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- July 2004 Table of Contents
- Stuck??
- by R. J. Hammett, D.C.
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 biggest problem most chiropractors confront is not insurance problems, nor
bad patients. The biggest problem chiropractors confront is boredom from the
lack of growth in their practice or life. The number one killer of practice is
boredom!
There are five stages of practice development.
The first is survival and life, which is basically paying your bills. The second
is growth, doubling or tripling the practice in one week or less, by getting
organized. The third is profitability, finally saving some of your income, only
to give it to your college kids later. This is where you save money, pay off
debt, and get those well-deserved vacations. The fourth level is sameness, this
is where everything is just the same old procedures, the same old patients, the
same old.......! The final stage is retirement. This is where you have to be
told to leave the practice, because you’re too old to know any different. These
five stages can take 40 years to progress or happen in as short as 5 to 6 years.
You can be stuck at any one of these levels. Human nature is that you feel good
about yourself 80% of the time. We need to process changes, positive or
negative, to feel our life is meaningful.
So, how do you get unstuck? Easy....look to the
basics of practice first. Here is a partial list of areas you need to check to
get unstuck in practice.
1. Consultation: Look at what you’re
saying and doing at your new patient’s consultations. Are you listening twice as
much as you are talking? Are you trying to sell chiropractic at the first visit?
I hope not. Does the patient know you know their problems?
2. Report of Findings visit: Are you
factual? Do you give options? Do you honor those options? Are you still trying
to sell chiropractic at this visit?? I hope not. Tell the patient what is wrong,
if you can help give them options for care, payments plans and adjust them. If
your report is longer than 5 to 10 minutes, you are selling care. Quit that?
3. Adjustment visit: Are you touching
and telling the patient? Put some old Meric charts in your adjusting areas, tell
the patient what level controls what organs and systems. Are your visits two
minutes or less? Remember, ask and adjust, then go.
4. Spinal Care Class: If you are not
doing one, you’re missing 30% of practice growth and an excellent way to
re-excite yourself about chiropractic. Class should be bi-weekly and no longer
than 30 minutes of fire and brimstone old time chiropractic.
5. Re-examination/Re-x-rays: Are you
re-examining your patients every 10 to 12 visits? You do it for them and for
yourself? Do you tell them the results? Are you re-motivating them?
These are the basics of getting unstuck!
Getting unstuck in practice is about rededicating yourself to a higher purpose,
a higher cause than you. It’s about forgetting about you and focusing on others.
This is also the key to getting unstuck in your personal life as well. Go home;
look at the basics of what it takes to make a great life. It’s this simple;
Boredom = No purpose; a higher purpose = a better life.
‘Til next time . . .
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