neurological and even pathological studies possible. As you examine and adjust each person, develop "XRay Vision": Visualise the structures and functions that you are examining and adjusting as you perform each procedure. Makes the job much more interesting and fascinating. Your diagnostic and technical skills will improve in a quantum leap if you integrate this one skill...

3) See Whole: This transports your visualisation skills to the next dimension: Making the jump from observation, to influence! See the fixated joints start to move again; visualise a person's alignment being restored; feel the surge of nerve flow and energy transmission; envision cells, tissues, organs and beings becoming whole and vital once again...

When we teach Torque Release Technique we equip you with a comprehensive range of indicators which you use in your ongoing evaluations of your patients' state of wellbeing, and degree and location of Subluxation. These build and strengthen your intuitive and innate abilities to perceive and differentiate what condition someone is in, AND where and how they need to be adjusted.

When you put this all together you achieve what is probably best described as TOTAL CERTAINTY.

Click Here To Find Out More About TRT Training...

Practice Tip - EMPOWER AND RELEASE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET

Here’s some vital questions to ask yourself: Which member of your business...

1) Educates your practice members more simply and effectively than you do?

2) Listens to your patients' "dirty laundry" and counsels and advises them at the same time?

3) Stimulates more referrals than any other marketing source than you could ever invent?

4) Is more likely to hug, wipe tears, encourage and listen to the people who pay your bills?

5) Placates disgruntled customers who are sick of being kept waiting, or haven't had their questions answered to their satisfaction?

6) Would like to be more involved in the healing process than you recognise and give credit for?

And all we worry about is did they take the correct money, make the next booking correctly, get people into the adjusting room when we needed them there, keep the kids quiet in the play area, and still manage to book in 3 new patients who rang while 5 people were queued at the front desk?

That's right, I'm talking about your CA, receptionist, secretary, personal assistant - whatever you call them.

After asking yourself the above questions; next ask your best CA/s: "Would you like to be more involved in the healing process, and learn some new skills?" You may be surprised by the answers you get.

Here's three ways you can up-skill your most valuable business asset:

A) Involve them in the interview or case history process - Use pre-formatted questionnaires to save you time and actually improve your record keeping. A good CA will have already heard most of the person's life, family and health history, and will probably know more about what is really worrying the person, before they even see your face: Your CA is the ideal person to select the most appropriate paperwork for each new client, and then to follow up at a pre-determined time to review the questionnaire again.

ACTION STEP: Click Here To Check Out Health Questionnaires That Your CA Could Be Trained To Administer...

B) Get them trained in aspects of the examination procedures - There are some amazing technologies which improve your objective analysis of your patients' state of wellbeing, and some of these can be trained and delegated to a tech-CA.

ACTION STEP: Make sure you bring some CAs to the Super Posture program - there they will learn how to perform low-tech and high-tech postural assessment and even how to prescribe some corrective exercises: Click Here To Find Out More About The Super Posture Program...

C) Select some therapeutic modalities which can be administered by an assistant under your oversight - Consider this - As your practice expands you may assume that the way to increase your volume and turnover is to employ an associate DC. Most associate DCs will drain up to 60% of the money they generate. How about delegating some of the less skilled and time effective activities to well trained staff who work for an hourly rate? You could dramatically increase your patient flow and diversify your services (and increase customer satisfaction) at a fraction of the overhead.

ACTION STEP: Click Here To Find Out About A Treatment Modality That Can Be Delegated To Tech Assistants...