by Thomas O. Morgan, D.C., B.S., FICA, FPAC

 

 

         You have heard of a Patients Appreciation Day; why not a Chiropractic Research Day? My wife and I (Volume Practice Coaching) are offering our coaching services to benefit CBP® Research. Every summer, our doctors have a PAD (Patients Appreciation Day) day. This year’s sponsor will be chiropractic research (or CRD = Chiropractic Research Day), with all patient donations going to the Belgium Project of Drs. Colloca and Keller. This project and researchers received the 2003 research award for the best project at the recent WFC Chiropractic research forum in Orlando, Florida in May 2003. If some other practice management groups got on this bandwagon, we could raise considerable dollars for CBP® Nonprofit research.

            HERE IS HOW THE PAD DAY WORKS: When patients come in for their adjustment on the free PAD day, they are given a CBP® addressed envelope to fill out and put their donation inside. These envelopes will be sent to CBP® and each patient will receive a letter of thanks and be sent PR information on the Belgium Project or, if you are a CBP® member, a current CBP® project. Any doctor who wants to have a PAD day can call Dr. Morgan at 770-748-6084 for personal coaching on this event.

            GETTING STARTED: Goal setting and planning is the secret to getting every member of your staff involved and excited about the event. Everyone must have “attitudes” right for a successful PAD day. You must believe that because this is a totally free day, no one can pay you anything, reflecting an open spirit of love and appreciation for chiropracTIC and your patients. I always believe I was paid back in “blessings.” This is the time for you, doctor, and your team, to have a VOLUME PRACTICE! If you are concerned about losing revenue, etc., do not have this day. However, you will start so many new patients (NP’s) and have so much fun, that everyone will have a “win” on PAD day. Every week at staff meeting, go over your PAD day goals.

            1. Set your goals: First Patient Visit Goal, next, New Patient Goal. You must have two very important goals for PAD day. First is to have your biggest volume day in your practice history. So encourage the staff to make appointments for everyone who comes in this month. This is the big day, cram the page full of patients.

            Next, the primary focus of PAD day is New Patients. You want every patient to bring a new patient with him/her to PAD day. New patients receive examination, 2 X-rays, if indicated and the first adjustment. Now here is what makes this day so big. You only perform the “Touch & Tell” exam that day. The CA’s schedule each new patient to come back when you have more time for the X-rays, full exam, etc. That way, you are never behind schedule and the really interested patients are the ones who return for complete care.

            I tell our CAs to tell patients that my personal goal is to adjust someone in every patient’s family who has never been adjusted before. Sometimes after my NP exam, I will adjust at least one segment, away from the POP (point of pain) to let the NP experience the adjustment. The emphasis is on the doctor’s ability to find the patient’s subluxation and tell them what it is causing (Touch & Tell System) and the “benefits” of them following through with the PAD experience.

            Don’t forget to set these PAD day goals: 1) Number of patients adjusted and 2) Number of new patients

            2. Set the date. Make sure you choose a day in the week where you will have at least a half day off the next day. You will be tired. Schedule acute NP’s as soon as possible the following days.

            3. Flyers. Make up a flyer to mail out to every patient in your files and to hand out in the office. Make sure there is a special “box” in the middle of the flyer for the new patient special offer. Once again the emphasis is on starting many NP’s. I can fax you a sample flyer.

            4. Posters. Have nice posters made up for the waiting room and adjusting rooms.

            5. Appointment Page. Make up a special appointment page to sign everyone up. Start a month before PAD day signing up regular patients who come in that month. Everyone MUST have an appointment. Along with that appointment, you want each patient to think of someone he/she can bring with them as a new patient. Have the “each one brings one” attitude. We advise you to highlight each new patient, and put the new patient right in the room with the established patient. Both the established patient, and the new patient who comes with them has the same appointment time. Try not to schedule more than two new patients per hour at first (one every thirty minutes — along with the regular number of established patients). You want to know what to expect. Many doctors have one to two hundred patients on their PAD day.

            6. Refreshments and extra help.

Put someone in charge of refreshments. You may want to get extra help that day. It must be a “different” day, with no therapy, just adjustments. You might have someone who put the patients down on the adjusting table or gets them up after the adjustment. Streamline your system for this special day according to the number of scheduled appointments.

            7. New Patient procedure. Have in office training on NP procedure. Have a staff member be in charge of new patients and streamline your system to “WOW” the new patient.

                        a) Use a simple screening sheet for the history, with only the basic information necessary (such as name, address, telephone number and chief complaint). Have a human silhouette on this page, so that the new patient can circle the areas of pain. After the T&T exam and the New Patient is scheduled to return, give them your usual complete history form to take home and bring back on the next visit.

                        b) Have the NP staff member prep the NP. This person should explain the subluxation and show the NP the anatomy involved with the exam the doctor will provide, as well as telling what the doctor will be looking for in their case.

                        c) When the doctor comes in the room, the established patient is adjusted first, and the NP watches the procedure, and the doctor explains the adjustment. The CA can stay in the room to chart for the doctor if needed. After the exam, the doctor explains the findings; then the CA says to the patient “come with me.” The CA then exits the NP to her prep area and goes over the doctor’s findings. She makes the next appointment for the X-rays, etc. and gives the NP the Touch and Tell screening sheet to take home. The key is for the NP to take not much longer than the regular adjustments on that day only. However, it is very important that each NP leaves feeling that the doctor does indeed know what is wrong and can fix the problem.

            8). During a week or ten days before PAD day, start calling every patient on your appointment page and remind each of them of their appointment time. THEN, ask them who is the new patient they are bringing with them. This is when you tell the patient again, that their doctor wants to adjust some family member or friend who has never had an adjustment before. Follow up any leads later with another phone call. After you have contacted everyone, or left a reminder on their answering machine, then call former patients and ask if they received the Flyer and if they are interested in coming for PAD day. You can create a lot of re- activations with this effort.

            Be a CBP® SPONSOR. Give each patient who comes in on PAD day a clipboard with an envelope. Ask them to fill out the envelope and put money inside for chiropractic research. Put these in a mailer at the end of the day and send them into CBP®. You may have other questions. Call me for envelopes and a free coaching call. Good Luck!