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January 2006, Vol. 16, No. 1
Table of Contents
CBP® Non-Profit Matches Dr. Bill Harris' $25,000 Research Grant • Counter Point Round III • Dr Deed Harrison is the Most Published Chiropractor in the Index Medicus • Flawed Thinking • It's Don's Opinion • JCCA Publishes CBP® Structural Rehab Protocol • More Studies to Confirm the Validity and Reliability of PosturePrint™ • Thriving in the New Health Care Marketplace • Organic Chiropractic • Patient Education • Point Round III • The Purpose Driven Practice • Radiation Hormesis • Research Corner • Subluxation Update • System Failure • Ten New Year's Resolutions for Your Practice • Chiropractic: A Useful Component of Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabiitation • Triano is a Chiropractic Pariah •
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Patient Education
by R. J. Hammett, DC
Dr. Hammett is a chiropractor in private practice in Kenosha, Wisconsin. After graduating from Life College in 1979, he completed several post-graduate programs in Physical Impairments, Diagnostic Imaging and Rehabilitation. He completed his Juris Doctor in 1995. He has written articles for several Journals and has lectured to numerous Chiropractic groups on the topics of Practice Management and Risk Prevention.
The buzzword in chiropractic is “patient education.” It’s a topic I hear at seminars from fellow chiropractors, from staff, and even from patients. You hear lines like, “If only my patients understood what chiropractors can do,” or “this patient quit care because they didn’t understand the value of chiropractic.” You hear patients say, “If only my friend knew how much chiropractic care could help, they would be here!”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each year by chiropractors to try to find new ways to educate their patients. In 25 years of practice, I admit I’ve spent my share of the money trying to educate patients on the long-term value of chiropractic. I’ve seen national and state associations spend millions trying to educate the public. They use everything from posture contests to back pack safety programs. So, what’s the reality of patient education? First, understand that only 4 out of 10 patients will ever get a glimmer of what you are talking about. If you don’t think so, ask your patients or your relatives what chiropractic does for them, don’t be shocked at the answers, they are typical.
So what’s the answer? First, understand that patients come to you in one of three states. First, they don’t care or want to know anything about you or chiropractic care, they just want to feel better. The second type of patient understands you do something special, but they couldn’t articulate it if their life depended on it. Third is the patient who wants to really know all that you offer, and if it makes sense, they will stay for lifetime chiropractic care.
The first problem is that you cannot predictably tell which patient is which, so you must treat (educate) them all the same until they prove otherwise. In 100 plus years of chiropractic health care, there has been a simple theme running through our history. Nerve interference causes dis-ease. Correcting this interference eliminates dis-ease. That’s it. That’s all.
Yet, like the Christian faith, it’s hard for people to own the concept. That doesn’t mean you stop trying, it means there are human limitations. Here is a list of educational ideas that are time tested and work, not all the time, but the majority of the time. Incorporate some of them and your practice will grow. Incorporate all of these and your practice will be solid with maintenance patients and new patients.
Patient Education Rules:
1. Accept all patients where they are in the health continuum. Let them change, not you! Lead, don’t follow.
2. Do a weekly, bi-weekly health talk. Thirty minutes maximum and only about chiropractic care.
3. Every wall, ceiling and corner should have chiropractic information posters. Watch people at a museum to get the idea of how to arrange your information. The minimum posters you should have are a spinal degeneration, spinal chart of effects and osteology, neurology, and phases of chiropractic care, and lots of posters about referrals. Paintings and artist drawings are nice in an M.D.’s office, but you’re not an M.D. so be different big time.
4. Spinal degeneration models and that dusty old spine you bought in college should be handy. That old spine speaks louder than any fancy power point program you can find.
5. Touch and tell at every visit. The old Meric form of adjusting may not be that accurate, but patients learn a lot when you palpate C1 and tell them that this level of the spine controls the immune system. At every visit whatever area of the spine you touch, tell them what that nerve controls. Do it every visit on every patient for three months and track your patient’s retention and referrals.
6. Own Chiropractic Philosophy; not the bone nerve crap, own the real stuff, not for your patients but for your own self esteem and knowledge of what you do and why.
7. Re-examine your patients often, every 30 to 60 days. “Show them” what is better and what needs work.
8. Stay enthusiastic; remember a correctly applied spinal adjustment will do more for a human being than every drug and surgery on the planet.
So there you have it, the basics of patient education. Why are you sitting there? Schedule your next health talk, get busy........save lives!!
‘Till Next Time!
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